Improving by finding out your play style and only focusing on it?

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Rhetro1

Once you get good enough to not hang pieces and blunder all the time, would it be a good idea to then find out what your play style is so you can then only focus on improving it? For example I noticed I like to play very positionally so I looked into which famous chess players played that way and now I'm studying their games and only reading positional chess books, nothing else.

That way you're actually learning more about the way you like playing most, which makes it easier and more enjoyable. 

RussBell

Good Positional Chess, Planning & Strategy Books for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/introduction-to-positional-chess-planning-strategy

Rhetro1
RussBell wrote:

Good Positional Chess, Planning & Strategy Books for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/introduction-to-positional-chess-planning-strategy

Hey I actually stumbled upon your thread from a google search and started reading Simple Chess from it, I also got the Secrets of Positional Chess to read after from your thread.

My question is, how would you advise studying the Simple Chess book to truly internalize it? I've been reading through it and also watching the video version of it on YouTube and all it does is go through certain games move by move pertaining to the positional topic at hand such as "outposts". It's easy to understand but there's no exercises or anything, it just explains each move.

In fact I noticed this about other positional chess books. They go over each move from famous games showing why it's good positionally. I'm struggling with actually applying what I learned to my games

Penpaperbrains
Rhetro1 wrote:

Once you get good enough to not hang pieces and blunder all the time, would it be a good idea to then find out what your play style is so you can then only focus on improving it? For example I noticed I like to play very positionally so I looked into which famous chess players played that way and now I'm studying their games and only reading positional chess books, nothing else.

That way you're actually learning more about the way you like playing most, which makes it easier and more enjoyable.

Positional players are awesome, but there's this catch that you've gotta have this very theoretical approach to things, I mean since you'd be doing decent prep, if your opponent gets a lil off-guard then things start lookin real good for ya! Also, try to keep your repertoire shorter for now, maybe once you reach 1600 or so, try to systematically expand your opening prowess.

RussBell

@Rhetro1 -
In my article (cited above) I recommend to begin the study of positional chess by reading/studying the books "Play Winning Chess" by Yasser Seirawan followed immediately by "Weapons of Chess" by Bruce Pandolfini prior to moving on to "Simple Chess" by Michael Stean. This is because the former two books serve essentially as prerequisite material for the latter. The same reasoning applies (somewhat more loosely) to my suggestions regarding the reading sequences suggested for the remaining books in the article.

As an analogy, when beginning the study of mathematics, you would (hopefully) not begin by studying algebra before mastering arithmetic.

Note: if you wish you can precede "Simple Chess" with "Winning Chess Strategies" by Yasser Seirawan which is focused on the application of positional/strategic concepts and techniques in practice.

"Simple Chess" is a misnomer as a title for that book. The book is only simple if one has been adequately prepared to study it. Your comments above lead me to conclude that you might benefit from backing up a bit to books (i.e., prerequisite material) that I believe exemplify excellent preparation for "Simple Chess" and the books I recommend to follow it.

For example, the following are several very instructive books suitable for the improving chess amateur which I can highly recommend and, while not mentioned in my positional chess article, would serve as excellent preparation for the study of books which are focused specifically on positional-strategic chess (and chess in general). Positional-strategic ideas are included in the instruction as appropriate in each of the books...

Three Annotated games collections (clear, amateur friendly explanations of the why's and wherefore's of the chess moves):

"A First Book of Morphy" by Frisco Del Rosario (I suggest to read/study this first)

"Logical Chess Move By Move" by Irving Chernev

"Chess: The Art of Logical Thinking" by Neil McDonald

An introduction to chess strategy:

"Back To Basics Strategy" by Valeri Beim (lots of instructive verbal explanation)

General Chess Instruction :

"The Amateur's Mind", 2nd Ed. by Jeremy Silman (a great book, focusing on how to think).

Finally, if you haven't already done so you might check out the following articles ...

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond…

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

Pawn Play and Structure - for Beginners and Beyond…

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/chess-books-on-pawn-play-and-structure

Rhetro1
RussBell wrote:

Good Positional Chess, Planning & Strategy Books for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/introduction-to-positional-chess-planning-strategy

Got it, I definitely don't want to begin with really advanced chess books. With that being said, where would the books "How Karpov Wins" and "Find the Right Plan" by Karpov fit in to your list? Because I already have those books as well. Would you consider those to be very advanced books?

RussBell

@Rhetro1 -

I don't own the specific books on Karpov that you mention, so I cannot comment definitively on them (although I do own several books of his games). However based on my experience with my extensive chess books library (I own 600+) over at least three decades, I am reasonably confident that any book by or about Karpov would be fairly advanced. Certainly not appropriate for players rated below about 1500-1600 Elo,

Rhetro1
RussBell wrote:

@Rhetro1 -

I don't own the specific books on Karpov that you mention, so I cannot comment definitively on them (although I do own several books of his games). However based on my experience with my extensive chess books library (I own 600+) over at least three decades, I am reasonably confident that any book by or about Karpov would be fairly advanced. Certainly not appropriate for players rated below about 1500-1600 Elo,

Thank you, I’ll hold off on them for now then. My goal is to stick to positional chess books, working my way up from the list you have. I have The Complete Manual for Positional Chess volumes 1 & 2, but those are for 2000+. It’s going to be a long time before touching those

RussBell

@Rhetro1 -

For strictly positional chess books I believe you would do fine by using my positional chess books article as a guide. Especially for the first five books or so (i.e., the 'Core' Curriculum). After that, it's mostly a matter of what strikes your fancy.

Also I very much like "Chess Secrets The Giants of Strategy" by GM Neil McDonald who IMO does a better than average job of explaining the moves, plans and strategies to the amateur audience than the average chess book author. In my view it's a wonderful book. Note that one of the 'Giants' is Karpov. The others are Kramnik, Petrosian, Capablanca and Nimzowitsch.

Good Luck!

ChessMasteryOfficial

It’s totally fine to make 80% of your focus style-specific, but keep a bit of room for general skill sharpening.

Rhetro1
ChessMasteryOfficial wrote:

It’s totally fine to make 80% of your focus style-specific, but keep a bit of room for general skill sharpening.

I’m sort of doing that by still doing plenty of puzzles for tactics. I watched your Simple Chess series on YouTube by the way, I noticed you only covered about half the book though

Rhetro1
RussBell wrote:

@Rhetro1 -

For strictly positional chess books I believe you would do fine by using my positional chess books article as a guide. Especially for the first five books or so (i.e., the 'Core' Curriculum). After that, it's a matter of what strikes your fancy.

Also I very much like "Chess Secrets The Giants of Strategy" by GM Neil McDonald who IMO does a better than average job of explaining the moves, plans and strategies to the amateur audience than the average chess book author. In my view it's a wonderful book. Note that one of the 'Giants' is Karpov. The others are Kramnik, Petrosian, Capablanca and Nimzowitsch.

Good Luck!

What’s your take on the book the Amateur’s Mind in terms of positional chess and relative to the ordered list of books you provided? I had that book recommended to me as well.

RussBell

@Rhetro1 -

Regarding "The Amateur’s Mind" by Jeremy Silman....

It's an outstanding book, I highly recommend that all post-beginner amateur players study it early on in their chess journey. I include the caveat "post-beginner" because Amateur's Mind is focused primarily on positional-strategic concerns as opposed to tactical ones, while beginners (say, those rated below about 800 Elo) should initially be placing more emphasis on improving their tactical vs their positional skills.

In fact, I will be adding Amateur's Mind to my blog article on positional chess books. It should properly be included as one of the books in the 'Core' curriculum I described there. In particular, i recommend that it be read after first studying "Play Winning Chess" by Yasser Seirawan and "Weapons of Chess" by Bruce Pandolfini, as those books contain essential (IMO) prerequisite material which will help make Amateur's Mind that much easier to absorb.

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