Exeter Chess Club

I'll soon fix that...

First, we discussed some statements from Jonathan Rowson (Chess for Zebras), who very nearly said:

Chess is more a game of skill than a game of knowledge.

He did indeed say:

"Improvement begins at the edge of your comfort zone" (p.14)

[Vygotsky! shouted Ish.]

"If you want to get better at chess you need to place much less emphasis on 'study' whereby you increase your knowledge of positions, and place more emphasis on 'training,' whereby you try to solve problems, play practice games, or perhaps try to beat a strong computer program from an advantageous position." (p.25).

"Chess skill emerges from chess playing combined with chess training, where ‘training’ means working things out by yourself.  The main skill a chess-player needs is skill in making decisions, so that’s what you need to do and do repeatedly.  If you want to become a better player, you need better habits, and you cultivate better habits through training.  The best training is the kind that pushes you up against the edges of your comfort zone, where you force yourself to take responsibility for difficult decisions.  It is so much easier to read books that give strategic guidelines, hints and tips, etc., but what you need is ‘know how’ and that means learning by doing." (p.29)

We also did a little exercise, under review (watch this space), designed to find your discomfort zone, by giving a grid of progressively harder positions to solve.  I soon discovered that while there are 4798 puzzle books on Tactics, there are only 3 puzzle books I've seen on strategy and a few more that are mixed in approach, and bugger all on the opening.

But mainly we tried to identify some things to work on.  So, name three things you do well, three things you don't do so well...

DR comments:

As this is the third time I think I've tried to kick us off in this way, you may well want to:

a. reflect on people's responses from 2007 and 2008
http://exeterchessclub.org.uk/content/coaching-adults
http://exeterchessclub.org.uk/content/summer-coaching-2008

b. ask yourself: are these the same things I wrote down last year?

c. ask yourself: have I seen any improvement in the things I wrote down
last year? and if not, why not?

Some of these topics I've covered before, perhaps a while ago [see links].

If you don't think the links help, I'll have another go of course.

I've picked out a mix of themes(*) from your list of improvement targets, some old and some new, and suggest something along these lines: