Larsen_fan wrote on 03/09/11 at 10:00:29:


I'm currently on Month 9 of the course and I can't speak more highly of it. I have noted an increase in rating from 1650ish to 1930ish on the chess sites I play on (I play exclusively 3-5min blitz games online for fun and opening practice). I can't state my otb rating increase yet as my chess season hasn't finished. However according to my calculations I should rise from ecf 158 to 172. In FIDE points that's equivalent of 1914 to 2026.

Just read the other thread you posted and I expect a lot has changed since then, for example there is now a 2nd year of the course that is offered at a discount to those who finish the first year. I think it's $27 per month instead of $35 or the like. And also they've started adding video lessons to complement the theory. 

I would recommend checking out this forum which was created independently by students on the ICS course: http://icsdiscussion.forumotion.net/

They also created a help site that gives a study plan from beginner to master as well as recommendations of books to buy: http://www.chessarea.com/chess-instructions/. 

One other great thing is your account will never expire. So for example say you fall behind in the course and your subscription to the course runs out. You will have access to the materials you've paid for, forever. Personally I haven't found it a problem to keep up because I'm at Uni and have lots of free time.

They do offer an openings module as a bonus to the main module for an extra $5 per month. I have signed up to this, and it includes: Scandinavian, Dutch (stonewall and classical), Siciliian Kalashnikov, Semi-slav (moscow variation), French, anti-meran and anti sicillians for black, and a d4 repertoire (catalan based) and e4 repertoire as white. Personally I'm a Grunfeld and Najdorf player so I've bought books for these, however I have used their Semi-slav lines 3 times this season and had 1 draw 2 wins, albeit all against weaker opponents.

If I had 1 criticism of the course it would be the grammar in places is not the best, this is due to the course being created by Romanians whose first language isn't English, however you do get use to it quickly.

If you have any other specific questions, I'll try my best to answer them as well. Good Luck! 

@ Larsen_fan,

Any fan of the late, great Larsen will get better if they take the time to study his games well

Some great advice in this thread on improving. One other is to have fun. That has a incredible way of improving your game, too. Or, at least it did for me .....

Larsen_fan wrote on 02/26/11 at 22:27:21:


If I recall correctly there is a 4545 League on ICC where you play weekly slow games in a team tournament, usually against players with a similar rating as the teams are quite similar in strength. LeChessClub have scheduled events, but I can't recall if they have slow-chess tournaments or not.

"Start at the end and go backwards."

!?

Hats off to GM Kaidanov. 

I currently analyze my games with a group of stronger players and there is a notable difference between what I see and what the 2200+ guys see. Difference is I suggest/see moves which lose a piece or a pawn to a 1-3 move tactic.

TicklyTim wrote on 02/25/11 at 11:21:43:


Both.

I like the choice of examples, which has a range of little-known as well as famous classics from the old masters, and the clear explanatory prose.

You know, there's one big aspect that I think has been left out of this conversation altogether, and usually is when talking about chess study plans.

Quantity of study is the most important thing, regardless of areas studied.
Variety of study is the second most important thing.

Just as an example, and not to pick on the last poster, but if you did decide to spend all your time on tactics, and you ended up getting sick of all that tactics study, then the end result would be that you don't follow through. If it discourages you from continuing, then it's a bad plan. Stick to whatever forms of study you enjoy enough to keep doing them. 

But don't focus too much on any one area, even if it is your favorite part - you really do need to focus on a few different areas to really improve. 

This is a very interesting tread; I have been working a lot with improvements plans to try to improve, I have been stuck to a plateau around 1700-1800 for years and have been trying a lot of different approaches to break out off that level, for a long time without much success. 

However the last year I suddenly have made a jump forward from about 1750 to 1910. What made the trick was to change my playing style from positional to more aggressive play. Reading "The attacking manual, vol. 1" by Jacob Aagaard and "My best games" by Karpov was the books that really gave me a kick. At the same time I also completely changed my opening repertoire to more tactical openings.

But what worked for me does not necessarily work for others.

So I guess the most important part is to try to identify weaknesses in your own play (that’s one of the reasons you need to study your own games) and find out what kind of mistakes you make, is it tactical oversights or is it bad endgame play or do not develop your pieces properly in the opening or are you playing to passive or ...?

When you know your weaknesses and you know what playing style you feel suit you, then you can make your study plan accordingly.

And study games, that is very important I think, when studying games you get the full picture and learn about all parts of the game, openings, middle games and endgames. And you don’t have to study all the side variations, only if you are curious about them. Most important is to try to understand why the moves that were played were played. And why the mistakes were mistakes. 

Most important is that you have fun studying; when you have fun and study something that is interesting to you, you will learn more and remember more. So if you are reading a book and you find it boring or you get tired of it than find something else to study for a while, you can always return to the first book later if you want to. And don't focus to much about having to read a certain no. of pages every day, it is more important to focus on what you think is interesting. It can be better to use more time on a interesting game or exercise than to rush through a fixed number of pages each day to reach you target. When you are burning the midnight oil it is importent to study something that is fun and interesting to study otherwise you will quickly loose your motivation!

It could also be a good idea to read some general books like "Improve your chess now" by Tisdall or "Chess for Zebras" by Rowson to get a broader perspective and to think about how you play chess, how you use your thinking time during a game and what you should be thinking about during a game and stuff like that. It might not increase you knowledge about chess, but it might improve the way you use your knowledge!