Studying Master Games

I'm working my way through Jeroen Bosch's "The Chess Combat Simulator," which offers fifty annotated grandmaster games with the scheme that you play through twenty or so critical moves after the opening, writing down your guess for the next move before uncovering it.

Afterward you read through Bosch's annotations which include point ratings for each guess. You can get points for reasonable moves, even if they don't match the grandmaster choices. Bosch then takes it further and provides a conversion from your score at the end of the game to an Elo-comparable rating between 1600-2500. Now that rating tends to be rather generous, but it's all in good fun and keeps you motivated.

I set up a board with 60-90 minutes on the clock and try to play as seriously as though I were in a tournament.

It's a good idea and a good book. I'll be sorry when I've finished it.

@ipcress12:

That does sound like a fun book to work through.  I'm off to Amazon to add it to my wish list.  Thanks!

I am not sure if you guys have a free version of chessbase or not? It can make your life easier and less stressful

Today I studied a couple of Shirov games, was not disappointed, especially the one where he played the dragon:

It was a tough, long exercise