From: fmc@mimsy.umd.edu (Frank McFadden)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Beginner to Expert - the real way
Date: 9 Nov 92 12:59:30 GMT
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742

TO CHESSPLAYERS:
	This essay is a serious attempt to answer that often posed
question, "What do I need to do to become a chess expert?"  
The program I propose is not an easy one, but likely efficient.
Comments from those rated over 1900 would be appreciated.  If I
receive some really hot ideas, I'll post an update and give
proper credit to all contributors.

Frank
fmc@cs.umd.edu

		BUILDING AN EXPERT CHESS PLAYER

			Frank McFadden

	I am not primarily a chess player.  I am a cognitive scientist.  
But I have tried over the years to become an expert, and experimented
with several different ideas and approaches.  If I were to begin
today to train a beginner with moderate talent, my program, with 
efficiency in mind, would have two phases.  The first phase, with 
a stronger emphasis on tactics, ought to result in performance in
the 1600+ range, while the second, more rounded phase, would complete
the drive to expert performance, over a period that might be roughly
measured as 100-200 tournament games worth of experience.

	The first phase is concerned with what computer scientists
might refer to as microprogramming.  The important low-level pattern
recognition procedures need to be firmly established.  Method: read
exactly one good introductory book, then play a mixture of speed games
and tournament games to reinforce the microprogramming.  The main 
point: conscious attention is required to focus on two matters that
may be very obvious from the beginning to very talented players, but
which could easily be missed by the average talent.  Most important,
you must learn to recognize square control very quickly.  You should
not need to spend much conscious effort to know how many of your
pieces are attacking each square, and how many of your opponents'.
This should require only a split second for central squares, and 
should be an efficient procedure for peripheral squares.  As a corollary,
you should develop the ability to calculate quickly the changes of square
control that might result from move sequences.  One specific low level
procedure that should be nurtured in this phase deserves special mention.  
You should develop the ability to see very quickly all the squares 
controlled by a knight, and then all those controllable within two
moves.
	I believe that many A level players have been handicapped 
by insufficient attention to these considerations at the early
phase of chess learning, when they may have been less ambitious.
On the other hand, a player who successfully evolves efficient procedures
at this phases will find the remainder of the learning process to be
much easier.

	There is an intermediate phase which I take for granted, because
I have never seen a chess player neglect it.  This is the learning
of tactical patterns and basic strategical principles  which is initiated
either by that one good introductory book or by experience.  I won't plug 
any book in particular, but must say that some are not good enough, and 
therefore a waste of time.  An enjoyable and relatively easy book which should
be studied at the same time is Capablanca's "Chess Fundamentals."  This
second book introduces some endgame analysis in a good proportion, which
will contribute to the foundation needed for the second major phase.  
One further remark.  Full games should be studied, and a reasonable 
attempt should be made to understand each move, as one would do in a 
correspondence game.  Approximately 4-6 hours should be devoted to
a game of average length and complexity.

	In the second phase, some of the more subtle aspects of the game
must be learned.  A strong opening repertoire must be developed, strategy
must be better understood, and many, many highly specific positions and
positional themes must be learned.  In addition, it is necessary to 
develop an efficient, disciplined procedure for move analysis.  Endgame 
preparation is also necessary, but can be developed over a longer 
period of time.  My experience has shown that tournament games below
the expert level are seldom won in the endgame.

	Move calculation is the natural follow-up to the microprogramming
of the first phase.  "Think Like a Grandmaster" by Kotov is the best
book that I have seen on the theory of good move calculation procedures,
while the recent "Secrets of Grandmaster Play" by Nunn comes closest to
demonstrating the practice.  It is probably better not to read Kotov's
book, however,  since the book fails to emphasize that time-saving
decisions must be made in order to eliminate the inevitable time-trouble
that would result from attempts to analyze each move exhaustively.  I 
suggest as a goal that you should aim to caclulate an average of 4-6
half-moves in advance, but that it is necessary to develop an intuition
on how and when to prune the tree of variations.  A good way to develop
this is by playing correspondence chess, but giving yourself a time limit
for each move.  Unexpected responses will tell you where you pruned
unwisely.  

	There are two good ways to continue the development of a good
move calculation procedure, both of them essential.  First, you must
analyze your tournament games carefully, as if you were preparing an
article for a chess magazine.  Second, you must continue the analysis
of complete games.  The best sources for complete games are those
annotated by leading players who are also good writers.  I consider
Nunn's "Secrets of Grandmaster Play" to be the best of these, i.e., 
the one most conducive to the development of a good move analysis
procedure.  Others will be mentioned in the list of recommended books
at the end of this essay.

	Opening preparation is a part of the game that A level players
attend to very closely, because at the A level of play, this area of
study produces the best results.  On the other hand, I'm not so sure that
A level players approach opening preparation in the way that will best
further their progress to expert and beyond.  

	Both theoretical and practical study of openings are needed.
This is partly because there are many opening variations that are good,
but not to be found in ECO or in any Batsford monograph.  "The Ideas
Behind the Chess Openings" by Fine is the best introduction to theory,
and has been frequently recommended, but one must be very well aware 
that some of the concrete variations are no longer precise.  Pachman's
book is a more modern treatment, and well written, but probably is less
effective in getting across the idea of what one needs to think about
during the opening phase of the game.  After theoretical grounding, the
development of a practical opening repertoire actually requires several
years of study at several different levels.

	First, I would discourage players from adopting an approach 
to the opening such as always playing the Colle or the Stoewall as
white.  While this may be effective to some extent, and might provide
a relatively quick way for a beginner to reach middle A level, I feel
that one who adopts such a plan is already limiting their horizon's and
also missing out on one of the most exciting parts of chess - the part that
is somehow concerned with the Quixotic quest to determine whether 
chess is a first player win game, or a draw with best play.  These 
safe systems also generally limit one's exposure to different types
of positions that are important to a rounded understanding of the game.

	On the other hand, Keene's "Opening Repertoire for White"
would be a good place to start from.  This covers only 1 d4, but 
does build up the skeleton for a serious opening playbook.  Best of all,
it demonstrates the kind of comprehensive preparation that is necessary
for successful tournament play.  I don't know of any comparable book
for those who prefer to open 1 e4.  Further, I don't know of any
Black repertory books that I would recommend - most of them follow the
expedient of using the French defense as a switch-hitter with the 
Orthodox.  Possible, but avoids mainstream Black defenses, and therefore
not suitable for a program that does not limit the horizon of the 
evolving player.  There is one other specialty book that can be highly 
recommended:  Nunn's "Beating the Sicilian."  This could form the 
statistical backbone of a repertory based on 1 e4, good through the 
A level where the Ruy Lopez is less often played.  At the higher
levels, however, systematic study of the Ruy Lopez would be increasingly
necessary.
	Ultimately, you must build your own opening repertory with thorough
research, both at home and over the board.  Starting from a basic outline,
you must identify those areas where additional preparation will pay off
best, and then prepare them.  Batsford type books can be enjoyable for
this purpose, but are only a beginning.  The important "final" phase of 
opening preparation requires consulation of recent informants (or a good
chess database).  In this phase, it is necessary to identify trends in 
GM play, and the reasons for these trends.  You should try to discover
what GMs DON"T say in the informant analyses, and further, to find
your own theoretical novelties.  This level of preparation will eventually
lead to potential victories over the strongest opponents.

	I briefly discuss strategy.  First of all, DON'T read a strategy
book during your first 10 tournaments worth of experience.  Although
strategic thinking is important, and sometimes truly clarifies all of 
the specific moves needed to win certain positions, the great danger is
that strategy is written of in generalities, and many of the positions
you will encounter are exceptions to well-known strategic rules.  For
example, I lost several games in which I preferred bishops to knights
based on general principles which I learned in strategy books.  This 
is in fact an excellent example of the kind of trade-off that requires
the kind of subtlety that can differentiate an expert from an A player.
My opinion is that it is far better to learn strategic principles from
specific positions, and only later read about the general principles.
In fact, each opening subvariation has its own strategic characteristics,
so that I really consider this aspect of chess study best relegated to
the area of opening study or deep analysis of individual games.  Pachman's
book is pretty good, but it might be more effective to never read a book
on chess strategy.  Haven't computers taught us that a very primitive 
notion of strategy is sufficient, provided that it is enhanced by 
extremely efficient move calculation?!

	Endgame study is important, and increasingly necessary for
good results as one advances closer to the expert level.  I consider 
Pachman's "Chess Endings for the Practical Player" to be by far the
best text for endgame study.  The proportionate emphasis on types
of endgames is particularly well-chosen, avoiding the encyclopedic
approach of most other endgame books.  It might also be wise to
supplement this text with Smyslov's "Rook Endings."  For the aspiring
master, the series edited by Averbakh is also highly recommended.  It is
extremely clear and well-written, but also encyclopaedic.

	Ultimately, when the foundation has been laid with proper study,
progress depends on the understanding of entire games.  As previously 
mentioned, one should heed the frequently heard advice to analyze one's 
own games - and I should add that this analysis should be very thorough.
Well-annotated games are also very useful.  Fischer's
"60 Memorable Games," Speelman's anthology, and most books written by
world champions (or Reuben Fine) are generally far superior to other
collections.  The other collections, in fact, should be regarded as
superficially annotated games, as are those in the Informants.  These
should also be consulted, but far less reliance should be placed on the 
analysis.  I conclude with a short list of game collections that I 
can recommend highly, in addition to those already mentioned.

For Quality:

Alekhine		My Best Games
Alekhine		On the Road to the World Championship
			(including match with Capablanca)
Bronstein		200 Open Games
Bronstein		The Chess Struggle in Practice
			(Don't try to read all the games, but
			pick the interesting comments.)
Karpov			My Best Games
Kasparov		World Championship books
Kasparov		The Test of Time (incl. match with Korchnoi)
Keene			World Championship books
Tal 			Life and Games
Timman			Art of Chess Analysis

(If I left out some really good ones, let me know.  Note, however, that
the English translation of Botvinnik's games edited out many of the comments
from the original Russian, and seems significantly less good.)

For completeness:

Moran			World Championship: Steinitz to Alekhine
Gligoric/Wade		The World Chess Championship 
			(1948 Tournament - Fischer-Spassky I)
Tartakower/DuMont	500 Master Games of Chess


	This plan is not an easy one.  Depending on the time available
for study, and the level of talent, it might require many years.  But 
the plan is an efficient one.  If you follow it, you will eventually 
succeed.

			Frank McFadden
			[An A player ready to prove expertise.]

WARNING:  on speed games:  Some speed play is good for development of
quick tactical calculation.  But it is easy to play too many speed games,
which is fun but can lead to shallow thinking and impatience.  You must be 
aware that every chess game is a learning experience and affects your
play in subsequent games.  The kind of learning that occurs in speed games
must not be permitted to override the learning that occurs in tournament
games.