Chess Parents FAQs
  • Blog
  • Index
  • 5334
  • Camp
  • About

Will studying tactics only help my child become an expert?

4/29/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
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

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Coach Andy
    Princeton Chess Academy

    Having been a chess parent for more than 10 years himself, Coach Andy will answer questions about chess, chess education, scholastic chess for chess parents from his own experience and lessons. 

    Daily Puzzles

    Steps Method

    Online Course

    Chess^Summit


    Please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

© Copyrights 2015 All Rights Reserved | Daily Math Worksheet, LLC