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Does anyone have any insight into how and what masters study to improve?
I'll tell a secret how to get over 27xx ;) Study World Chess Champion's ALL games. There might be other secrets but this one is real. Those who attend Toronto weekenders mush have noticed that the 27xx player always comes with one thin book. (carefully study this large photo http://www.kris-egis.com/egisphoto/a...day-open-2.jpg - you see - he does not want to reveal what a book is it However, I (and two other young players) had pleasure do discuss why he reads it >> start reading two first sentences :)
Seriously: study how great players played, and before or during (in principal always) how your opponents play :)
I'll tell a secret how to get over 27xx ;) Study World Chess Champion's ALL games. There might be other secrets but this one is real. Those who attend Toronto weekenders mush have noticed that the 27xx player always comes with one thin book. (carefully study this large photo http://www.kris-egis.com/egisphoto/a...day-open-2.jpg - you see - he does not want to reveal what a book is it However, I (and two other young players) had pleasure do discuss why he reads it >> start reading two first sentences :)
Seriously: study how great players played, and before or during (in principal always) how your opponents play :)
Good luck reaching 23xx and more
I do go over a lot of games right now. I'll make an effort to go over more. Thanks for your advice!
play in high level tournaments,
study from books (many are way above our playing strength - assuming you're approx 2200),
study high level games,
hire kasparov for a weekend,
get a coach, etc.
your opening knowledge is never too vast.
play in high level tournaments, study from books (many are way above our playing strength - assuming you're approx 2200),
study high level games,
hire kasparov for a weekend,
get a coach, etc.
your opening knowledge is never too vast.
Got any good book recommendations?
I might start trying to get through the Dvoretsky series.
I might start trying to get through the Dvoretsky series.
It's hard to recommend anything because I don't know what you play or where you make your mistakes. Stuff that works against lower rated players won't always work against higher rated players who know what they are doing so your choice of openings is important.
Assess your games. Look at the ones where you lost against decent players and also the ones where you won but your postition wasn't that great and your opponent blundered, or made a mistake.
Against higher rated players, are you losing in the opening, middle game or end game? Do you take lower rated players too lightly and give up draws or lose? Lots of things to take into consideration.
I asked Mark Bluvstein a similar question based on my situation, at the time of the 2010 CYCC in early July, which was being a 2038 rated former master who was in a slump and he suggested playing over a lot of annotated 2700+ rated games. He also suggested ignoring openings and studying endings.
I followed his advice to the extent that it was possible given the number of games (168) that I played last year and promptly started an almost 200 point rating climb in just a few months. As you know I have recently dropped back a bit but hope to make another charge up the rating ladder while playing a bit less this year (though that's the same thing that I said last year at this time).
Studying endgames is good because you learn what wins and can steer your middle game toward such positions. Playing over the games of 2700+ rated players with notes gives you the latest theory. For this there are, or were, magazines which publish the latest theory as well. If you play the openings of the 2700 players then you don't have to worry about openings.
As an example, in the very first game of the WC match between Anand and Topolov, Anand played the Grunfeld and lost. I played over that game. Then I wrote here on Chess Talk that if Anand didn't lose that defence the match would not last very long. We didn't see Anand play the Grunfeld again in the match and he won.
For most players the choice of opening is important. A player must reach the engame with a playable position.
I hadn't noticed your rating has dropped recently. What are you doing? Playing too much speed chess and/or setting up cheapoes against weak players and falling into bad habits which won't work against stronger players? I think that's often the most common reason for rating drops in players.
Also, has your play, openings and defences, become predictable and easy for opponents to prepare?
I hadn't noticed your rating has dropped recently. What are you doing? Playing too much speed chess and/or setting up cheapoes against weak players and falling into bad habits which won't work against stronger players? I think that's often the most common reason for rating drops in players.
Also, has your play, openings and defences, become predictable and easy for opponents to prepare?
I have dropped about fifty points from my recent peak rating which was also my highest rating. I went into a mini-slump when I was going for the Canadian NM title which saw my rating drop below 2200 after I completed the 25 requisite games. Overall I am pretty happy with my play. When I need a win, I usually seem to be able to get it. There are occasional lapses but that's chess. Most of my opponents are good players and they have evil plans too. Sometimes they manage to bring them to fruition. I usually learn something with every loss or near loss.
Playing too much chess in general would be one problem I have. Being stubborn probably doesn't help either. Sometimes I keep playing the same variation even though objectively I stand fine but in practice the line is much easier for my opponent to play. I am probably a bit too predictable but I have been working on that. I tend to mix things up a bit from time to time depending on my mood.
In one tournament (between Christmas and New Year, CFC games 165 through 168 on the year) I finished with one out of four playing games on four consecutive nights with all four games being extremely complicated and mostly even. I came out on the short end which happens from time to time. If you play every night it doesn't leave a lot of time for regrouping or study.
I have not been playing against any weak players recently aside from the occasional speed chess game at the club. I am hoping that this year I can play from 100 to 120 rated CFC and USCF games with over 90% played against masters and experts or better. To make that target I will have to slow down significantly since I will finish January 2011 with about ten games more than I played in January 2010.
When I was mired in a slump a couple of years ago you offered the observation that I was playing a bit passively and I took your suggestion to play more actively and it did help. A belated thanks for that advice.
I am so envious of you. You get to play 168 CFC slow games a year! Endgames are seriously under appreciated. Jeremy Silman commented that a lot of players really are weak in their endgames. I have salvaged many a half point against opposition that should have finished me off. Mind you I am not a master though. I am just stating what others have said
Last edited by Gordon Gooding; Sunday, 9th January, 2011, 08:10 PM.
Reason: incomplete
Does anyone have any insight into how and what masters study to improve?
Most books are written for maybe up to 2200, so what do 2200 players study to get better?
Hi Denton
I wrote about the subject of how I got to be 2300 decades ago (I wrote it about 1985 or 1986, in the CFC's magazine). I imagine from your post that you've already learned more or less what you might need to know from instructional books in order to be a truly 2200 strength player. At that stage in my chess career, I made the jump to 2300 strength after participating in Toronto Closed round-robin events in the 1980s.
Not only can playing such higher rated opponents raise your strength by forcing you to concentrate harder, but also I found that rivals sometimes gave me advice on how to play against any of my other given competitors, in light of their perceived playing weaknesses. Thus learning about tournament preparation, such as choice of openings, occured. As well, all you have to do is break even against a stronger field, and your rating climbs.
While nowadays I play just about exclusively in Ottawa, where I can't consistently play higher rated players, there are sectional round-robins in my club, where players of about the same strength are pitted together. If I do well in those, I gain lots of rating points in a smaller number of games than it might take in swisses. These days there are also Ottawa weekend swisses where the top section is 2200+, but I have yet to solve how to consistently do well against the titled opponents whom I play only once or twice a tournament if I am lucky.
Regarding what to study, look at tactical exercises every day if you can. I did that on my way to becoming 2200 from 2000+ (I've heard of at least one GM who studies such exercises daily, before breakfast). I also studied games collections of world class players or champions, as has been recommended by other posters. Simply playing over lots of one player's games quickly, even, can help by introducing more plans and patterns to you than several instructional books combined would have room for. Unfortunately I have slacked off from such studies and perhaps this is why I do not advance much anymore (I made it to 2400 last year after a streak of good preparation and luck, but slumped when I began to be preoccupied with non-chess-playing matters).
You asked elsewhere how to "put your pieces on the right squares" (an unfortunately insubstantial expression). Well, there are so many chess principles that they are not all neatly compiled in a single book. Sometimes you catch them as stray pieces of advice found anywhere, e.g. in magazines, articles, annotated game collections. Sometimes you just realize them consciously or unconsciously, through seeing the games of strong players. One piece of advice that may help is a rule of Blumenfeld's, namely that when there is nothing much going on, improve the position of your worst piece first.
Then there is the principle that in closed positions there is often time to move a piece more than once in order to bring it to its best square (which square is that you may ask? - well that's where your imagination, or principles or a plan comes in). In open positions there is often little time to move a piece more than once before developing the rest, but calculation is important too. One principle I learned from a friend, who read it somewhere, is that an Exchange is worth a pawn plus one uncompensated advantage. Can't recall where he said he learned it, but it often seems to hold true.
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
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However, I (and two other young players) had pleasure do discuss why he reads it >> start reading two first sentences :)
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