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Will studying tactics only help my child become an expert?

4/29/2015

When the word "only" pops up, fierce arguments follow. But arguing is never helpful. If you want to kill time, you can read through the following thread:
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/can-you-really-become-a-class-a-player-by-studying-tactics

The focal point here is the training system promoted in the book "Rapid Chess Improvement". If you have not read the book, grab a copy from your library or Amazon. It's a one-night read for a fast reader. You can find an interesting story about the author here:
http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-michael-de-la-maza-story

Let's ignore the word "only", or switch it to "mainly". Like with regard to nutrition, you don't eat only one food. You always need multiple nutrition sources.

From my personal experience, I tend to say YES to the question.

I discovered the book from library 9 years ago when I was working with my daughter. I was sold by the idea right away. From my own professional training in Chinese Chess at early age, I knew this is a good system. I bought the CT*Art and related software, and had definitely reaped great benefit from working with them. My daughter had jumped from 700 to 1400 in one year.

As an adult, I don't have much time to study chess. One thing I do have persisted all these years is working on chess tactics puzzles everyday. Before any major tournaments, I just solve more puzzles to keep my mind sharp. With limited free time, I can't execute the system with the intensity as discussed in the book, so my progress has been slow. Nevertheless, I am steadily climbing to 2000. My goal is becoming a master in next 5 years, which is a smaller version of my dream as a boy when I was trained by the Botvinnik in Chinese Chess.

Anyway, I like the time split suggested by LilWeezyBlowsTrees in the above forum tree:

Study everything. Fixes all your problems. Tactics would probably be the first to study for the longest amount of time.
Time split for studying (not including games):
1200-1400
70% Tactics
5% Openings
25% Strategy
1400-1600
65% Tactics
20% General Strategy
15% Openings
1600 - 1800
50% Tactics
30% Openings
20% General Strategy
1800 - 2000
50% Tactics
30% General Strategy
20% Openings
2000+
35% Tactics
45% General Strategy
20% Openings

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Is chess summer camp useful?

4/27/2015

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The answer is definitely YES. Depending on your child's level, you have to search for appropriate camp for him/her to reap most benefits.

For beginners, unrated or U1000, any chess camp should be helpful in providing great exposure to chess. Although most camps will include other sports activities, such as soccer or swim, kids still spend most of their camp time on chess, which means at least 3 to 5 hours exposure everyday. Because it's not tournament setting, they learn by playing, real playing, having fun and enjoying the time with their new friends. They will get used to play a lot of chess, which is good for them to make further progress in future study and tournaments. Chess is like all other sports, plenty of practice is the requirement for any improvement. The greatest benefit from a chess camp is that kids learn to practice.

For advanced players, you want to look at camps that have rating requirement. You want to have some challenges, even if it's in a camp environment. A chess player always has the appetite for competition. S/he wants to win, in anything, and win in style. So the camp for advanced players should be like an intensive training class. Most times there will be a internal rated tournament on the last day.

Anyway, the first priority for a summer camp is having fun. The second is getting into chess playing mode. And the last is gaining some new chess knowledge. As long as your kids can achieve the first two, your money and his/her time are not wasted.

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Are girls worse than boys in chess?

4/21/2015

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Recently British chess grandmaster Nigel Short has suggested that girls don't have the brains to play chess. He thinks that men and women should just accept they are “hard-wired very differently”.

See http://en.chessbase.com/post/chess-gender-debate-in-the-international-press

My humble opinion as an amateur player and coach, I don't observe any difference between girls and boys. As Judit Polgar said: “Whenever I speak to parents or to kids, I always encourage them that if they believe, if they do the work, if they are really dedicated, then they can do it. No matter whether they are a boy or a girl.”

Polgar sisters (2 GM and 1 IM) from one family has set up a great example for girls. With the determination of the parents and hard work of the daughters, they fought through all kinds of difficulties: communist government which setup all kinds of roadblock, travel limitation, limited resource, discrimination from male dominated chess community, pro-Russia FIDE ruling, tournament limitation (female were not allowed to play in male tournaments), and etc. All 3 sisters had beaten male GMs numerous times. Judit was ranked top 10 in the World for many years, and had beaten Nigel with a clean 8 win, 3 loss, and 5 draw record.

The problem is not about brain, it's about culture. Our culture doesn't encourage girls to be competitive and doesn't encourage girls to play chess. From beginner level to advanced level, girls population is much smaller than boys, and the difference increases faster when levels and ages go up. This leads to dramatic difference in the professional level. Only 2% GMs are female. I call this dummy result of the big number theorem, ie, when the base is large enough, there will be a few good one. Men just win the comparison by their much larger chess-playing population.

To change this, we have to make changes at the beginner level. That's why my daughter introduced NJ All-Girls Chess Camp last year with support from NJSCF, chess clubs, schools, parents and chess lovers. If you'd like to lend your hands, you can help fund the 2015 camp: http://www.gofundme.com/gcnj2015.

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Is GM or IM always a better coach for a young aspiring kid?

4/16/2015

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As we discussed before, you may not need a GM or IM coach for your kid. See previous article. But will a GM or IM be a better coach than a 2000 level player?

The answer is still Yes and/or No.

First, not every GM/IM can teach. Even if s/he can, not every GM/IM likes to teach. Even if s/he likes, not every GM/IM loves to teach beginners (Under 1000). Even if s/he loves to teach beginners, it still may not be efficient usage of his/her knowledge and time, and your money.

Second, a popular GM/IM always has a lot of students. A lower rated beginner is just another name on their calendar. S/he won't pay attention to someone who might show outstanding performance three or four years later. His/her efforts are focusing on those shining star students. Future stars are just a list nice to have. S/he won't plan or prepare his/her lessons because it's too easy for him/her. Grabing a few puzzles and several classic games, s/he is ready. Is it best for your kid?

Third, because your kid is not good enough to arose his/her attention yet, s/he will not spend time to make plan for your kid's chess development.

Fourth, a popular GM/IM has busy schedule, if you need some urgent help or change lesson time, is it possible for you to get the help?

Fifth, will a GM/IM push your kid work hard if your kid is not in his/her attention circle?

Sixth, does the GM/IM have a click with your kid? This is the most important question.

In conclusion, you have to ask yourself a lot of questions to make your own judgement. Of course, you should ask the same questions about any 2000 level coach too.

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Why after-school chess clubs are not as effective as group lessons at chess schools?

4/13/2015

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After-school chess clubs have done a great job for promoting chess among young kids. Thanks to the efforts of parent volunteers and coaches, kids learn the moves, play games, and have fun with their friends. Because the environment is familiar, and they have their friends in the club, it's much easier for them to pick up chess. That's also the first place we suggest new chess parents to check out.

But most after-school chess clubs are just for fun. It's difficult for kids to have serious improvement in these clubs. There are several reasons for that.

First, the convenience of the clubs is good for attracting kids to play chess, but not good in selecting kids. Most clubs are considered as part of after-school care, basically their parents can't pick them up when school ends, so they are staying for after-school care. Parents just sign up some activities for them. They may not feel playing chess is fun. We have to admit that not everyone like to play competitive games. In such a club, it's difficult for serious kids to learn much.

Second, because it's like care, the main goal is to keep kids occupied. No serious homework will be assigned. No students or parents would take it seriously even if homework is assigned because it's not school work. Without doing work outside club (or chess lessons), it's difficult to see improvement.

Third, because the coaches or volunteers only come in to monitor the club once a week, it's difficult to enforce any discipline if the club has some unruly kids. The teaching will not be effective if the class is disrupted and kids are distracted.

The only effective after-school chess clubs are those which have in-house coaches, and meet at least two to three times a week. The club is actually considered as an official program at school. Joining the club is an honor not an entitlement. Such schools also send out school teams to nationals and state competitions. They are running like a varsity team, as all other sports.

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Should I ask my child to memorize opening lines?

4/7/2015

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If my child can gain advantage in opening, will it be easier for him to win the game? Should I ask my child to memorize some strong opening? Should he learn some opening traps so he can crash his opponents right away?

The answers are possible, NO and NO.

A good opening will give your child a good start. But for any parents who are reading this FAQs, I can confidently say that your child wins or loses a game by tactics, 100% of the time. Opening lines are not critical at all. For anyone under 1500, do NOT bother studying opening at all. Remember the opening principles and use your common sense. That's enough to survive any opening.

If you want to kill your child's interest in chess, you can force him/her to memorize opening lines. I can bet in a month s/he will completely give up on chess, declaring that chess is so boring. Human is not a machine. Our memory works best when we are interested. Good players always remember many great positions. But this memory comes from years of study, practice and analysis, not from a few stressful memorization sessions.

Opening traps may help him win games quickly once or twice, but they actually do more harm to him. He gets into a bad habit of focusing his study on traps. In chasing a good trap, he will forget opening principles. Most traps require some time to setup, so if his opponent doesn't fall into the trap, most likely he will lose a few tempos. The rest of his game will be very depressing because of the late development. I have a student who always wants to setup checkmate on f7 with his Bishop and Queen. I have to forbid this practice, otherwise he can't learn how to do a normal opening at all.

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Why checking your puzzle solutions against computer is bad?

4/1/2015

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When I gave some difficult puzzles to advanced kids, often their responsible parents got back to me, saying "My son solved all problems in xxx minutes. I have entered his solutions in computer and they are correct".

Is this checking against computer good for your kids?

I always forbid using computer before solving a problem. I never strongly object using computer to check afterward. Now I want to modify my standpoint a little. I believe checking against computer is bad, before or after.

As a parent, I understand you could not tell your child's solutions are correct or not by yourself. But it's not your job to confirm your child's solution. It's his/her job! Your job is making sure s/he has done the assignment, and writing down the total time. That's it. S/he has to confirm his/her solution by him/herself. Knowing you will check them for him/her, s/he will just skip the confirmation step. This is much more important step than any other steps when doing tactics training. Skipping it will reduce the effectiveness by at least 70%.

When we play a over-the-board tournament game, we may come up with an excellent tactic combination in 5 minutes, but we spend another 10, 15, 20, even 30 minutes to calculate all variations multiple times, so we can be sure that our great idea works. Sometimes it is really good, sometimes it has some holes but can be covered, and sometimes it has too many holes so has to be killed. This process can not be skipped if you want to play solid games. How to get into such habit? You get it from your tactic training.

In addition, your kid's solution is one correct line, but the computer says there are two other variations. Do you consider s/he is right or not? NO. All variations should be discovered during his/her confirmation step. If S/he misses one, it could be a fatal one that costs a game.

I always say solution is not important. The important thing is you go through the correct process. Other than generating ideas, you learn calculation, patience, thoroughness, self-criticism, self-correction, in the end, you improve your self-confidence.

I have some positions that I never solve completely, after spending more than 20 hours and 8 years. I never to want to enter them in computer to find the real clean solutions. Someday I may go back them again and try to crack them.

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Will studying tactics only help my child become an expert?

Is chess summer camp useful?

Are girls worse than boys in chess?

Is GM or IM always a better coach for a young aspiring kid?

Why after-school chess clubs are not as effective as group lessons at chess schools?

Should I ask my child to memorize opening lines?

Why checking your puzzle solutions against computer is bad?

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