It's not enough to read a chess book, you also need to engage! I've previously recommended using any games presented as a 'guess the move' exercise, this week's Chess Questions Answered video explained another approach. Essentially you try to supplement any material presented with extra games, making you a kind of co-author. This should considerably enhance engagement and attention levels.
In the run up to getting the Grandmaster title in 1993, I did this with Mikhail Shereshevsky's Endgame Strategy. I looked for supplementary games for the different themes and noted them down at the end of every chapter. Wherever possible I would use my own games, though mainly they were examples from annotated games collections of great players.
What was the result? Well around this time my play improved a lot, and in particular my endgame play. This in turn had an effect on how I played the middle games, essentially I became more patient and was OK with exchanging pieces. Working on your endgame can produce great dividends, and I should add that Jonathan Hawkins, who tragically died this week, reported using such an approach in his book From Amateur to IM.
Training Tournaments
Sunday's training tournaments are in the Meran Variation (first of all 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 c6 5.e3 Bd6), which is one of the recommended lines for Black in the Building an Opening Repertoire course. The second features the move 5...a6, which I think is an interesting and less explored options.
Sunday December 28th at 5pm UK Time: Meran with 5...Bd6
Sunday December 28th at 6.15pm UK Time: Meran with 5...a6
Video Discounts
This week's discount is 40% off Endgame Mastery using the code 'dec26jan3'. In this series of videos I show how you can improve your endgame play and use this stage of the game to notch up valuable points.
Last week's discount was 40% off Mastering Key Pawn Structures: ZOOM Formations, using the code 'dec19to27', and is still valid until tomorrow. This video series will consider ZOOM formations, which typically arise from the Gruenfeld Defence and Catalan Opening, and which were covered by Stefan Zeuthen and Bent Larsen in the classic book 'ZOOM 001: Zero Hour for Operative Opening Models'.
My Upcoming Events
I'll be playing in Nova Gorica, in Slovenia this coming month, one of my favourite tournaments in one of my favourite countries. I'm also hoping to play in the World Senior Team Championships in April, but would need to be invited!
January 23-30: Nova Gorica
A very nice and well organized event, details can be found here.
Have a good weekend.
Nigel
