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Reddit mentions of Silman's Complete Endgame Course
Sentiment score: 16
Reddit mentions: 21
We found 21 Reddit mentions of Silman's Complete Endgame Course. Here are the top ones.
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Author: Jeremy SilmanPages: 530 PagesPublication Years: 2007
Specs:
| Height | 10 Inches |
| Length | 7 Inches |
| Number of items | 1 |
| Weight | 2.45594959868 Pounds |
| Width | 1.5 Inches |
I don't know your level, but if you're a novice (as it sounds like you are) here's my advice:
As for the specific parts of the game, here are my suggestions. in order of importance:
Endgames: Learn to your level, then practice them on Chesstempo/friend/computer.
Tactics: It's tactics all the way down!
Openings: Play with the same openings. Don't spend too long on each, but maybe watch a few videos to get the ideas behind them.
Thought process:
That's all I got for now. Good luck!
Concentrate on your endgame and middlegame
You will be amazed how important the endgame is. From reading [Jeremy Silman's Endgame course] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silmans-Complete-Endgame-Course-Beginner/dp/1890085103) I can see that even if you go down by 4 points of material that you can still salvage a draw. I suggest that you don't spend long on openings: For white I just play a white system (botvinnik system in the english) and I have 3 openings for black which counter the most common moves by white. Concentrate on middlegame and endgame since they are most of the battle!
edit reason: accidental post
You've got to get yourself some good books and devour them. I have unconventional advice, but if whatever you've been doing isn't working, give it a shot.
My beginners routine
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You need a consistent motif; so, if you want to play 1.e4 try to stick to that. For black choose 2 defenses: one against 1.e4 and one against 1.d4
What you need to do here is learn the first few moves of the opening just so you can get yourself inside that structure... maybe the first 5 moves or so. And you're going to feel lost I promise you, but just do it, ok. When you win/lose, whatever, a part of your analysis is going to be to go to www.chessgames.com >set the year to >=2000 or 1980 something like that>set the openings to the opening you played or enter the ECO code>click search and you can watch Grandmasters play your opening. This will give you a good idea of what kind of moves are made and where you play on the board. You may even be able to extract some plans out of it.
Dude, good god. LOL. That's an INSANE amount of tactics problems. Definitely props to your discipline and focus; it is impressive.
I make training routines for fun. Right now I'm 1800uscf. (I should be careful talking about myself, people get butthurt if I sound too "great" to them.) but aside from that, I'd like to assure you my latest scalp was a player rated 2051uscf; this is MERELY a reference to tell you what I am doing seems to be working. Now, back to the important thing, YOU!
I would like to suggest to you a plan based on raising your skills in every area of the game.
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Tactics: ChessTempo Everyday. You already do this! so that's really good. You could probably afford to do less than 100... or even 50... lol. I'd probably say around 10-30 problems daily.
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Positional understanding: I'd recommend something like
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Annotated Games: As far as annotated games are concerned: Logical chess move by move should be serving you well for now. So you're covered there and on tactics.
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Endgame: Now, I swear to God i'm not an advertiser for Jeremy Silman, but I'd also recommend his endgame book: "Jeremy Silman's Complete Endgame Course" [http://www.amazon.com/Silmans-Complete-Endgame-Course-Beginner/dp/1890085103/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z]
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Openings: These are the hardest thing I have recommending to people... I wouldn't get a very serious opening book right now. Training openings on a serious level will probably cause a decline in your overall chess ability for simply not having enough time to spread out your training. I'd recommend checking out some wikipedia sources or maybe even Roman's Lab with white's 1.d4 on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX9Ax29jZ1k). That series served me well vs 1700-2000uscf in tournament play.
As for black I usually just say learn something solid vs e4 and d4. Like Caro-kann and Queen's Gambit Declined. Check it out on Wikipedia and look up games on chessgames.com
1.Caro-Kann [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caro_Kann]
2.Queen's Gambit Declined [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen%27s_Gambit_Declined]
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Then to wrap this all up into a schedule i'd do
Daily: Mon-Sun, Chess Tempo and 1 annotated game
Every Other day: Mon-Tues-Thurs-Sat, jeremy Silman's Amateur's Mind or Reassess your chess (Which ever you own or buy)
Weekends:Friday-Saturday-Sunday, I'd do opening and endgame studies.
Silman's Complete Endgame Course is often recommended. For practice, Chess Tempo has an endgame mode that works well.
Silmans Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner to Master is often recommended here
I really like this one : Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner to Master
https://www.amazon.com/Silmans-Complete-Endgame-Course-Beginner/dp/1890085103
First of all, never say 'opening tactics' again. I think you mean 'openings', 'opening principles' or 'opening strategy'. Strategy and tactics are a different thing, and in chess the difference is huge.
Endgames can be beautifully complicated even when they might appear simple at first. Chesstempo.com has an endgame trainer that is useful. You can also learn a lot from books (example) and youtube (example).
Playing a lot is essential to improvement. But so is analysing your games, studying material and tactics training.
If you're aiming to compete, try doing all of the following if you can:
 
1- Find a chess teacher. A rating above 2000 is preferred
 
2- Get Chess books that teach the basics of tactics, strategy, and endgame.
 
3- Make an account on Chesstempo.com and start solving tactics
 
4- Play many rapid games online. Chess.com allows you to play for free
 
5-For book recommendations : Endgame/
Middlegame
-As for opening, you really need a mentor to guide you in choosing the best opening for you. If you want to learn some opening, this is a good basic book
Studying from books (Pawn Structure and Endgame) and analyzing my own games (WITHOUT an engine) are probably the two major factors in my growth in chess.
Soltis's Pawn Structure Chess and Silman's Complete Endgame Course are my two top recommendations.
If you're just starting, silman's endgame course is the best book. Silman's endgame course starts from absolute beginner up to ~2000. If you go through silman's endgame manual and dvoretsky's endgame manual, should be the only books you need for endgames until ~2400
Dvoretsky's endgame manual is universally known as the gold standard for what a player needs to know about the endgame. But it's hard to understand, so take time to ease into it.
First off, your best bet is indeed practicing tactics problems on Chesstempo.com. The great thing about that site is that it will give you problems at your appropriate difficulty, and you can keep solving problems as long as you want (no daily limits like there are on Chess.com). It's just like lifting weights or anything - the more you practice, the stronger you will get.
Meanwhile, a consensus seems to be that the first thing you should study are checkmate patterns and endgames in general. I personally like Jeremy Silman's Complete Endgame Course, which goes from beginner-level endgames to far more advanced endgames. And although many discourage simply memorizing opening lines, find some that work for you and memorize a handful. Maybe five or so. More importantly than the memorization is understanding the reasoning behind the moves. For example, are the moves designed to grab a strong presence in the center, or is it specifically geared towards an attack on the opponent's queen-side for example? Don't just memorize openings without understanding why the moves are what they are and what they hope to accomplish. Surprisingly, I think the Wikipedia Chess Opening Theory Wikibook is a fantastic resource for all this.
Would it not be just as easy to ask /r/chess?
Anyway, in addition to what /u/Dazvac has said, you'll also want to learn about tactics; this is probably the most important part of chess. You can learn about them here and practice them here. Read through the first few pages of each chapter of the former site, then see if you can obtain the answers to the rest of the pages in each chapter. When you're fairly confident with the material in it, then train with the latter site. Don't worry if you fail the first 200 problems or so; you'll soon get to a point where the tactics are at your level (if you create an account).
As for reading material, I would suggest the two books "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" and "Logical Chess Move By Move". You can easily find pirated PDF copies online, but you can also buy them here and here. "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" mainly focuses around checkmating the king; "Logical Chess Move By Move" walks through games explaining EVERY SINGLE MOVE. It's also best if you have a chessboard set up when you read "Logical Chess", as it sometimes lists variations.
So here is, in summary, what the full list is:
From my personal experience I have always found chess books to be boring in the very least. I have only read 1 or 2 books that have managed to keep me interested and one of them is Silman's Complete Endgame Course.
I thought this book was good for a few reasons.
In regards to immediately practical advice:
If you're having trouble with game situations and nerves, I would suggest playing out positions with a friend. For example, if you are learning how to mate with a Queen and King vs King, you can set up a position over the board and play with a friend. This way you can practice and there is no pressure because you can take back incorrect moves. (Or if finding someone to play with is difficult, I recommend playing against an engine. Although that may be intimidating, you can always reduce its strength so that it shouldn't be a problem.)
I hope my advice has been helpful!
Here's some suggestions to start with.
Dvoretsky's Analytical Manual: Practical Training for the Ambitious Chessplayer
Great all around.
Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master
Some great endgame work for you.
Can't go wrong with Silman or Dvoretsky. Suggestion looking through their works and seeing what would work for you.
Kudos to all the commenters for recommending [Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner to Master] (http://www.amazon.com/Silmans-Complete-Endgame-Course-Beginner/dp/1890085103/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375204281&sr=8-1&keywords=Jeremy+Silman). If you do as Silman suggests, and don't start the next chapter until you have fully mastered the previous one, it will do wonders for your endgame playing strength.
That said, much will depend on what sort of time controls you play. The shorter the time control, the less likely that you will be able to convert solid endgame advantages into full points...
If you want the best stuff, then two books should be your foundation
First, Silman's Complete Endgame Course is strong. Silman is known for explaining things in an easy-to-digest manner. His book covers endgame ideas from beginner level up to ~2200 rating level. Despite the fact that you may not get much out of it (and so it will be a quick read), it is important to have all of his ideas understood before moving on, because the ideas he writes about are essentially basic.
Then, move on to Mark Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual. It's important to note that this book is not written by some patzer or some GM who knows how to play but not how to teach. Mark Dvoretsky is a well-known elite chess trainer who has trained some of the best players in the world, so you know that his writing is strong. The purpose of Silman's book becomes clear when this book is recommended: this book is for turning ~2100+ players into elite endgame masters. This book probably should not be read or understood until essentially basic endgames are understood.
I noticed that you mentioned nothing about endgame studies. You should probably shift your focus more from openings & middle games to middle games & endgames. Buy this if you truly want to improve your game.
Fast time controls like bullet and blitz won't help you get better at playing chess until you can understand the mistakes you're making. They're fun and great for working through openings, however that should be one of your lowest priorities at this stage.
In addition to using the tactics trainer, try to play through some endgames on chesstempo.com.
A few questions, if you don't mind.
> an hour a day of chesstempo problems
Do you prefer ChessTempo (and similar sites) over a tactics book, e.g. Bain's at low levels or Coakley's blue book for a more intermediate player? Or maybe a combination of the two?
> starting with the fundamentals (Jesus de la Villa's "100 Endgames you must know" covers a very wide audience, and studying it should be about 100 rating points worth in your case)
How would you compare this to Silman's Complete Endgame Course? I have Silman and it has exploded my endgame knowledge.
> an hour a day of working through Jeremy Silman's "The Amateur Mind" or a similar book
At what rating do you think it's worth starting this book? I've read suggestions to not start until 1800, and another that said 1400.
I recently flipped through Spilman's Complete Endgame Course in a book store, and thought it was very well written and easy to digest. The chapters are based on level of difficulty (endgames for expert players, for A-class players, etc), rather than the type of endgame (rook and pawn, king and pawn, etc). Having already read Pandolfini's Endgame Course (a far more difficult read, by comparison), I found this chapter structure to be much better and more conducive to incremental learning.
As for saving yourself the $16.47, look for it in a library or just go to a book store and read it there without purchasing it (if you're in the US, Barnes & Nobles allows this).
There are many different kinds of endgames. King and pawn endings are the most basic. I guess rook endings is the next step above that.
I learned practical endings from this book which looks like it's out of print now, unfortunately. Silman has a book that's also supposed to be very good.
There are also specific books that dig into very particular aspects of endgame play, like this book on pawn endings that heavily focuses on "corresponding squares". That book helped me a lot.
For practice, I found this android app to be very helpful. I believe there is also a PC version and probably an iOS version as well.
Playing endings out against a computer can be helpful but there are big downsides, too. The computer will usually not find the most stubborn human defense, for example. If a position is objectively lost it will just play any trash move because it sees everything as equally losing.
In addition to all of this, there's always the psychological aspect of chess -- meaning, it helps to keep in mind what you're actually trying to accomplish and to learn mental tricks to make playing endings easier. For example, sometimes it helps to imagine rearranging the pieces or pawns into a winning position and then figuring out how to work backwards from that. Also, it helps to keep in mind that zugzwang is a common factor in endings. When you're trying to checkmate somebody, it helps to visualize a mating "net" around the king, like imagining the squares he can't move to as being highlighted. There are also specific tactics and patterns that come up over and over again in endings.
It's a big subject!