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Thoughts on chess improvement, after gaining 600 points in 6 months

mbuffett.com

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Re: Thoughts on chess improvement, after gaining 600 points in 6 months

#51

Post by jiggunjer »

Moodles wrote: post #21

I think by far the biggest improvement newbies can make is just not hanging pieces and blundering, honestly. Literally the majority of games at I used to be quite good as a kid, winning championships and whatnot, and I'm actually glad my grandfather didn't teach me opening theory so much, so I could be trained to think more than memorize. Sadly at the highest level, you do just have to memorize the best opening lines…

I'd rank them best first: Gotham, John Bartholomew, Rosen, Hikaru, Agadmator, Hanging pawns, others.

The st louis chess club lectures are also very good.

Re: Thoughts on chess improvement, after gaining 600 points in 6 months

#52

Post by dane-pgp »

Moodles wrote: post #28
FPGAhacker wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I don’t mean this is to be snarky , but aren’t all chess games decided by mistakes?

It is thought that if chess was played perfectly then it is probably a draw, but nobody knows. So if by "mistake" you mean "not exactly the best move to force a draw from move 1 to the final move", then yes. But in chess "mistake" usually means "large inaccuracy" rather than "not the best move". I just mean games at a higher elo are usually decided by pressing a smaller advantage, rather than someone hanging a queen…

Perhaps it's fair to say that a "mistake" in chess is a move that you realise is bad as soon as your opponent makes their replying move (or, in some cases, as soon as you take your hand off the piece you just moved).

Re: Thoughts on chess improvement, after gaining 600 points in 6 months

#53

Post by kthejoker2 »

ThomasCM wrote: post #40

Shameless plug: In case you want to track your chess progress and see more statistics on your openings (win rates, etc.), I'm developing a website where you can link your accounts to view stats for all of your games. It's free and currently in Beta: https://www.chessmonitor.com/ Here is an example for the current world champion: https://www.chessmonitor.com/u/kcc58R9eeGY09ey5Rmoj

I use ChessMonitor all the time, it's a great site, thanks so much!

Re: Thoughts on chess improvement, after gaining 600 points in 6 months

#54

Post by neaden »

marcusbuffett wrote: post #30
kthejoker2 wrote: post #15

Pedantry alert: As ELO ratings follow a logarithmic curve, "gaining 600 points" is a dimensionless metric. These are good tips for beginner to intermediate growth. The things that definitely help the most are: * Pattern recognition - the best courses for this level are things like "Common traps in ", applied with Woodpecker method. Once you've memorized all the mistakes in the Scandi or London system, you can really…

Extra pedantry: you’re of course right that 600 points is somewhat meaningless, given that it’s harder to improve in the higher ratings, but there’s nothing logarithmic about elo. A 1500 playing a 500 has the same odds as winning as a 2500 playing a 1500, mathematically. You earn the same # of points at higher elo too.

Extra Extra Pedantry: Lichess doesn't use Elo, it uses Glicko-2 rating system instead.

Re: Thoughts on chess improvement, after gaining 600 points in 6 months

#55

Post by NineStarPoint »

FPGAhacker wrote: post #24
Moodles wrote: post #21

I think by far the biggest improvement newbies can make is just not hanging pieces and blundering, honestly. Literally the majority of games at I used to be quite good as a kid, winning championships and whatnot, and I'm actually glad my grandfather didn't teach me opening theory so much, so I could be trained to think more than memorize. Sadly at the highest level, you do just have to memorize the best opening lines…

So I don’t mean this is to be snarky , but aren’t all chess games decided by mistakes?

Sure, but in chess blundering is more specific in that it means a mistake that is obviously awful. It's the difference between making a poor tactical decision that you might not realize was the reason for your defeat without analysis, and making a move that is so terrible that if you had noticed the issue with it in advance even a low ELO player never would have made it. A hanging piece being given up for no positional advantage is the classical low ELO blunder.

Re: Thoughts on chess improvement, after gaining 600 points in 6 months

#56

Post by robomartin »

kthejoker2 wrote: post #15

Pedantry alert: As ELO ratings follow a logarithmic curve, "gaining 600 points" is a dimensionless metric. These are good tips for beginner to intermediate growth. The things that definitely help the most are: * Pattern recognition - the best courses for this level are things like "Common traps in ", applied with Woodpecker method. Once you've memorized all the mistakes in the Scandi or London system, you can really…

That's too much work. All my kids play. I have been playing since I was a kid myself. It's just a game. Getting into memorization and deep analysis makes it less interesting for me. I've been in the 1800 to 2000 range for a while. Spending too much time getting great at chess is, in my opinion, time that could be better spent getting good at something far more useful in life. Exercise is such an example.

My system is very simple: Before I play a game I must complete at least five consecutive puzzles. Yes, this might mean I play 12 or 20 puzzles before I get five in a row. What's interesting about this is that if I get to a dozen or more puzzles and did not solve five in a row, I take it as an indication that my brain isn't in "chess mode" and go do something else. Every time I ignore this indicator I lose games.

Just work on puzzles and keep it simple. My kids have a great time with this simple rule. They don't have to memorize anything and they progressively get better and better. Above all, they don't get worked-up about losing at all. Keep it simple and fun.

Re: Thoughts on chess improvement, after gaining 600 points in 6 months

#57

Post by sb636 »

mrtranscendence wrote: post #50

Anyone have any tips for someone who's a bit interested in chess but is a complete beginner? As in, I know how the pieces move but I couldn't win a game against a blindfolded dachshund puppy. My ELO would be negative (I'd be so improbably bad that it breaks mathematics). It's just not clear where to start.

1) Learn how the pieces move

2) Play along with some beginner chess tutorials on sites like chess.com or Lichess

3) Watch this youtube series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao9iOeK_jvU

Re: Thoughts on chess improvement, after gaining 600 points in 6 months

#58

Post by wingerlang »

mrtranscendence wrote: post #50

Anyone have any tips for someone who's a bit interested in chess but is a complete beginner? As in, I know how the pieces move but I couldn't win a game against a blindfolded dachshund puppy. My ELO would be negative (I'd be so improbably bad that it breaks mathematics). It's just not clear where to start.

There must be at least a million "complete chess beginner" guides on Youtube alone.

Re: Thoughts on chess improvement, after gaining 600 points in 6 months

#59

Post by sillysaurusx »

kthejoker2 wrote: post #15

Pedantry alert: As ELO ratings follow a logarithmic curve, "gaining 600 points" is a dimensionless metric. These are good tips for beginner to intermediate growth. The things that definitely help the most are: * Pattern recognition - the best courses for this level are things like "Common traps in ", applied with Woodpecker method. Once you've memorized all the mistakes in the Scandi or London system, you can really…

I love that HN hyper-focused on your 600 points observation. However, 600 points means you went from 1500 (the start) to at least 2100, which is almost universally recognized as "pro" or at least semi-pro for chess.

So yes, logarithmic curve and dimensionless pedantry and all that, I'll grant you; but that's missing the trees for the squirrels in the forest, since 600 points means "I went from noob to pro." No one expects Magnus to gain 600 points, since that's quite impossible.

I guess you could argue that it's possible for someone to start at 1500, then really suck at chess and drop to 900, and then merely become average again (1500), and claim a 600 point improvement. As with the other observation, I agree, that would be impressively misleading. I'm not sure that's the claim, though.

EDIT: I retract every claim. I am in fact an idiot, since the article does say they went from 1200 to 1800, not 1500 to 2100.

This is what I get for writing something dumb. At least I admit it right away though. Sorry.

At least it's proof that the pedantic-ness wasn't so pedantic.

I also take solace in the fact that the actual title of the article was stripped: the title says 1200-1800, not merely 600 points, which in this case is crucial info. But! It was remarkably stupid not to actually click on the link before writing, and this is rather public proof that sometimes I don't. Perhaps that's a strong signal that in the future, I need to be. :)

Re: Thoughts on chess improvement, after gaining 600 points in 6 months

#60

Post by mushishi »

kthejoker2 wrote: post #17
Mizza wrote: post #9

"The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life." - Paul Morphy. I started playing anonymous games on LiChess, and playing without ELO anxiety is way, way more fun. It's a game, this is all I need out of it.

My only problem with anonymous is you have no idea if the person on the other side is 1100 or 2200 ... I just use Zen mode in Lichess, I know the other person is about my level, but I don't care what the numbers area .....

Yup, that's good to point out. Zen mode helped me enormously when tackling puzzles, because just seeing how I had fared earlier was making me think about my performance instead of puzzles.

And later same thing on competitive games.

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