Saturday, September 02, 2006

"Training" update

I just realized I have been a total idiot for not taking advantage of Bill Hargrove's Thursday night lectures on master games over in Chapel Hill. Each Thursday, at a cute little coffee shop, he uses a board to lecture on a master game.

I haven't touched the Circles in a couple of weeks. I've been playing lots of fun and sloppy blitz games, a few slow games, and skimming Soltis' interesting book How to Choose a Chess Move. It has been a nice break.

I am seriously considering revising my plan based on some of Temposchlucker's recent excellent posts. Namely, I'm thinking of something like J'Adoube's video-game approach. Basically, take 200 problems (or so) and repeat them until I instantly and effortlessly recognize them like a loved-one's face. That is, build up some true pattern recognition. If I do this until the 1200 patterns in Chess Tactics for Beginners are a cakewalk, that will (I hope) be a good core of tactical know-how around which to build up my other skills.

Also, what the heck happened to Quandoman? His posts are all gone, which is a big loss for the chess blogosphere. His post on the importance of studying master games is one of my all-time favorites.

5 Comments:

Blogger David Glickman said...

I noted awhile back that Quandoman's blog had been highjacked. I've counted about ten or so chess blogs which have been highjacked to date. Most had not been active for awhile, but Quando's was an exception.

9/02/2006 02:39:00 PM  
Blogger Montse said...

I think it is a good approach. Are you going to work through your tactics by theme or at random?

9/02/2006 05:13:00 PM  
Blogger Blue Devil Knight said...

Montse: random.

9/02/2006 05:20:00 PM  
Blogger Edwin 'dutchdefence' Meyer said...

It sucks that Quando's blog is highjacked! Doesn't Google notice these thing's happening?

9/04/2006 02:29:00 AM  
Blogger transformation said...

exactly! to pick a set and really, really polish it; that is to say, whatever it is, commitment to activity. then refinement within that activity.

if i may please refer you to my comment today at dutchDEdw, at his post titled "Question":

http://lrci.blogspot.com/

9/04/2006 02:51:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home