http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-point-of-studying-master-games-part-one
http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-point-of-studying-master-games-part-two
http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-point-of-studying-master-games-pt-3
Question for really strong players (IM, GM etc.)
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Jul 25, 2011
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#2
Jul 25, 2011
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#3
kco wrote:
gee thanks kco, ya know i had plans tonight...
bugger it, time well spent 
Jul 25, 2011
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#4
kco wrote:
Dear kco
My question was not on master games, but on the way a master-level player would read through a chess book, as opposed to a lower-level player. Jeremy Silman commented on one of his posts that he walks his cat while reading chess books. Now I would assume that he plays out the example positions from the book in his head (which is quite amazing). On the other hand, knowing Mr. Silman's writing style, you can never know if he's kidding or not. :-) I obviously can't do this, but I am wondering if all master players are able to study this way?
Jul 25, 2011
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#5
I'm not a titled player, but I know one. He can read lines of text and understand the position. When he studies, he does use a board. But his ability to read moves is pretty impressive. I can read a line of text about 10-15 moves into an opning and then set up the position...but I'm an 1800 player, not a Master. And as I play through the position in my mind, I really have a hard time going into variations and subvariations.
Visualization skills come with time and practice.
Jul 25, 2011
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#6
DrSpudnik wrote:
I'm not a titled player, but I know one. He can read lines of text and understand the position. When he studies, he does use a board. But his ability to read moves is pretty impressive. I can read a line of text about 10-15 moves into an opning and then set up the position...but I'm an 1800 player, not a Master. And as I play through the position in my mind, I really have a hard time going into variations and subvariations.
Visualization skills come with time and practice.
15 moves is already impressive enough for me :-) How did you improve your visualization skills to such a degree DrSpudnik? In other words, how did you practice?
Jul 25, 2011
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#7
One thing that helps is when you are looking at a book and a note comes up, instead of moving the pieces, move them only with your eyes, reading through the moves one by one until you can "see" the position of the pieces at the end of the note. When you know why the analysis says what it does (i.e. "...and white has a slight advanatge" etc...) you are making progress at practicing visualization.
Dear strong chess player
This question is out of sheer curiosity. How do you read/study a chess book? I for example (being a patzer) have a board next to me and I have to make most moves on the board (especially opening and end game books, with lots of variations). So it does take me quite a while working through one with hundreds of pages. Some players download the example games (from the book they are studying) from the internet and play through them on their PC monitors, which takes up less time.
I would assume that most of you can play a game of "blind fold" chess. Is this how you would read chess books as well? Or do you require the use of a chess board as well?