im interested in all historical chess knowlege thank you very much for the info. And i am especially interested in opening history which is why i love the opening so much.

Wow!

I have been sick but it seems this thread has caught fire!
I am happy to see every one getting along swimingly...
But any way i have heard a lot about this De La Maza stuff.

So any one out there willing to help a player out?

Oh and why is it called the lion and why does a whole town subsribe to this line of thought that would make chess there quite dull i would imagine. Not for the opening but for the repetiveness of positions. One of my favorite quotes come from petrosian which i think may fit "the lion" Ill paraphrase

Sure i might like defending a little more than i like attacking. But if some one feels more at home in one more than the other he may do better in those types of positions.

This is somthing we should all think about in any opening. Iron Tigran was a master at making those moves with white which made him seem almost cowardly. Im not talking about the young tigran but the older who played a lot of prophylaxis. So maybe our new comer who started this thread is closer to that style of thinking.

Quote:


What does de la Maza say? Tactical drill with 7 circles with CT Art and Knight’s tour, am I right? Before I proceed I have to say his knight’s tour has some merit. Even here Jon Levitt’s knight tour is much more refined.

What does he say it will deliver? 400 points in one year. And what are those 400 points? 2000 to 2400, 2200 to 2600 or 2400 to 2800? None. Some one must be raving mad to claim that. I used a more refined term and called it BS.

If it is from 1000 to 1400 or 1200 to 1600, the method will definitely get you there. But coaches who have worked with bright kids will testify that they seem to gain this kind of strength over the weekend and without de la Maza. Well tactics are very important. But what I fail to understand is what a 1100 will do with 9th level difficulty of CT Art.

Any concerted effort, be it going over classics (very important, imho) tactics (perhaps 30 mins a day) and end game studies over that period of time de la Maza suggests, will make one a better player than the one who follows his recommendation verbatim.

Finally, adult beginners resort to chess to break monotony. Is de la Maza the way to do it? Give me a break.

So, basically de la maza suggests a system of improvement that is useless when it matters and delivers eminently when so many other approaches can also deliver. The bottom line is de la Maza is not needed to take one from 1000 to 1400 and de la Maza cannot take one from 2000 to 2400. What more, he has a cult following. One of the definite candidates to be termed BS.

What is the problem ? The original post asked for opinions, which tend to come from opinionated people, don't they ?

i'm quite sick of the  arrogant, cold, curt, dismissive tone of some of the posts/posters recently.
The forum wasn't always like that! 

Everyone had to start somewhere. so lets be patient 

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In another good forum, a guy made his first post based on de la Maza B**l S**t. How much rating he improved, what is the methodology one should adopt, etc etc without really mentioning de la Maza.

Sure, one or two guys pounced on him like our LH but rest of the forum showed remarkable restraint and made the guy feel at home. He went on to become an important contributors.

Are you guys for real? 

   "I personally think my repertoire is brilliant."

   "In fact, one of the reasons I am working so hard to make master is so that I can have the authority to write a book and enlighten the world." 

   "Maybe your just jealous that someone out there has such an original approach to chess."

   "However I am fairly confident that your feelings of jelousy are rooted in admiration."

   "I will one day be amongst the greatest chess thinkers of all time and you know it deep down." 

   "But I do not have an ego at all."

   "Similarly when I state the undeniable facts that I am going to be a chess master in two years or that I have never been defeated in tournament play..."

Let's show some courtesy and respect for Alekhinesblock's statements?     Let's not call them silly?     After all, he's a new poster.

- Lost Highway

I seem to recall Lost Highway moaning about the disrespect shown to new entrants on the forum some time back; good to see that he's keeping that tradition alive now that he's on the other side of that fence...

What I suspect Lost Highway meant to say is that there's nothing especially wrong with this repertoire, even if it is a little passive and, as MNb suggests, a touch uninspired.  I recently faced an opponent who played this with White and Black.  While I made a mess of my game with Black (ongoing in correspondence), I had little to worry about on either side of the board.  

Play it and enjoy it, but do look beyond the single repertoire...