jessicafischerqueen: <Elixir> Heh I'm not so busy actually I'm mainly a "loudmouth" in fact.You are welcome to post games here, but you should remember something about approaching other people at CG.com-- It's not the best idea to "go through someone else"--
IE- I have a number of friends here (including you)-- and they are able and willing to help me when and if their time allows.
So you should approach other people directly, not through me, for best results.
Above all else, never take it personally if someone doesn't happen to respond to a post you might make to them.
That said, again, I can only tell you what worked for me.
I think <annotated games> are absolutely essential if one wants to UNDERSTAND that game.
It is time consuming to play through and understand an annotated GM game.
Here at CG.com, there are many games collections that correspond to famous books.
Tal's <My Life and Games>, <Bobby Fischer Rediscovered>, <Alexander Belyavsky's Attacking Chess> are three books I own that have all the games in them in a CG.com <games collection>. (there are many, many others too. Just type the name of a chess book in the search box on the <games collection search page> to find them.
So I went through many of the games my books. What I did was use the Games Collection here to play each move.
Now when the book annotation shows a variation or a reason why a move is good or not good, I played that out on my wooden board.
Thanks to the game being here on CG.com, it's easy and fast to return the pieces on your board back to the original position and then go on to the next move played in the game.
There is no way to benefit from books with annotated games without using two boards in this fashion, and without spending a good deal of time on each game.
Understanding why moves were strong or weak in ONE GAME is more valuable than just "playing through" a million games without Understanding why moves were strong or weak.
I use my Engine as a "blunder checker."
That is, I set it at 10 ply only (so it goes really fast) and check each move in every game I play. Even this shallow an analysis takes a coupla hours.
Other people have stronger and faster engines, and also know a lot more about chess than me-- they are able to use their engines to analzye more deeply.
I could also do this-- but I have no interest in putting my <Shredder> at 300 ply and letting it run for two days just to check my own wins and losses. I just want to check for blunders.
Now, I sometimes "check" transitional moves from the opening to the middle game on my Engine as well. I have time to do this cuz I only play 4 openings regularly.
Also, many, many famous games here at CG.com have TONS of deep computer analysis of lines in the Kibbutzing section of the game page. Take out your board and set up the game position and play out the lines.
There is no 'short cut' to these activities, at least not for me.
Also, playing regularly against someone who is a step stronger than you might be more valuable than any kind of study.
When I went from 1200 to the high 1400s on <Yahoo> I wasn't doing anything but play TONS of games (never blitz) against higher rated people, and "play through" many, many Games on this site, but without "analyzing" any of them.
However, since I started Kibbutzing here, I have used the studying methods and resources I previously posted to you.
<Elixir>: If I didn't find these study methods and resources FUN I wouldn't do any of them, I can assure you.
I love chess and chess history and chess analysis, but for me, I love playing a game against a tough partner the most fun of all.
Feel free to post anything anytime here, we are already friends.
Regards,
CC
Kibitzing
