Grandmaster Game Analysis #2 Karpov vs Anand

Anatoly Karpov (40)

Viswanathan Anand (22)

Chemistry

Wait, Chemistry is just this!? Really? :)
- Me on realizing how easy Chemistry really was, 30/04/14

Yacapaca!

After what seemed like an eternity doing Physics Yacapaca quizzes, Chemistry seemed like a good old friend to come back to :) 

Goodbye Chess

I'll be saying a hearty goodbye to chess for the next few days since its seriously hindering my revision

Bye Chess :) 

Day 6

Yeah I know, slept late gain, bullet is just so fun! This is really, really bad though,  but the bright side is that I got a new calculator along with doing approximately 4 hours of revision, which can't be a bad thing, although the school recommends around 8 hours a day, which is a monstrous number, anyways, tomorrow will be different!

P.S. It's 1 in the morning so it should technically be Day 7 but as I said, I slept late again. 

Day 5

I realize its early in the morning and that it should technically be day 6 today, but I'll count it as Day 5 since I stayed up this long, well, I went to School, which has now closed for a two week break, which'll probably not be a break for me any ways, I did two hours revision with my math tutor, then just didn't do anything else school related (revising), which was really bad of me, then around 10:00 got stuck in a  "blitz prison" which lasted till about 1 in the morning, basically, it all starts with one game... then your rating drops and you want to get it back up so badly but you keep trying, its painful, and I vow to never go through one of those again.

Day 4

Didn't technically get any revision done today, but did go out shopping for quite a bit of revision books, which are quite excellent, anyways, I am motivated and confident; I think this was a day well spent :) 

Day 3

Today went quite well compared to the others, actually worked my way through some maths, which was good. Hours of Revision Clocked in: 2, more or less, I should up that number up to at least 3 by the April Holiday though (2 days and approaching). 

Day 2

Well, today went great! Did loads of revision and got past some of my drawbacks, no, April Fools, it went horrible, I only clocked in about 1 hour of revision which is absolutely bad, also conforming to my sleeping late habit once again, I did a practice paper for mathematics during that 1 hour of revision and got 29/70, a fail If I'm not correct.

:(, tommorow...

Day 1

First day conclusive of my blog post, basically no revision done today, I really need to get my act together, I will be doing part of a mathematics paper 2 later though, adios. 

On the Brink of Oblivion: Chess and the IGCSE's

I'm writing this late at night; currently, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place, my IGCSE's (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) are in one month, and I've got the Olympiad Elimination Chess Tournament in the same time , frighteningly close to my exams. I want to succeed In both, the exams and Qualifying for the team, it will be a huge mountain to climb If I want to do well in both of them, and I'm not sure If I can make it. I started revising to some degree three days ago, mostly doing mathematics, and have made some headway in other subjects already, but I'm still nervous. I guess its normal, having conflicts with studies, but I can't afford to do bad in my IGCSE's, whilst the Olympiad... I'll always have a chance every two years, and two years from now I'll be busy applying for colleges... Oh, life... But I'll try my best, as Gloria Gaynor said: "I will Survive!" Conclusive with this blog post I'll be revising for the exams rigorously, and devoting a small amount of time to Chess. I'll be updating this blog continuously for the next month up until the exams, this is to give any possible readers an insight into a person with conflicting interests and for my own personal motivation. 
As they say, when life gives you lemons, Qualify for the Olympiad and do well in your IGCSE's :) 

Grandmaster Game Analysis Karpov-Spassky 0-1

http://www.chess.com/blog/sco-ish/grandmaster-game-analysis-part-1-karpov---spassky-0-1

Recommended Chess Prose

Here I have listed excellent Chess literature that will bring you much delight and improvement if you read them, the list is based on my own personal experiences with the book and general reviews.
This list can act as your go to guide for what Chess books to buy, so that you can make good use of your money! 

If I didn't write anything about the book, don't be put off, they're all good, I just don't know it as well :)

Since Chess Prose is churned out constantly every year I will offer recommendations for more recent books in other articles 

The Art of Attack- Vladimir Vukovic 
Groundbreaking piece of writing that illustrated the important of an attack in chess, the book is mostly concentrated on attacking the castled king, which it dedicates almost all of the 350 pages to, an amazing book which is enjoyed by all levels of players.

Understanding Chess Move by Move- John Nunn 
Great book by former World Top 10, he selects 30 modern chess games and painstakingly analyses them, recommended for stronger players.

Lessons with a Grandmaster Volume I- Boris Gulko and Joel R. Sneed 
Fantastic book where a psychology expert and amateur player (Sneed) analyses the chess games of GM Boris Gulko with the man himself, Sneed analyzes the moves and Gulko explains defects in Sneed's analysis and offers eye-opening information into what goes on in a Grandmasters mind. 

How to Reassess Your Chess 4th Edition- Jeremy Silman 
Amazing book which influenced a whole generation of players, Silman lays out the bricks for a players foundation in the nature and strategy of the game, Silman writes in a very approachable and easy-to-read manner, making it all the much easier for the reader.

Silman’s Complete Endgame Course- Jeremy Silman
Fantastic Endgame book for beginners all the way to masters, it contains Silman's wit and humanity which is present in many of his books and divides the endgames into the strength levels of the players.

The Amateurs Mind-Jeremy Silman 
Fantastic book on how the thinking technique of the Chess Amateur is flawed, recommended for weaker players but strong players can also benefit.

1000 Checkmate Combinations-Victor Henkin 
Not really what the title suggests but the book is wildly entertaining, and reading through it will guarantee improvement and happiness in the game.

Chess Tactics for Champions- Susan Polgar and Paul Truong 
Great book by famous Chess trainer GM Susan Polgar and her husand Paul Truong on Chess Tactics, contains all the basic tactics to help a player improve in that area or solidify their foundation in tactics.

Chess for Dummies- James Eade 
The must get book for Chess beginners, lays out the seeds for improvements right for the reader, great book for solidifying foundation and beginners.

Mastering the Chess Openings Volume 1- John Watson
Good book which goes through the main defenses against 1. e4, the first few chapters also dedicate themselves to explaining the purpose of the opening and the ideas behind it, which players will benefit from reading.

Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy- John Watson

My Great Predecessors Part 1- Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov painstakingly analyzes the former World Champions games such as Fischer, Lasker etc. Only Chess book I know which Top GM's read (Kramnik, Nakamura) 

Life and Games of Mikhail Tal- Mikhail Tal
Amazing book by World Champion Mikhail Tal on his explosive, intense and electrifying games. Regarded as a classic game collection book. 

Chess Strategy for Club Players- Herman Grooten

The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games- Graham Burgess, John Nunn and John Emms 

Logical Chess: Move by Move- Irving Chernev
Recommended for moderately strong players, Chernev explains Chess games move by move to help the reader improve, similar to Understanding Chess: Move by Move

Play Winning Chess- Yasser Seirawan and Jeremy Silman

FCO: Fundamental Chess Openings- Paul Van Der Sterren
Probably the best opening encyclopedia you'll ever buy by the talented Dutch Chess Grandmaster Paul Van Der Sterren

Modern Chess Strategy- Ludek Pachman

Pawn Structure Chess- Andrew Soltis

Chess Musings: How I went from a beginner to 1893 in less than two years and tips for the budding Chess Novice

My resources:

chess.com  Helped me enormously in my improvement of the game, I can thank this mostly to the tactics trainer feature on the site which saw me on it constantly around December 2012-February 2013 and really helped me come full circle with tactics. chess.com was where I also formed the base of my chess learning, it was where I played constantly from September 2012 onwards till now.

Books, Oh man, did these help me a lot, I'll recommend a few: 

How to Reassess your Chess 4th Edition (Jeremy Silman) (Still haven't finished it!)

Silman's Complete Endgame Course (Jeremy Silman)  (Still haven't finished it!) (MUST GET!!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

The Amateur's Mind (Jeremy Silman) (Covered most of it)

Better Chess (David Norwood) (Finished, excellent book for tactics, though there are some better ones)

Tournament Play- I participated in various tournaments throughout the year, mostly in the rapid format with only three being in standard time control, these tournaments helped me gain lots of experience which overall helped me to improve my play, especially the standard tournaments.



If you, beginner, really want to improve your game, then I must give you these extremely essential tips and excellent resources.

1. Openings aren't your concerns, tactics are.
Most beginners make the grave mistake of concentrating far too much on the openings, they get obsessed with these exquisite systems which they really don't know that much about. They make the mistake of trying to memorize these systems, which simply cannot be done and is a waste of time, I have heard stories about kids talking about how they like the Sicilian Dragon yet they cannot play a simple King and Pawn endgame.

Luckily, I didn't get so caught up in this trap and during my critical improvement stage, was concentrating far more on tactics, I played what I felt comfortable with in the opening and stuck with that, not concentrating too much on the theory behind it until i got stronger.

Silman and a pretty decent tactician hanging
out at Disneyland (Picture Courtesy of Jeremy Silman)

Tactics are essential to your improvement in the game, they allow you to either deliver an instant blow or to whip the result of the game heavily in your favor with the snap of a finger.

So do NOT make the mistake of trying to study the "openings," because that simply will not suffice to much and you will find that tactics will improve your game infinitely faster and will create the chess enlightenment you, beginner, so long for. 

2. Endgames

Improvement in your endgame is extremely important in chess improvement  overall, if tactics is for deciding the game in the 'middle-game' phase then Endgame knowledge and skills is for deciding the result in the Endgame phase.

If you don't know how to finish a game, then how will you ever win? For example, if you don't know the Rook and King vs King Endgame then how will you be able to checkmate the opponent's king?

You will find that improvement in your endgame will result in improvement in your game overall, at the beginning of the game there are 32 pieces, so if you "start" in the endgame with fewer pieces, then you will better learn how the pieces really work and how they co-operate together, and this Endgame foundation will affect your overall level of play in Chess. 

3. It Takes Time!

If you've read this and done all this within a week or so, and still haven't noticed that you've gotten better, then calm down! These changes don't come immediately! I myself took about 7 months until I truly saw that I was improving!
Don't worry, the time will come! 

Resources:

chess.com- Fantastic website for playing Chess and anything Chess related, excellent and very active forum and lots of informative and interesting articles

chesstempo.com- Very good website for practicing tactics, problems and various other chess things. 

thechesswebsite.com- Contains lots of videos about openings, tactics, endgames, and pretty much every part of chess, also has lots of cool puzzles

chessgames.com- Good website for going through chess games and player profiles, with Grandmaster annotations and lots of experienced members.


And most importantly...Have Fun!