Expert: Tony D'Aloisio - 4/24/2011

Question
QUESTION: Tony, I wanted to thank you for answering one of my questions on Yahoo Answers.  I'm glad to see you are active in trying to help people in chess.

I'm just getting back into the game after 15 years.  I consider myself a beginner--maybe 1250-1350 strength.  I joined chess.com--platinum and have been working on tactics, reading articles, playing games, doing chess mentor.  My problem is I have no direction.  I'm just doing this or that without structure.  

I would like to devote 2 hours a day, 5 days a week to studying to try to reach whatever potential I can.  How should I divide that time up.  What should I be studying, when, and how?

Should I buy one of Silman's strategy books?  How do I study the opening?  When should I study end games--honestly I rarely even make it to one!

To sum it up--using 2 hours a day as a guide, can you offer me a generic training schedule with tips on how to best study and practice the different aspects of the game?

ANSWER: It looks to me like you're doing fine as it is.  I wouldn't worry too much about structure; imposing some strict regimen on yourself may make you feel like you're approaching the game with renewed seriousness, and you may find this psychologically beneficial, but in reality I don't think it will matter too much as far as your results go.

I assume these 2 hours a day are in addition to playing time.  At any rate, I think you should devote most of your time now to playing games:  online, OTB, and also against computers (which are invaluable for honing your tactical sense).  With the exception of tactical exercises (which are always useful), studying should be secondary at this point.

I wouldn't worry too much about the openings when you're starting out (or, in your case, restarting). :)  Learn a few basic lines and that's about it.  After all, it's not too likely that your opponents will be steeped in every nuance of the Sicilian either, so I think deep study of the openings is wasted until you get more experienced.  One of the commoner (and sillier) things you run into in chess is the player who spouts on about the latest trendy GM opening line without having the slightest understanding of any of it; simply make some move that is not in one of their books and they are lost at sea.

I think the same advice holds true for endgames.  You should learn the basic mates (K + Q, K + R, K + 2 Bs) and perhaps delve a bit further, if it interests you.  But here's something from my own experience:  when I was perhaps 1600 USCF I made a big study of all sorts of endgames, and primarily R + P.  I imagined that I was greatly enhancing my ability and all of that, but unfortunately none of it stuck; when I became a master I read through a book about rook endings and realized that I understood hardly anything about them, even the material that I had pored over years before and allegedly absorbed.  Unfortunately the idea of osmosis doesn't seem to work in chess (at least, it didn't for me).  So I would advise only studying an aspect of the game if you feel that you are truly ready for it.

Yes, Silman sounds good.  I've also heard good things about Seirawan's books.  Personally (and since I'm a bit of a geezer I'm afraid I'll have to dig into the archives a bit) my own favorite book when I was starting out was The Complete Chessplayer by Fred Reinfeld.  I think you should also have a look at a collection of Morphy's games; they can be quite instructive, and many of them are very pretty as well.

Btw chess.com does have many useful features and tutorials and so forth; unfortunately though I must say that they treated me rather shabbily when I was a member, so I cannot wholeheartedly endorse their site.  By all means make use of chess mentor and whatever teaching aids they have there, but do your best to avoid contact with the owner (erik) and his somewhat martinetish, heavy-handed staff.

For live play you also might want to consider signing up with ICC.  Yes, the look of their site is horribly antiquated (OK, it's downright hideous), but they do offer tons of opponents of every calibre and, from what I've seen and heard, their interface is more reliable than chess.com's (not nearly so many disconnects, for one thing).  Besides which, you can watch GMs playing blitz games all the time there (even if none of us mere mortals have much of a clue what they're doing). :)



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: My problem (and I have many) is that I want to move beyond a tactical free for all.  I attack, they attack, I make mistakes, they make mistakes.  I want to develop an understanding of the board and what I should actually be doing while working on my understanding of tactics.  Just playing doesn't tell me what I should be doing.  

Are you saying that a low skilled player shouldn't be paying any attention to imbalances on the board and just moving pieces till some tactical situation comes up?

I had a chess master friend tell me play, play, play and study tactics years ago.  For me that doesn't seem good enough.  I want to know WHAT to do, how to accurately interpret the board, and not just run around like a wild cowboy.

Other than playing many games aimlessly and working on tactics, what can I do in my study program to effectively learn WHAT to do.

Answer
I'm not really sure what you're asking (or indeed if you are asking anything).  In order to accurately interpret the board, you have to be good...and in order to be good, you have to log a lot of playing time and play thousands and thousands of games.  Chess is almost entirely tactics anyway.

If you want to try your hand at strategy, my two favorite strategy books were:  Modern Chess Strategy by Ludek Pachman and Pawn Structure Chess by Andrew Soltis.  You also might want to give a look at Simple Chess by Michael Stean.

In my opinion though, this stuff is all likely to be over your head and thus a waste of time right now.  You have already had two masters tell you the same thing, but you don't seem inclined to accept their advice...so by all means go your own way in this matter, if you like (it is of course your right and privilege).