You don't have to study opening books...
But if you were to, notice that the goal is to really know the opening. It's no use breezing through it and not retaining anything!
For those of you who actually READ/USE your chess books
Sort:
Dec 21, 2015
0
#3
When it comes to opening books I found that its better to just play the opening yourself first and then look into it for ideas. Maybe in 5 min games.
That can help improve your game more than just directly trying to memorize lines. Eventually you can do it without it feeling like memorization....
I don't even bother entering all the variations...just enter the main stuff and maybe a few side lines after you play them
Dec 21, 2015
0
#4
All of you are missing the whole point of a chess book.
What's with this whole copying into databases bullsh*t? What the hell good is that going to do you? Even a book that is already in eBook format won't get you very far. You just zip thru the games, click click click, revert back, click click click again!
Uhm, anybody ever heard of pulling out that thing with 64 squares on it? Ever heard of placing 16 White pieces and 16 Black pieces on it? I seem to recall that think with 64 squares being vinyl that rolls up, and uhm, hmmm...., those pieces I want to say they are typically plastic or wood and contain weights in them?
Novel concept, huh? And guess what? If you had to reset the position after each long variation and play thru to the point where you left off every time, reitterating opening moves, you'd actually be a better chess player!
I set up a board to study and sometimes smaller boards for other lines. I was thinking it would be faster to do it electronically. I guess my question has been answered.
Dec 21, 2015
0
#6
I play through classic master games w/ annotations. It is mostly for enjoyment, and still I learn a little. I have this nice wooden magnet set that works great for study. I study these games for the beauty that reside within, it is purely esoteric...
Dec 22, 2015
0
#7
Copying moves does nothing, you wont learn anything from that.
If afterwards you study it, great.
Book or electronic, the idea is you interact with the material. Look at position, come up with your own moves and/or ideas. Think, be confused, be wrong, then you learn.
Get master games with plenty of annotations (Chernev's classic Logical Chess, Move by Move is excellent - 33 games with every move annotated). Play through each game on a real live actual chess board, covering up the losing player's moves and seeing if you can work out what each move for the winning side is. Improvement guaranteed!!!! (Hell, it actually made me the brilliant player I am. Well, it's a great method despite that.)
Dec 22, 2015
0
#9
I play through games in books more than once. The first time, I play 'guess the move', and color code everything in highlighter (pink for mainline, orange for variations, green for critical variations, purple for game citations). After that, I go through everything again, and it's way easier to compartmentalize. Later on, when I'm scrubbing my notes for opening theory or example games, I can just look for the right color.
I also go through games that don't come from books - I just grab something from chessgames.com and annotate it on a freeware GUI using engine analysis only AFTER I've come up with my own stuff. My annotation isn't good....the GM players I study certainly couldn't learn a thing from that junk, but it teaches me how to look at and write about chess.
Basically, I think a holistic approach to the 'silicone versus paper' debate is healthy - use both the computer and the chess board since you'll be staring at both for many many hours anyway.
For those of you who actually read/use your chess books -
If you enter them in databases, how long is it taking you? I just got an openings book and if I were to manually enter all the lines, it would take HOURS just to enter one game! (Fortunately, I bought it on Everyman chess, where you get the .pgn so no painful erroneous move entry.)
Just curious what people did before all these electronic resources. It just seems like a complete soul-sucking venture to spend hours entering moves and variations one by one, like from a repertoire book. I love chess, but I can't stand even doing 5 minutes of this sort of stuff.