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How to know which games/players to study ? (Read 24789 times)

TN God Member Offline Posts: 3420 Joined: 11/07/08 Gender:	Re: How to know which games/players to study ? Reply #7 - 06/21/15 at 06:34:46	Post Tools	Print Post
	I'd repeat what the others say about studying the classics, with two extra points: start with the games from the Romantic era (Greco, Anderssen, Morphy, Chigorin) and work on incorporating their dynamism into your play. Obviously you don't have to go crazy and sacrifice material in every one of your games, but if you play to take the initiative from early in the game you'll find similar tactical opportunities thrown up in your games. I don't know how thoroughly you analyse your games but checking the opening after each game you play (including blitz games) would be a good way to incorporate opening study without feeling like you're wasting time. Finally, a good way to find the experts in the openings you play is to use the 'Opening Report' feature on ChessBase. Just try it in a position with some thousands of games and you'll see what I mean.

	All our dreams come true if we have the courage to pursue them.
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katar Senior Member Offline look another year went by Posts: 462 Location: LA Joined: 09/21/05 Gender:	Re: How to know which games/players to study ? Reply #6 - 06/20/15 at 23:15:44	Post Tools	Print Post
	Common openings really don't matter so much. What matters most is your own motivation (i.e., whose games interest you the most -- what would you enjoy and keep you motivated? Secondary criteria are depth of annotations (not too light or heavy) and reputation of the author. Spielmann's Art of Sacrifice would be my top suggestion - particularly if you are fascinated by material imbalances. Spielmann annotated 37 of his own games so you can realistically get through it cover to cover. You have to be ok with descriptive notation. I also read Alekhine's collection of best games and Capablanca's Best Endings by Chernev -- both fantastic. Vukovic wrote in Art of Attack (1960s) that no chess master had added anything new on his subject that was not already fully developed by Capa and Alekhine. (!!!!) There are a million others, but I would start with Alekhine and Capablanca. Spielmann is just too fun to pass up. From there you have many fun options, Keres or Bronstein or Botvinnik or Smyslov or Tal -- you can't go wrong.

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hicetnunc Full Member Offline "Do something scary every day" Posts: 237 Location: Paris, France Joined: 01/04/03 Gender:	Re: How to know which games/players to study ? Reply #5 - 06/20/15 at 22:59:43	Post Tools	Print Post
	Tal ? (BenOni style), Kortchnoï ? (uncompromising play, and Dragon player at some stage too)

	48 yo, 1920 elo
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RoleyPoley YaBB Moderator Offline I Love ChessPublishing! Posts: 746 Location: London Joined: 12/29/13 Gender:	Re: How to know which games/players to study ? Reply #4 - 06/20/15 at 19:43:28	Post Tools	Print Post
	Laramonet wrote on 06/20/15 at 18:10:09: Hi Roley Poley, I agree with Eric but if you want names to check out Capablanca and Rubinstein would be high up the list. My own personnel favourites, for similar reasons to Eric are Botvinnik and Fischer. Please don't get hung up on openings. I've done that, as have so many others. You won't go far wrong withe4 as white, and e4 e5 and d4 d5 as black. Good luck ! Thanks Laramonet, I feel part of the reason i am looking to study masters games is to help me break free from woorying about my openings.

	"As Mikhail Tal would say ' Let's have a bit of hooliganism! '" Victor Bologan.
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RoleyPoley YaBB Moderator Offline I Love ChessPublishing! Posts: 746 Location: London Joined: 12/29/13 Gender:	Re: How to know which games/players to study ? Reply #3 - 06/20/15 at 19:36:55	Post Tools	Print Post
	ErictheRed wrote on 06/20/15 at 17:20:19: It doesn't matter whose games you study; you will learn a ton from any strong player's well-annotated games. And it seems to me that you're doing things a bit backwards: as a weaker player (by your admission), why are you so set in your openings? Why not find a strong player or two whose games you admire and adopt that person's opening repertoire, not the other way around? Just pick up any good collection of annotated games and go from there. The first "My Best Games" book that I read was Smyslov's (because that's what was at the store). The second book I read was Taimanov's--again because that's what I could find. And I think that their games influenced me very strongly, even to this day (18ish years later). Thanks Eric, I think it maybe down to a misunderstanding on my part, that some players, like some openings are probably a little too complicated to study by those at the weaker end of the scale. But perhaps this isnt true at all. For example, Jobova is someone who interests me a lot, but plays a very wide range of openings and i dont know if this, along with his creativity makes him a difficult and less recommended player to study. Secondly, I have an affinity to the Dragon (even though i havent played it much since i came back to chess), and the Modern Benoni, along with a sudden urge to learn the pirc (instead of the alekhine i currently trot out) yet most of those players i admire tend to go for the Najdorf and KI, which since i have now turned 40 and have less time to study made me think it would be an odd choice to spend time on.

	"As Mikhail Tal would say ' Let's have a bit of hooliganism! '" Victor Bologan.
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Laramonet Senior Member Offline Gwyddbwll am byth ! Posts: 346 Location: Kidwelly Joined: 03/16/07 Gender:	Re: How to know which games/players to study ? Reply #2 - 06/20/15 at 18:10:09	Post Tools	Print Post
	Hi Roley Poley, I agree with Eric but if you want names to check out Capablanca and Rubinstein would be high up the list. My own personnel favourites, for similar reasons to Eric are Botvinnik and Fischer. Please don't get hung up on openings. I've done that, as have so many others. You won't go far wrong withe4 as white, and e4 e5 and d4 d5 as black. Good luck !


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ErictheRed God Member Offline USCF National Master Posts: 2534 Location: USA Joined: 10/02/05	Re: How to know which games/players to study ? Reply #1 - 06/20/15 at 17:20:19	Post Tools	Print Post
	It doesn't matter whose games you study; you will learn a ton from any strong player's well-annotated games. And it seems to me that you're doing things a bit backwards: as a weaker player (by your admission), why are you so set in your openings? Why not find a strong player or two whose games you admire and adopt that person's opening repertoire, not the other way around? Just pick up any good collection of annotated games and go from there. The first "My Best Games" book that I read was Smyslov's (because that's what was at the store). The second book I read was Taimanov's--again because that's what I could find. And I think that their games influenced me very strongly, even to this day (18ish years later).


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RoleyPoley YaBB Moderator Offline I Love ChessPublishing! Posts: 746 Location: London Joined: 12/29/13 Gender:	How to know which games/players to study ? 06/20/15 at 15:45:37	Post Tools	Print Post
	As a weak player (ECF grade around 130) i realise that i should be studying endgames and middlegames. Like a lot of weaker players i also unecessarily fixate on finding my perfect opening repertoire. The advice i think i have usually seen given as a partial solution to improve in both of these areas is to study masters games and find a role model. However, i'm not sure how to go about finding the right games to study. I'm having difficulty finding a player who plays most of the openings that i do (or that i have a keen interest in), or has a sample size large enough to use as a role model. How recent would this need to be, to be effective? I'm also not sure whether there are specific players i should study to improve particular areas of my game, so any advice people can share would be most gratefully recieved. Thanks,

	"As Mikhail Tal would say ' Let's have a bit of hooliganism! '" Victor Bologan.
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