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Anyone else recently get into the timeless game of chess? I find it meditative and a great way to distract my mind that doesn't involve a device (although I pla

by dplgk 7y ago

Anyone else recently get into the timeless game of chess? I find it meditative and a great way to distract my mind that doesn't involve a device (although I play a lot on my phone :) Can anyone recommend a good chess book for a 1000 rating player who's plateaued?

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
emerongi 7y ago
I haven't read a chess book, but I did some tactics a few years back and got to 1300-1400 online. Around that rating, the most important thing is to learn how to not blunder. Doing tactics is the most helpful for that. You also learn to spot and take the most advantage from your opponent's blunders.
gamegoblin 7y ago
The #1 way you will get better at 1000 Elo is, for each move you are considering, imagine where all of your pieces will be after the move and verify none of them can be captured without compensation (in chess lingo — “hanging”) That is, a book can teach you about basic pawn structure, basic tactics (skewering, forking, revealed checks, etc) but all will be useless if you don’t consider possible responses by your opponent. You should be able to find plenty of AI opponents you can force to only use a very limited depth search. If you can’t beat an AI that looks 1 ply ahead, that implies that you are also not looking more than 1 ply ahead. So practice against such an opponent until you can win 100% of the time.
Real_S 7y ago
Books by Yasser Seirawan helped me when I was at a similar level. Winning Chess Brilliancies has some very good insight into some of the best grandmaster games.
nikki93 7y ago
https://chessable.com https://chessable.com is pretty great for actually practicing the stuff from books!
- chucksmash 7y ago
  I've not used chessable yet, but one of my favorite youtubers, John Bartholomew, is behind it and I'd recommend his videos wholeheartedly. He did a series of videos that is particularly worth checking out called "Climbing the Ratings Ladder" where he plays opponents at different rating tiers and analyzes their mistakes[1]. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2huVf1l4UE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2huVf1l4UE
  - nikki93 7y ago
    Yeah I'm a big fan of John's and watch this same stuff! :D Glad to see him get some love here.
threatofrain 7y ago
Are you already doing long time control competitive matches?
- dplgk 7y ago
  I've been playing 10 and 15 minute games online. Once a week I play IRL chess with no time limits.
  - threatofrain 7y ago
    IMO you grow immensely with real tournament experience with at least 1 hour time controls. 15 minutes is known to be a harsh time control and "no time limit" in my experience just means "don't make me impatient", which is a really short limit.
wish5031 7y ago
I used to play a lot, and hit 1900 (USCF) before I ran out of time to keep playing competitively. So I'm not a pro by any means, but I might know enough to help you get started. The best way to increase your rating is to find a good chess coach. Otherwise, off the top of my head, my suggestions would be (in order of importance): 1. Learn an opening really well. Ideally, find one opening for white that doesn't generally have many weird transpositions, e.g. the London system. Also, find a couple of solid defenses for black in response to 1. e4 and 1. d4, e.g. the French and the Slav defenses. 2. Study the most basic endgames -- queen + king vs king, rook + king vs king, etc. I'd suggest [0] as a resource. 3. Practice a lot of tactics. You can do this through books (I'm partial to [1] for beginners and [2] when you reach 1600 or so) or through online services like lichess.org. 4. You can probably hit 1500-1600 fairly easily with 1-3. At this point I'd start learning the basics of strategy/positional play, e.g. static vs dynamic advantages. I think [3] is a pretty good resource for this. 5. Study some of the more advanced endgames in [0]. 6. Start looking at some more complex openings and go a bit deeper into positional play. IMO the most important thing in the long run is just to find an opening and style of play that you really like. Hope that helps! [0] https://www.amazon.com/Endgame-Challenge-John-Hall/dp/1880673983/ https://www.amazon.com/Endgame-Challenge-John-Hall/dp/188067... [1] https://www.amazon.com/Combination-Challenge-Lou-Hays/dp/188067386X https://www.amazon.com/Combination-Challenge-Lou-Hays/dp/188... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Sharpen-Your-Tactics-Sacrifices-Combinations/dp/1880673134 https://www.amazon.com/Sharpen-Your-Tactics-Sacrifices-Combi... [3] https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Positional-Evaluation-Dan-Heisman-ebook/dp/B003RCK1SO https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Positional-Evaluation-Dan-He...
dhkxh 7y ago
1. Review your mistakes after each game - lichess.org (which is the best online chess platform by far) has an option to look at your sub-optimal moves at the end of a game and find a better move than the one you made originally. 2. Obligatory shoutout to ChessNetwork who has a great youtube channel - the guy is just a pleasure to listen to and his beginner series, which teach important general concepts, will be really useful if you've plateaued around 1000.
- I_complete_me 7y ago
  I agree with these 2 points especially Jerry being easy listening. His commentary on one minute lightning chess tourneys on lichess is phenomenal esp. when Dr. Carlsen is at large.
- djtriptych 7y ago
  +1 for chessnetwork. Somehow this guy can provide live commentary on GM vs GM bullet games. It feels like you’re watching a tennis match and he’s providing comments on every stroke.
foolrush 7y ago
Amazing how no one is answering your question. “The Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters: Fundamentals of the Game” https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Russian-Chess-Masters-Fundamentals/dp/0393324524 https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Russian-Chess-Masters-Fundame... Don’t let the title deter you; hitting a wall is almost always about fundamentals, which at 1000 points is a heady topic. Great series. Graduate to Jeremy Silman’s books.
cvaidya1986 7y ago
My 60 Memorable Games Bobby Fischer.
Cactus2018 7y ago
Since you want to distract your mind and avoid a device, check out chess puzzle books, such as "303 Tricky Chess Tactics". I found chess puzzles fun to read before bed and 'sleep on' a problem. Good luck. https://www.amazon.com/Tricky-Chess-Tactics-Fred-Wilson/dp/1580423485/ https://www.amazon.com/Tricky-Chess-Tactics-Fred-Wilson/dp/1...

by dplgk 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

emerongi 7y ago

I haven't read a chess book, but I did some tactics a few years back and got to 1300-1400 online. Around that rating, the most important thing is to learn how to not blunder. Doing tactics is the most helpful for that. You also learn to spot and take the most advantage from your opponent's blunders.

gamegoblin 7y ago

The #1 way you will get better at 1000 Elo is, for each move you are considering, imagine where all of your pieces will be after the move and verify none of them can be captured without compensation (in chess lingo — “hanging”) That is, a book can teach you about basic pawn structure, basic tactics (skewering, forking, revealed checks, etc) but all will be useless if you don’t consider possible responses by your opponent. You should be able to find plenty of AI opponents you can force to only use a very limited depth search. If you can’t beat an AI that looks 1 ply ahead, that implies that you are also not looking more than 1 ply ahead. So practice against such an opponent until you can win 100% of the time.

Real_S 7y ago

Books by Yasser Seirawan helped me when I was at a similar level. Winning Chess Brilliancies has some very good insight into some of the best grandmaster games.

nikki93 7y ago

https://chessable.com https://chessable.com is pretty great for actually practicing the stuff from books!

chucksmash 7y ago
I've not used chessable yet, but one of my favorite youtubers, John Bartholomew, is behind it and I'd recommend his videos wholeheartedly. He did a series of videos that is particularly worth checking out called "Climbing the Ratings Ladder" where he plays opponents at different rating tiers and analyzes their mistakes[1]. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2huVf1l4UE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2huVf1l4UE
- nikki93 7y ago
  Yeah I'm a big fan of John's and watch this same stuff! :D Glad to see him get some love here.

threatofrain 7y ago

Are you already doing long time control competitive matches?

dplgk 7y ago
I've been playing 10 and 15 minute games online. Once a week I play IRL chess with no time limits.
- threatofrain 7y ago
  IMO you grow immensely with real tournament experience with at least 1 hour time controls. 15 minutes is known to be a harsh time control and "no time limit" in my experience just means "don't make me impatient", which is a really short limit.

wish5031 7y ago

I used to play a lot, and hit 1900 (USCF) before I ran out of time to keep playing competitively. So I'm not a pro by any means, but I might know enough to help you get started. The best way to increase your rating is to find a good chess coach. Otherwise, off the top of my head, my suggestions would be (in order of importance): 1. Learn an opening really well. Ideally, find one opening for white that doesn't generally have many weird transpositions, e.g. the London system. Also, find a couple of solid defenses for black in response to 1. e4 and 1. d4, e.g. the French and the Slav defenses. 2. Study the most basic endgames -- queen + king vs king, rook + king vs king, etc. I'd suggest [0] as a resource. 3. Practice a lot of tactics. You can do this through books (I'm partial to [1] for beginners and [2] when you reach 1600 or so) or through online services like lichess.org. 4. You can probably hit 1500-1600 fairly easily with 1-3. At this point I'd start learning the basics of strategy/positional play, e.g. static vs dynamic advantages. I think [3] is a pretty good resource for this. 5. Study some of the more advanced endgames in [0]. 6. Start looking at some more complex openings and go a bit deeper into positional play. IMO the most important thing in the long run is just to find an opening and style of play that you really like. Hope that helps! [0] https://www.amazon.com/Endgame-Challenge-John-Hall/dp/1880673983/ https://www.amazon.com/Endgame-Challenge-John-Hall/dp/188067... [1] https://www.amazon.com/Combination-Challenge-Lou-Hays/dp/188067386X https://www.amazon.com/Combination-Challenge-Lou-Hays/dp/188... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Sharpen-Your-Tactics-Sacrifices-Combinations/dp/1880673134 https://www.amazon.com/Sharpen-Your-Tactics-Sacrifices-Combi... [3] https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Positional-Evaluation-Dan-Heisman-ebook/dp/B003RCK1SO https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Positional-Evaluation-Dan-He...

dhkxh 7y ago

1. Review your mistakes after each game - lichess.org (which is the best online chess platform by far) has an option to look at your sub-optimal moves at the end of a game and find a better move than the one you made originally. 2. Obligatory shoutout to ChessNetwork who has a great youtube channel - the guy is just a pleasure to listen to and his beginner series, which teach important general concepts, will be really useful if you've plateaued around 1000.

I_complete_me 7y ago
I agree with these 2 points especially Jerry being easy listening. His commentary on one minute lightning chess tourneys on lichess is phenomenal esp. when Dr. Carlsen is at large.
djtriptych 7y ago
+1 for chessnetwork. Somehow this guy can provide live commentary on GM vs GM bullet games. It feels like you’re watching a tennis match and he’s providing comments on every stroke.

foolrush 7y ago

Amazing how no one is answering your question. “The Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters: Fundamentals of the Game” https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Russian-Chess-Masters-Fundamentals/dp/0393324524 https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Russian-Chess-Masters-Fundame... Don’t let the title deter you; hitting a wall is almost always about fundamentals, which at 1000 points is a heady topic. Great series. Graduate to Jeremy Silman’s books.

cvaidya1986 7y ago

My 60 Memorable Games Bobby Fischer.

Cactus2018 7y ago

Since you want to distract your mind and avoid a device, check out chess puzzle books, such as "303 Tricky Chess Tactics". I found chess puzzles fun to read before bed and 'sleep on' a problem. Good luck. https://www.amazon.com/Tricky-Chess-Tactics-Fred-Wilson/dp/1580423485/ https://www.amazon.com/Tricky-Chess-Tactics-Fred-Wilson/dp/1...