On January 25 2009 05:48 SnowFantasy wrote:
I could recommend you books to read and stuff but there isn't TOO much you can do in a week to get really good at it.

Typically openings at a beginner level shouldn't be your main focus of study. A lot of GM's (grandmasters) will recommend a beginner/low level player to study tactics, lots and lots of them. I think this should be at least 30% of the time you spend studying. If you can't find books I'm sure you can look online for free webpages that will help you out.

Once you start to improve your sense of tactics move on towards the endgame. Learn basic endgame situations (King-pawn vs king, King-queen vs king, King-Rook vs King should be where you start off as these are the most basic and are pretty common). Since you only have a week I don't think you should do much more than this right away. It can take some time to get it down.

From here I'd say this is where you want to put some study in the openings. From my point of view you shouldn't aim to memorize the opening but rather understand it. If you memorize one opening out 30 moves deep and he plays a completely different one your time is wasted. If you learned some basic/advanced opening principles you'll kind of be able to walk yourself through a bunch of different scenarios. I would say just focus on just a few openings and get them down pretty well. Most people will either open with a king or queen pawn opening (1.e4 or 1.d4) so get a response to both of them. When you're white I would recommend opening with the king pawn (1.e4) as the position tends to open up faster which makes things a little less complicated.

The middle game is pretty complicated and I think you should study this last as the ideas are harder to grasp and you don't want to get stuck trying to learn everything or you may run out of time.

If you have any questiosn lemme know and I'll try to answer them as best I can. ^^

I think this is the best advice. Here's a good tactics training site: http://chesstempo.com/

If you want books I would go for the oldschool but awesome, "Chess Fundamentals" By JR Capablanca, or "Manual of Chess" by Emmanuel Lasker. These guys were two of the best that ever played and they wrote some good books.

SnowFantasy

4173 Posts

January 24 2009 21:57 GMT

#22

Haha thanks yoshtodd.

I was giving him quick basic direction so he had something to start off on right away. I could go more indepth on specific books after taking a look at my dad's chess library.

As far as the two you recommended, I would say those are not too bad. I haven't looked at them too much. For Lasker's Manual of Chess, I don't really like it. The information is great but since it is old the english (at least in the version I have) is worded weird compared to what I'm used to.

Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess was recommended and I remember that being good for me when I was young so I endorse that fully.

I don't remember what other books I worked out of when I started learning so like I said I'd have to look around.

cgrinker

United States3824 Posts

January 24 2009 23:51 GMT

#23

WHAT THE FUCK!

thoraxe

United States1449 Posts

January 24 2009 23:53 GMT

#24

On January 25 2009 05:31 Azrael1111 wrote:
Pfft, not what I was expecting.

Ja.

goldrush

Canada709 Posts

January 25 2009 02:27 GMT

#25

Keeping in mind that it's a long shot for you doing well in this tournament and echoing most of the advice already given:

- Take your time. Doublecheck every move before you move to make sure that you aren't losing pieces due to simple tactics. Also, make sure that if he drops a piece for nothing, that you take it.

- Screw the openings. Take a few (see: 3-5 max) openings and find out the defining characteristic of the opening, types of positions and then common motifs and themes. This doesn't take much time and will help you much more than memorizing lines. If you play according to common sense, are aware of the tactical possibilities and follow the strategic goals of the position, you'll do much better and get much more out of the openings than if you follow theory like a sheep. Also, at our level (amateur), people tend to deviate from the 'best' line very very quickly so it's likely that the memorizing will get you nowhere. Understanding the position will.

If the position isn't exactly what you looked at, then hopefully you'll have seen enough in your adventures to be able to improvise. Remember, if you're improvising, then odds are that you'll come up with something that your opponent hasn't seen before.

- That all hinges that you don't lose your queen off the bat to a simple knight fork. Tactics, tactics, tactics. Even the quietest positions have tactics that hold it together and make it playable. It's so important that you should spend at least 80% of your time learning about tactics and how to make them work.

- Ending technique. Of course, this is an area of chess that even the best have trouble with, but with the limited amount of time you have left, make sure that you know how to mate with like a rook and king versus king, how to win (or draw) a king and pawn versus king endgame (if possible), stuff like that.

- Don't pay attention to the guy's rating. Play the position. You'd be surprised at how much mood/fatigue/rustiness/form can affect a person's playing strength so that guy with a low number next to his name could do better than a person with a really high number, or that unrated guy (that's you

) could surprise everyone and kick ass.

- That said, keep calm and have fun!

Hopefully you'll try and keep on playing after this. Chess is a great game. You won't be world champion, you probably won't even become a grandmaster. So don't worry about results and rating and junk like that. Just keep on improving and having fun and you'll see how far you can go. Good luck!

SOB_Maj_Brian

United States522 Posts

January 25 2009 05:43 GMT

#26

I just drew a national master (USCF 2200ish) on Friday in a blitz game (in person) using the opening 1. B4 as White. Its an opening that no one prepares for (it is non E4 or D4) and it has a lot of traps, and most games go into quick tactical play (no long drawn out-closed position shit). I think in your situation, you might get pwned by playing e4 or d4 because someone will be known there opening really solidly and will have it well memorized.

Anyways,
My suggestion as Black
Whatever they do, always play e6, and try to get the game to morph into the French or that gets the pawn structure of the French. Your pieces will tend to get on the same squares in most games and then its just up to skill. If you can play a lot of games and yahoo chess and you can get your skill up pretty fast.

SnowFantasy

4173 Posts

January 25 2009 08:14 GMT

#27

Eh I think at his level e6 isn't so good to start out with.