Put in the work on your endgame and what you already know will dovetail, resulting in solid basis from which to make further progress. That is why Silman grades his endgame material. Apparently Russian chess is learnt from the endgame first and they have a pretty formidable record.
Just my two cents worth.
Thank you, but I can't tell if your suggesting Silman's book or just telling me to work on my endgame...?
Own and love both books => though both of them serve TWO COMPLETELY different purposes which are (surprise! surprise!) both necessary at your level :)
The endgame book helps with your endgame (duh) and the Heisman book helps with learning to use good thought processes + good chess habits.
- Silman's Book : Start from the beginning until you master the material for the next level (1400-1600 in your case) and wait until you're stronger for the advanced stuff.
Improving Chess Thinker : Dan Heisman's book needs to be handled carefully. Read all the thinking cap (non-DeGroot stuff) first ... they are much easier to assimilate. For the DeGroot tests=> Make sure you take 20 minutes and attempt each of the test positions on your own and write down the analysis (a full sheet of paper may not be enough for some of them) and THEN read his test results. The more sincere you are at doing this, the more you'll benefit from this book.
Though => For your level might I also recommend going over EVERY ONE of Dan's free Novice Nooks on chesscafe.com. These articles put a lot of chess books to shame in terms of what they offer you.
Would I be correct in assuming that the Improving Chess Thinker is more of a workbook? I prefer books that I can use as a chess "encyclopedia" such as the Logical Chess book. I would hate taking the tests you speak of and not be able to take them again because I already know the results.
Also, thank you for the advice of reading the free novice nooks. I'm always looking for good chess articles/columns.
The Improving Chess thinker is NOT a puzzle/workbook. It merely is a primer on good chess thinking techniques + the results of some famous standardized chess test positions administered on players from a rating of 1000 all the way to 2400+.
The value (precious, IMHO!) of the book is simply =>
I see this position. I take 20 minutes and can see [insert static evaluation + analysis + candidate moves + final candidate move]
Let's see how the 1200 tackled it. Let's see how the 1800 tackled it. Let's see how the master tackled it.
By looking at the thought processes of stronger players, you realize what is missing from your own chess playing abilities.
Nevertheless => I would still buy the book and do the deGroot positions. Though in a practical sense, if you buddy up with a stronger player and show him a game that you annotated on your own, he'd do the same, namely => Tell you what you should have been looking/thinking/analyzing and what you wasted your time on.
If I could re-do my past 5 years of rickety chess study + practice, I would go to a local chess club every day I could and buy coffee/beg/plead for any Master/Titled-player to go over any games I played and yell at me at regular intervals for things that I was doing wrong. I would write/record those points down and review them until it sunk in. If I did that with any amount of sincerity, I know I'd be less of the chess village idiot that I am now :)
Heisman's 'Novice Nook' articles at ChessCafe; very, very instructive. Print or read one every day.
Good luck!
Endgame study won't help your game nearly as much as solving tactical problems and going over annotated master games of your favorite player. Studying endgames now doesn't make much sense because the minimalistic advantages you are trying to convert from opening, middlegame to the endgame wont appear in your chess till 2000+. Some may argue saying that they got endgame xyz and drew thanks to knowledge zxy, but I bet if you look over the game you will see many missed tactical blows.
Get a tactics book (my reccomendation "chess tactics for juniors") and do 20-30 a day and you will see drastic improvment.
Advice from a fellow student of chess.
Shivsky- Thanks for all the info. I'll have my friends try to analyze my thinking process, so hopefully, they can find some errors and correct me. Unfortunately, there is no one in my school chess club that is much better than I am. The highest ranked people in our club are 1400-1500.
TFrankH- Thank you!
Chess_Enigma- I understand what your saying, and as stated earlier, do own a tactics workbook. However, as a beginner, I would like to first get a firmer grip on chess theory so I'm not randomly making moves. Studying tactics is something I will definetely practice soon, however. Also, I do believe you may be correct in saying endgame studies are not as important as going over and analyzing games. The only thing is, I already have the Logical Chess book that analyzes games quite well which I am working to death. Not to mention, the Silman's endgame book has gotten wonderous feedback and I am particularily bad with the endgame. If worst comes to worst, I can always look at it later, right? Thank you for the book reccomendation though, my current tactics book is not a very big one and I am nearly finished with it.
I don't have Silman's book on endgames so I personally can't recommend it but it is highly regarded by many.
Shivsky is right and his suggestions are good.
What I was getting at is the value of Basic endgame technique being a beginning of tactical awareness.
You say you you really struggle with endgame knowledge and technique yet you rate yoursel at 1300-1400 USCF so you recognized you really need to do better in the endgame.
As an example one cannot force mate with two Knights against a King so why play into an endgame like that if the best you can get is a draw? Meaning exchange a knight rather than a bishop in such a situation.
What the Russians apparently do is teach tactics from these elementary endgame positions as a beginning of tactical awareness.
My vote would be get Silman's book and work up to the 1400-1600 Shivsky suggested. It is not really that big an undertaking and you can shelve the other endgame stuff until much later while you get on with the things that other posts recommend.
SILMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If your fluent in algaebraic notation I"d purchase one of kasparovs great predecessors books and read for the fun of it. You'll find ideas?
Chesteroz- You do have a point, but in the end, a pawn war is something I always want to avoid.
Benonidoni- Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm horrible with algebraic notation. I do know how to write and read it, but I am not even close to fluent.
I realize there are hundreds of these topics, but please bear with me just one more.
My USCF rating is somewhere between 1300-1400. I own 2 chess books. I have a tactics book which I bought ages ago (Didn't even remember I owned it), and I bought the Logical Chess: Move by Move book by Irving Chernev 2-3 months ago. The Logical Chess book made me a considerably better player because previously, I had no knowledge of chess theory.
I'm currently deciding between Silman's Complete Endgame Course and The Improving Chess Thinker by Dan Heisman although I am definetely open to suggestions. My endgame needs alot of work which is why I want Silman's book, but on the other hand, I have heard that Dan Heisman is an excellent chess author for beginners.