In my recent article How to Improve at Chess I listed five tips based on my experience of improving from Elo 1400 (ECF 100) to Elo 1720 (ECF 140). Almost straight away regular contributor Alan Griffiths pointed out I has missed out what is probably the most effective method of improving. Also, around that time I saw an article on the Susan Polgar Chess and Information Blog by Shelby Lyman called Chess Improvement Tips.
Alan pointed out: "Mark, I think you missed out the most important: record your games and look at them a few days later - you’ll see a lot that you miss over the board and you can use next time." I could be pedantic and say there is a more important improvement tip, and that is simply that you must play regularly! However that goes totally without saying (and if you’re rated as described above you will be playing regularly anyway), so I’ll agree with Alan. Yes, if you want to improve your chess game you must write down your games and go over them. If you’re playing matches and/or tournaments, you will have had to write them down anyway, but it is most important to go back to them and go over them. It’s essential to go over the games you lost and find out where you went wrong. However, there is always much to be learned from drawn and won games also. Actually, looking through the wins can be quite instructive sometimes, because you can usually find moves your opponent missed that could have changed the result completely! The best way to look at your games is with the help of someone else, preferably a player slightly stronger than yourself. Assuming you’re chess club member it shouldn’t be a problem to find someone willing to help.
I think which techniques are useful for improving your playing strength in chess depends on where you are starting from. Note that I qualify my tips as targeting those of Elo 1400 strength trying to improve to about Elo 1720 standard. To this end I want to pick up on a couple of Shelby Lyman’s tips (in the article I refer to in the introductory paragraph above). Shelby Lyman writes:
To put it simply: If you add to any part of your chess repertoire — opening theory, tactical knowledge, pawn play, endgame knowledge or whatever — it’s almost impossible not to get better results at the chessboard.
That’s all very well, but adding to your knowledge of any of the above will not help in the slightest if you are still leaving pieces en-pris, to be taken in the middle game. If you’re still at that stage, you should concentrate on not moving in hast and looking more carefully at the position before choosing a move. I think I’ve previously made my view on opening theory quite plain: I don’t think it’s relevant to study theory, at least in any depth, until reaching a standard of play that merits it - I’m not sure what that would be, but it’s above Elo 1720 (ECF 140). Note that I say "in any depth", because as you improve there are small amounts of theory you will need to know; see my comments in my Improve Your Chess Game article (of about a week and a half ago).
Shelby Lyman writes:
Playing over annotations by top grandmasters also helps enormously. Many elite players are impressively honest about their mistakes.
I think this depends very much on who is writing the annotations, and what level of audience they are aiming at. There are books out there (by top grandmasters) containing accessible annotations, but there are many that require an advanced (for some value of "advanced") understanding of the game. Further, I think it is important to realise that it is one thing to following something (note I refrain from using the word "understanding") when reading about it in a book and having it explained clearly, and another thing reproducing it in one’s own games. I find playing through grandmaster annotated games interesting and entertaining, but I don’t think it has contributed tremendously to my improvement up to now. I am now convinced that - when it comes to improving - playing through your games with a slightly stronger player is a better use of time.
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