Most Chess players do not know how they should study chess.

It often goes as far as playing some blitz games, looking at some opening lines in Chessable, and solving tactics.

If you truly desire to improve your chess significantly, these methods will not cut it.

That is not to say they are useless, but they should not be the cornerstone of an ambitious chess player’s training routine.

Here are the study methods I find to be the most effective:

• Solving Positions (e.g. from books such as the Yusupov Series, GM Preparation - not chess.com tactics)

• Reading Books

• Simulations

Solving Positions

Using some sort of book with a collection of positions and solving them is undoubtedly a great way to train chess.

Many of my strong tournament performances were after intense periods of using this study method.

In particular, I believe that solving calculation-oriented positions is the best.

That is not to say more strategically-oriented puzzles do not have a place - they do.

But, particularly before a tournament, I have found that if my calculation is good, everything else seems to fall into place.

For example, in July of 2020, I won a major tournament in Japan (with a round to spare). Before this tournament, I had done some serious training with Chess Calculation Training: Middlegame by GM Édouard.

Ironically, I had won most of my games by grinding out my opponents in endgames - not in sharp tactical positions.

But, because I had done that calculation training, I was able to confidently make a lot of the small calculations required to win those technical endings.

Also, important note:

ALWAYS write down your solutions. You want to make it dead clear whether or not you saw the solution. Not only that, but it helps weed out certain detrimental thought patterns.

Reading Books

I feel like I’m sort of beating a dead horse by saying this, but you should read books if you want to improve.

I am talking about game collections, or books on certain strategical elements of chess.

The payoff may not be as immediate as learning some new opening line, but this stuff pays off long-term (which is what matters most).

Don’t try to rush through these. Really actively think and question while you read these books - don’t default to trusting the author on every move.

At the same time however, you don’t need to approach reading books with the same intensity as puzzle solving, or simulations - at least I don’t.

Personally, my approach to reading books was always to read a couple pages while eating breakfast. This may be different for others, but this has worked for me, and has allowed me to go through numerous high quality chess books.

Some of the books I’ve found most useful in the last few years:

• Beyond Material by GM Kuljasevic (essential reading for anyone 1800+)

• Dynamic Decision Making by GM Gelfand (caution: do not read if under 2100)

• Learn From the Legends by GM Marin

Simulations

Finally, simulations.

I remember reading about these for the first time in How to Study Chess on Your Own (by GM Kuljasevic), and it felt like I had discovered the missing piece in my chess study.

For those of you who do not know, a simulation is essentially simulating a real game situation, by having you guess the moves of one player of a game (usually the side that won).

You could do this by using a set of annotated games from your favourite player, or with games in an opening you are trying to learn.

Either way, this really helps fill in the gap of so many chess player’s training, which is that sort of practical element.

Sure, solving puzzles is great, but you go into a puzzle knowing that a solution exists. Not to mention the fact that you are only dealing with a very small portion of the game in isolation.

Apart from playing actual training games with a partner, running simulations is about the closest you are going to get in terms of emulating a tournament game scenario.

All of the small decisions that need to be made during a game, you will have to make them in simulations.

You will also get the benefit to see how a stronger player may have handled that situation.

Also, in terms of how to do simulations, I personally use ChessBase, but there could be alternatives. For example, you could cover up the moves in a book, and then play through the moves in that fashion.

Final Note

Hopefully this week’s newsletter will help benefit your training concretely, but there is one last thing I want to touch on: Intensity.

No matter how good the study method is, if you are getting distracted every five minutes by your phone, random thoughts in your head, or something in your vicinity, your training will likely be of very subpar quality.

I have experienced this myself, so I am not going to pretend I am perfect in that regard.

Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning (and I will write in more detail on this topic in the future).

 - Sam