So after really getting a good taste of the chess blog circuit over the past couple of days this one name keeps popping up, Michael de la Maza. Apparently he created his own program of chess study, used it to great effect, then published it in some articles on the web (http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles148.pdf) and(http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles150.pdf). Now half the chess blogs I've read are Class players like myself taking his advice. They even have their own group called "The Knights Errant".
Well I have to say, "sorry I'm late to the party." I feel kinda foolish, having been a slave to Kotov's "Art of the Middlegame" and Silman's "Reassess Your Chess" after reading Mr. de la Maza's articles. I've often talked to my long time chess friends about the 1600 plateau I've felt like I've been on since about 14 yrs ago when I was a senoir in high school. I "know" alot more about chess now than I did then (thanks Mr. Silman) ... but I have virtually zero rating increase to show for all that knowledge.
I've historically blamed my lack of rating progress on Real Life (tm). I seem to play chess in cycles. I play alot for 6-12 months, then get caught up in something else (Read: Everquest, World of Warcraft, Shadowbane) for a year or two, then come back to chess. Now I think it may have more to do with how I've studied. Mr. la Maza's own performance increase and his articles have me convinced that I am going to stray a bit from the Strategy side of study and concentrate on the Tactical side of chess for the next year. I want to thank him for laying out a pretty clear study plan.
Any suggestions on where to find 10,000 problems that are laid out in order from simplest to most difficult?
Update
So I found Silman's Review of Mr. La Maza's book online. Not surprising that Mr. Silman gets a little foul with this book, since Mr. La Maza is non too flattering of Reassess Your Chess. Both make valid points. In the long run I think Mr. Silman is probably right, in the short run I think in order for me personally to improve I need to focus on improving my Tactical skill.
1 lunch hour spent on the Tactical Chess Server has already taught me that I'm much weaker than I thought tactically.
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3 comments:
Welcome aboard. It's nice to see someone who has years of experience and has trained extensively in another program.
PS
Ont the 1000 problems side de la Maza recommends CT Art3.0, I use and think its good but the UI (actually its more the usability in terms of setting up the challanges than the chess UI) could do with some work.
Ive been told that CTS is very good but I have not bought it yet myself.
CTS is the Chess Tactics Server and its free. There's a link under the links section of my blog.
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