I recently got interested in chess again and am amazed by the plethora of chess improvement blogs. There is of course no shortage of techniques, schemes or plans both on and off the web that promise fast chess improvement.
I have decided to create my own plan. My primary goal is simple -- reach an OTB rating of 2200 within a year and prove it by playing in a major tournament like the World Open. My secondary goal is to have fun along the way and to gain an appreciation of the beauty of the game. This immediately excludes the soul-less training techniques of studying tactics until one goes crazy.
I will elaborate on my strategy in the next few posts. But as an example, when I study openings I will spend 50/35/15% of my time on the English, Pirc and Dutch. Why? A simple database search shows that 60~70% of class players play e4; therefore I spend more time preparing the Pirc than the Dutch. Note that these openings are less mainstream; by choosing the next few moves carefully, I ensure that my opponents get out of their book knowledge quickly. This not only cuts down on study time but give me a tremendous advantage since I would have gone through GM games to learn typical middle and end game strategies and tactics in these somewhat offbeat openings.
I have decided to create my own plan. My primary goal is simple -- reach an OTB rating of 2200 within a year and prove it by playing in a major tournament like the World Open. My secondary goal is to have fun along the way and to gain an appreciation of the beauty of the game. This immediately excludes the soul-less training techniques of studying tactics until one goes crazy.
I will elaborate on my strategy in the next few posts. But as an example, when I study openings I will spend 50/35/15% of my time on the English, Pirc and Dutch. Why? A simple database search shows that 60~70% of class players play e4; therefore I spend more time preparing the Pirc than the Dutch. Note that these openings are less mainstream; by choosing the next few moves carefully, I ensure that my opponents get out of their book knowledge quickly. This not only cuts down on study time but give me a tremendous advantage since I would have gone through GM games to learn typical middle and end game strategies and tactics in these somewhat offbeat openings.
4 comments:
You have good ideas about studying openings.
I do not understand your goal: do you plan to achieve a 2200 USCF rating and take that 2200 rating to the world open??
OR
do you plan to achieve master-strength (not 2200 rating) and then perform at 2200-level at the world open??
As someone who gained a lot of rating points pretty fast, i might opine that obsessing over rating points can take away the fun of chess. That being said, GL anyway. :)
Thanks for your comments.
My plan is to study and play some long games online for a year. (My nearest chess club is a couple hours drive away!) Then I will check my progress by playing in the World Open.
My goal is to reach USCF 2200 which i thought is a master's rating. This sounds tough but setting goals that are too realis.. I mean easy will get me no where.
I really like your study plan. It might also be good to have a couple of smaller goals to achieve so you get some reward on the way to 2200.
If you ever would like to play a game online, I play at playchess.com with the handle samuraipawn. Good luck and keep up the good work!
/Chris
I personally am a proponent of 30 minutes of study per day. More than that without playing was no fun.
Good luck!
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