How to Create a Chess Training Plan that Works

[@LSpencer777]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has fallen hundreds of moves behind in my Chessbook training.

[@noobwithaplan]

I'm loving the recent videos on training plans and the like, now all I need is time to implement them lol

[@sheh5372]

Worked through your middle game playlist, took me from 800 to 1100. You are too good.

[@KSKDINGDONGCHESSKERELA]

Hello I have a happy news. 5 days ago, my rapid rating was 1200. now its 1300 and I have a 11 game winning streak with it. It all happened because i watched your sicillian dragon video and I heard the cannon go off

[@Poatanmafia]

Lmao "it's just a canon that goes in my town everyday at noon" gold

[@felixhinz3804]

Play training games and analyze them deeply is one of the things that helps me most. But I guess that's implied in step one.

[@Chesstastic5000]

1. Set out to do something 2. Do it The easiest one is just do puzzles, and if you are too lazy for that. Puzzle rush and go for high scores. In other words set a goal on what you want to improve upon. And then just do it. Watch a video? Sure, but make sure you prioritize your goal and not just trying to procrastinate. Most people go around trying to find the easy way. There is no easy way. Just do it. Still reading this? You didn't get the point. Just find something to do. Do it. Just do it. How about this, go and do puzzle rush or storm for hours, learn from your mistakes instead of reading this. There, you got a plan. Cya

[@ThorstensComment]

Thanks for the great video. For solitaire chess I like chesstempo (there it's called "guess the move"). You get good points for either finding the played move or if you find a good computer move. I think it is "simpler" and more realistic to find a good move than the actual move. (OK on my level I find more blunders than best moves, but that's the reason you need to practice.)

[@slantingclock9679]

Hey Stephen pls continue making more content yourr greatly appreciated believe me

[@zeldaire7484]

I've been putting together a training regimen for myself and this helps all the pieces fall into place. Playing chess isn't enough to get better - you have to analyze your mistakes and try not to make them again.

[@milehighslacker4196]

...you have to analyze your mistakes...remember them...and try not to make them again. As I age, this is key.

[@jimmccann3856]

For amateurs, overlooked tactics are usually a Symptom of an underlying Disease: Bad Thought Process. And doing many, many tactical problems will not necessarily deal with the underlying issue. (I have done many, many tactical problems, with underwhelming results.) A more appropriate focus is analyzing failed problems and trying to understand, in a very precise way, what exactly went wrong. Your tactical advice is just the usual platitudes that everyone dispenses, and really is very incomplete and unhelpful.

[@dimitrifyodorovickaramazov]

Thank you for this. Especially the Solitaire Chess. That sounds fun, definitely going to give it a try! Cheers Stjepan!

[@SEAKPhotog]

Great, practical videos for us lately. Thank you!

[@yon_chess]

Great video!! That suggestion of going through games that already exist and trying to figure out what move the person made is so smart. Definitely going to start doing that.

[@desper7715]

Thank you a lot for your videos, I became very good at chess, just because I learn a lot with your videos, you are great player and coach

[@HangingPawns]

Thank you very much! Happy to help!

[@TomSchwert]

The offen Basic questition for Chess Training: Most of the chessplayer stay during their Games in the same Modus of calculating moves in a logical mathematic way. For being strong in Chess this mathematic method must be combined with another method: Analyzing logical and with Intuition the Position the Center, the Pawnstructure, the strength of the pieces etc. and the find right plan. A glass clear plan. That is so fascinating when replaying Games from Fischer, Kasparow etc. The questition for growth in Chess is: How can we learn this other way of thinking and how to integrale it into time limited chessgames.

[@jackfirestone5072]

stjepan out here making the best chess content for those who want to improve

[@rontiffany7366]

Great info. Have you made a video playing black against the London? I can't seem to find it. Thank you for your help.

[@Sejdr]

Great advice, I can see me needing solitaire chess!

[@magicja]

I like the sporadic instructional videos.

[@janosszurdi6070]

Great content!

[@phen-themoogle7651]

Brilliant video, I love it! The ending about if you only have 15 minutes and using it wisely is something I can relate to. I think I don't have enough time or energy to study so I just play, but perhaps I could break those 15 mins down. The hardest thing in this video is analyzing 100 of your own games w/o engine if you are a person low on time, and to really find your weaknesses could take 20-50 hours if only 30 mins or less a game. potentially more too if you seriously analyze them. And although it's probably weak tactics for most people, if it's Positional, how can you study positional chess properly? Chess solitaire? Middle game books?

[@alexandrepereiradarosa4702]

I'm analyzing my 100 games, I already have 2280 online rants, so I have a good level to easily analyze my games and those of players of my level or lower, as for your question about books for positional play, I'm reading Boris Gulko's Lessons, but everyone books of games revealed by the author, as the author is a not so aggressive player, you can learn a lot about positional and strategic play, like Karpov's book, and Solitaire Chess is trying to get the masters' move by move right, that's what I do when I'm following a strong tournament in person candidate examples.

[@alexandrepereiradarosa4702]

3 good books that I now remember off the top of my head 60BestGames, Zurick53, 100Finals, I've never finished any of the books, but I've already read some of them and I thought they were very good, they're suitable for several different levels, a tip is to analyze many, many classic games, your games, current matches, without computer help and keep taking notes, seek tactical training in books and challenge yourself with increasingly difficult problems, challenge yourself to play against increasingly stronger bots and play trying to win. The secret to evolving is to strive to always think move by move and not let your guard down

[@tizianoricci7509]

Questione about solitaire chess. Im still not 1500 fide, at which ply deep should i start? GM preparation hardly ends before 7~15 moves, while mine could end 7 moves deep most of the time. In some open sicilians even less ;) thanks!

[@beasthuntermohit567]

It depends on opening. If it is Ryu lopez, then you preparation should be till 15 moves. And you need more moves in sicilian, ALWAYS. The opening relies on theory so that you have a good middlegame. For the setup based, you can stay till 7 moves as they really don't have anything much. Just know the traps and know what to do if they don't work.

[@KeepChessSimple]

What do you think about ´How to study chess on your own´ from your countryman Davorin Kuljasevic? The workbooks are fantastic. He makes a good case for visualisation / tactical vision being one of the most important things.

[@rogerpaul8918]

What do you think of Lev Alburt's books? I own 6 of his books.

[@IMTrueBlueYT]

What was the site to study chess endgames?

[@sebastianjorgebigi6920]

hey! are you ok? we miss you

[@akaakaakaak5779]

"which should take 5 or 6 hours", i cannot focus on study like this for more than 5 or 6 seconds 😭

[@SuperOriginalRecipe]

not all at once! i study in ~15 minute chunks with a short break after each chunk

[@beasthuntermohit567]

Pomodoro technique is for you

[@aledmb]

5:22 i didn't get why i would play any move for the opponet then play another move for white... wouldn't that result in 2 wrong moves for white and 1 wrong move for black? wouldn't i have to rollback 3 moves after i make the second move for white? that is, assuming i will get it wrong most of the time.

[@emperorsascharoni9577]

I think he meant play the correct move for both then repeat

[@Dav-chess]

Will u play in the Banja Luka open?

[@smalam64]

Another one i am struggling with. I want to import pgn file and play what you have described as solitary chess, it doesnt allow me. Ok i can do that in lichess but i dont want to be using ten different websites for one game

[@M7medKasem]

man blessed us with two bagers in a row

[@gaudnorm]

My weakness is definitively the middle game...

[@felixhinz3804]

Video idea : first chess tournament

[@darshan_k_05]

I glad that i am subscriber of greatest chess chennal ❤

[@michaelf8221]

What is your opinion on how to structure a week though? Let's say you have 2 hours free, 3 days a week. According to your 70% tactics mark, would you work on tactics for 2 of those sessions and then split up the last session among the other options? Or would you split each up 2 hour segment in 70% tactics, 30% everything else? Essentially I'm asking - do you split up your time by week to get deeper into each training activity, or do you split up your time by day to get a little bit of everything all the time?

[@HangingPawns]

Depending on how long the sessions are. 2 days is what I'd do in your example.

[@liamfransen3478]

You are amazing :)

[@Lol_lets__play_chess]

Any tips for classical otb

[@jaidenloveday9110]

Any recommendations for French defence books/courses

[@MatBobulasChessSchool]

There is a great old book by Wolfgang Uhlmann titled "Winning with the French." It focuses on explaining the ideas and understanding of the opening

[@mathiashaguet5045]

Excellent content as always ! Keep on going ! Does anyone has a free chess games base to play solitaire chess ?

[@sevii9256]

What website did he say for endgame studying?

[@Poopooprod]

Just rewind 😭

[@HangingPawns]

arves

[@wahito1456]

​@Tbirdbeatz it was hard to catch because we have different accents

[@lawrence8052]

My weakest area is time usage in classical games. I spend always too much time and get into time trouble very fast. Any advice?

[@beasthuntermohit567]

If you are playing to fast or too slow, The best option is to set a limit of time per move. For 2 slow,- - Spend the minimum time in opening. -Have the plan for middlegame ready in advance(by the opening). -Recognize what move was in theory and what was not. If it wasn't then spend time to punish the mistake, if it were go to the middlegame plan(duh). -Play 10 min online for practice. - Have in mind that you are playing on classical time setting.

[@bluefin.64]

Great advice, all of it. I especially like that you said to learn the bishop and knight mate by just doing it, instead of learning a method from a book. My experience is this kind of training unconsciously improves your sight of the board for your whole game. Learning specific methods is pretty much necessary for really tough endgames like rook and bishop vs rook, but first you should still make a good effort to figure them out yourself. There are some things I would add. First, start a program of study by being a bit lazy. Don't push too hard. Just keep at it and let time build you up to full speed. Second, limit trying to understand engine analysis (also obscure GM analysis) if it's too complex and unusual. Even super grandmasters like Caruana sometimes ignore engine lines. Third, try to understand the psychological reasons that contribute to your mistakes. A common one is focusing too much on working out your own ideas and not paying enough attention to your opponent's. Last, have some fun with chess. If it's too much pain and sweat work, you might start to wonder why you're bothering.

[@michaelf8221]

Your training plan doesn't include actually playing. Are you of the opinion that blitz is useless, even for learning a new opening? How would you classify your 15+10 training games under this plan? What's your optimal ratio of playing and analyzing your classical games compared to spending time on the training plan you described?

[@bluefin.64]

Magnus says blitz is good for developing your chess. Hard to argue with that. Also, lots of coaches recommend it for testing new openings. Personally, I find even bullet shows me holes in my opening play. You get so much experience in a short time. That also applies to patterns in the middlegame and endgame. How much is too much is a good question, though.

[@chessforfunonly1586]

You seem to be on the same level still, even below 2000. So what goes wrong in your training plan?

[@drakeeoll2559]

i lose most of my blitz games on time

[@eudesgeoffroy8416]

By the guy whose rating raised from 2100 to 2500. Err, to 1900.

[@radom123]

hi

[@zadocknyakundi7874]

🎉

[@kosmicznymuminek3455]

why are u so slim now? :C

[@mohsen2035]

Well obviously that plan didn't work for you because you are still terrible at chess for loooong time

[@Knighttwister]

Don't bother analysing 100 games. Aimchess will do it in seconds

[@physics2112]

But is it free

[@rbava82]

The best to improve is to find the mistakes before using this kind of help.

[@neandertale8486]

But you want to be able to see and realize your mistakes yourself. And not just go "Well the Computer says".

[@Knighttwister]

@@neandertale8486The point isn't to find your specific mistakes, it's to find your weakest categories

[@Knighttwister]

@@physics2112 No not really, you only get to analyse 50 games once a month which is good enough

[@Misica11000]

With all that opening knowledge,with all that strategy in the middle game,with all that work,how is it possible that you are steel below 2000?!...

[@lelandp17]

a lot of players can be under pressure otb and they don't show their true strength. he should improve tactics too

[@SensitiveSavage]

Welcome to the cruel world of chess.

[@Misica11000]

@@SensitiveSavage i have 2100 by the way,but this is insane how many things about chess this guy knows and he is below 2000....

[@SensitiveSavage]

@@Misica11000 Nice, I myself am rated over 1900 on lichess, but that's online. In my country rated tournaments are rare, so I'm actually around 1400 fide rated. I wasn't actually trying to insult you btw, just meant that chess is very cruel in certain ways, everything can influence your performance, from your circumstances to your mental state. Being able to balance everything despite all the setbacks and noticing improvement is a real challenge.

[@bluefin.64]

With the new path he appears to be on, and recently the near elimination of the egregious blunders he used to make in his off the cuff analyses, I think his goal of 2100 by the end of the year is not out of reach. He has so much knowledge, but he's lacked a good intuitive feel for what's happening on the board, which is the underpinning of good play. It seems like he's fixing this.