Expert: Louis Lima - 10/9/2009

Question
I have been playing chess for a number of years and can beat most everyone I know.  The problem is that I have no idea what I am doing.  At this point in time, no one will play with me anymore so I was thinking about joining a club.  I believe that if I move to that next level I need to finally learn what I am doing and why.  I can no longer just play one turn at a time.  I am looking for some books that can take me back to the basics so that I can relearn what I am doing wrong and how I can grow as a chess player.  I think if I hit the clubs without that I will be in some serious trouble.

As for as my overall strategy I love defense.  I like to arrange to where the other player has to attack and I can pick one piece off at a time.  Once I have the advantage then I attack.  

Any thoughts?

Jacob

P.S.  I also have a 6 year old a nd a 4 year old that we home school.  I think getting a better foundation will also equip me to teach them to be better players.

Answer
Dear Jacob,

It would help to get an approximate idea of your strength. Do you know what your approximate rating is? Otherwise maybe we can play a couple of games on Yahoo so that I can get a sense. That way I can recommend the appropriate material to you. Feel free to e-mail me chesslearning@gmail.com if you want to arrange a time to play a couple of games.

Chess requires awareness, knowledge and most important of all: skills. To improve at chess you want to improve your skills - for instance by working on solving tactical puzzles (e.g. arranged by themes like forks, pins, etc). This will boost your chess strength faster than other things such as learning an opening, etc. It's not so much about "knowing" but more about "doing" that increases your performance. Of course, strategy is obviously important in chess, but I'd like to know your strength to see what materials I would recommend. For instance, I am not going to recommend Dvoretsky's School of Chess Excellence (Strategic Play)to someone who has just learned the rules, but instead point them to a site that discuses basic principles like center control, don't bring the queen out too early,  etc. :-)

I have a video on the benefits of teaching chess to kids on my youtube page if you'd like to see it http://www.youtube.com/chesslearning and chess exercises there of tactical and positional nature if you want to work on them.  I'd be happy to recommend some materials so you can teach your four year old, and probably the six year old needs different ones. For instance, your four year old could greatly benefit from "Dinasour Chess", while maybe for your six year old you can teach him yourself and use material like "Winning Chess Strategy for Kids" by Coakley as your foundation.

Cheers,
Louis