Prophylactic thinking
Prophylactic chess is most certainly my favorite kind of chess. I simply enjoy containing the opponent and squeeze out a win in a most agonizingly painful process for the opponent. Weiming annotated the game in the link which has some really interesting ideas on what you can do if you "can't find a plan". All you need to do is to make it difficult for your opponent to execute his plan. This is especially useful in rapid games, but of course, applicable in any kind of chess.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
More Chess Training - by IM Goh Weiming
I hope that all of you will take this rare opportunity to "look into" how an IM thinks. This may just be one of many possible ways but it most certainly offers some insights to what kind of level of thinking is required of an IM. This is the kind of thing that I hope the Malaysian IMs (or FMs and such) can and will share with the rest of us (patzers). It would be most insightful and I can say for sure that it would be greatly appreciated.
Read here for the insightful article.
Read here for the insightful article.
Friday, December 10, 2010
How to Train in Chess?
Read here.VERY CAREFULLY.
Above is an exceptionally interesting link that logs one of the training session that IM Goh Weiming from Singapore had with his teammate, IM-elect Timothy Chan. This interestingly coincides with the rubbish that I have read from First GM who kept talking about preparation like he knows how to play chess. If you are sick of going round and round in circles in First GM's site, please visit some other more productive sites. I highly recommend www.singaporechessnews.com for chess players of all standards.
Anyhow, I hope to highlight a few points about their training even though the IM-level players from Singapore did mention that even they themselves were not sure if the training method that they used was effective or not. The two most important elements that I noticed about their training is their attitude and mindset. First, they did not sit back and hope to obtain coaching or help from "superior" players. Granted, they are IM-level players. But this is the kind of mindset that they had since they were young (I suppose we can still consider Timothy young). They were willing to work on their own games through spending time on the chess board instead of waiting for chess officials to spoon feed the players. This is called determination. This is the fightting spirit that Malaysians lack. This is what allows battles to be won even before they are fought.
Second, they were willing to work together without fear of letting the other person know about their own strengths and weaknesses. This is in contrast with the attitudes that many Malaysian chess players have who dare not share their ideas and thoughts with their peers so that they can stay ahead of the other players. This is very shameful because it impedes the players' own growths. They do not realize that if their opponents get better, it will automatically push themselves to work harder and become better chess players. Weiming and Timothy were willing to cooperate to come up with stronger ideas together. I am willing to bet that both of them learnt far more than what Weiming could express in words on the site. In all my encounters with Weiming, I've always felt that he is a gracious person who is willing to share as long as you are also willing to do your fair share of work. The fact that he wrote his thoughts on the training session is another evidence of this fact.
Above is an exceptionally interesting link that logs one of the training session that IM Goh Weiming from Singapore had with his teammate, IM-elect Timothy Chan. This interestingly coincides with the rubbish that I have read from First GM who kept talking about preparation like he knows how to play chess. If you are sick of going round and round in circles in First GM's site, please visit some other more productive sites. I highly recommend www.singaporechessnews.com for chess players of all standards.
Anyhow, I hope to highlight a few points about their training even though the IM-level players from Singapore did mention that even they themselves were not sure if the training method that they used was effective or not. The two most important elements that I noticed about their training is their attitude and mindset. First, they did not sit back and hope to obtain coaching or help from "superior" players. Granted, they are IM-level players. But this is the kind of mindset that they had since they were young (I suppose we can still consider Timothy young). They were willing to work on their own games through spending time on the chess board instead of waiting for chess officials to spoon feed the players. This is called determination. This is the fightting spirit that Malaysians lack. This is what allows battles to be won even before they are fought.
Second, they were willing to work together without fear of letting the other person know about their own strengths and weaknesses. This is in contrast with the attitudes that many Malaysian chess players have who dare not share their ideas and thoughts with their peers so that they can stay ahead of the other players. This is very shameful because it impedes the players' own growths. They do not realize that if their opponents get better, it will automatically push themselves to work harder and become better chess players. Weiming and Timothy were willing to cooperate to come up with stronger ideas together. I am willing to bet that both of them learnt far more than what Weiming could express in words on the site. In all my encounters with Weiming, I've always felt that he is a gracious person who is willing to share as long as you are also willing to do your fair share of work. The fact that he wrote his thoughts on the training session is another evidence of this fact.
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