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How To Become A Chess Master
by Ignacio Marin |
Part V: Long Term Project |
The last thing that you have to know to become a master is a matter of
how to decide the way of using your time and therefore it is related to
two of my previous articles: "know yourself" and "focus on your
weaknesses".
The point is that for improving your chess, you need a long term
training program. My theory is that you shouldn't use openings that
you will have to throw away when you improve because they are incorrect.
Therefore, you have to concentrate in openings that are modern, safe and
strong. With this in mind, you can choose between these two formats
(Although I will talk especially about the openings, these two strategies
also apply to the study of middlegames and endgames):
- The "quick fixes" program is the most common one.
If you don't have too much time to study, then you have to improve in
small steps. First, start with easy openings, learn the basics. Then go
to study typical games of those openings, that will give you a flavor of
the middlegames that can happen. Use these openings in your games to see
how do you feel. If everything goes fine, you have a first strong point
in your repertoire. Then you can go for another opening or a more
complicated variation. If you have problems, it can be because the
opening do not fit your strong points (then forget it and shift to
another one) or maybe it is because it is too difficult for you (you can
still play it, but you have to strenght your tactical vision or
strategical knowledge before. For that you have to play blitz games with
friends or even a computer, do exercises, learn from comments from other
players about the strategical needs, etc.).
A few recommended openings:
- White: 1. e4
- 1...c5; Closed variations if you feel strong enough. 2. c3, 2.
Nf3 and 3. c3. Open variations with Be2, Be3.
- 1...e5 2. Nf3: Italian with d3. Four knights.Spanish with d3
(not d4)
- 1...c6: exchange variation. Classical variation 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3
- 1...e6: advance or tarrasch
- 1...d6: d4, Nc3, Nf3
- Black:
- against 1.e4: 1...e6 or 1...c6, depending on your type of play.
- against 1.d4: Nimzoindian + Bogoindian or Queen's Indian
- against 1.c4, 1.Nf3: 1...Nf6 2...e6 3...Bb4 or 3...d5.
Simmetrical english.
At some point, you will find that you don't feel comfortable with
some or most of these openings, but all them are solid and you can play
them for years. When you feel strong enough you should try 1. d4 with
the white pieces and the Sicilian and King's Indian with the black
pieces. Do it even if you lose some games, as an investment for the
future, to learn tactics in complicated positions. Of course, you need a
minimum of theoretical knowledge for playing them or you will be doomed.
But if you are a strong player, you will survive even if you are
sometimes in doubtful situations, because these openings are very tricky
and there are plenty of defensive resources.
Books: the quick fix books have titles as "Play the..." and "Winning
with..." The quality of these books varies widely. Use also the books
with commented games by the best chessplayers: Kasparov (although he
never comments any line that it is relevant for theory or does it
wrongly on purpose, his comments are very good in the middlegame),
Karpov (only very few of his books are very good, all are OK), Nunn
(outstanding always), Timman (outstanding too), etc. The oldies
Bronstein (I am thinking in the old "Zurich 1953"), Botvinnik (old, but
interesting strategical comments), Fischer (60 memorable games), and
even Capablanca and Alekhine are also useful. Regarding game comments,
forget about names that you don't find in the list of strong
grandmasters.
- The "grandmaster" approach: if you have PLENTY of
time, then you should go directly to very complicated openings: With
white you can choose 1. e4 or 1. d4 and go for complicated variations.
With the black pieces Sicilians and King's Indians. You don't need a
very specific help then, just work as hard as you can. Books: Informants
and New in Chess. Monographs of specific variations will be useful. Buy
a database as soon as you have the money and study the games in parallel
with the strategy of the variations.
Finally, a few words about the last idea that I gave in my first
article: LOOK AROUND FOR IDEAS. To choose which openings to play,
you have to understand why the best players use them. As soon as you
understand that, you can build your own opening repertoire in the same
direction. Remember that most of the players are not strong enough to
create new ideas. The masters however always know whom to copy!. When,
after a few years of chess abstinence, I started to study again, I find
myself with the problem of the big amount of new games. Well, I decided to
study only those games where at least one player was over 2600 FIDE ELO or
the average was 2550 or more!. It worked just fine. Everybody else is just
copying what the big guys do. |