Were you trained?

Just a point of curiosity, I was wondering how many people here have received professional coaching or if you just learned by reading books and playing?

One day I decided I wanted to play chess so I got on yahoo and learned the moves lol. I just bought my first book today.

I've had some lessons here and there.  I worked at a chess club so I got some lessons free.  Mostly I've learned from books, practice, and analyzing my games.

 Verusamo I'm reading a book by the same auther he lives in Washington. Matter of fact I have four books by him. Plain on reading all of them. The one that I'm reading is good.  I do'nt think that I have that one . I still would read it . Grandmaster he is. Good luck, Chessme

I agree, the one I'm reading is very good as well. I plan on reading the entire Winning Chess series. Im so excited to improve my game. Ever since I joined this site a week ( or so? ) ago I have spent hours everyday studying all things chess. Its so intriguing!

And I can't wait for the e-mail chess! People will be able to help me improve a lot by telling me what i did wrong and things. 

I was involved competitively in chess clubs in middle school and high school; much of it was a drive to learn by myself, as witness to over 50-70 chess books or so.  :)

Encouraging, 'cause I don't plan on taking lessons (although the idea is tempting). I guess I'll just have to keep playing to get better

My grandpa taught me how to play at a young age...have been playing for fun ever since.

No, I taught myself how to play. I've only read bits and pieces of a few books..  I really just like playing games and then analyzing them afterwards to see what was wrong with my thinking.

Andy told me that he disappeared from society for a whole year and then came back one day and was bloody brilliant at chess. Everyone was in awe. I am the only who he told that when he disappeared that he found Bobby Fischer and learned from him for an entire year. True story....LOL.

Haha..yeah..sure..it's all true..

Bobby Fisher didn't really disapear, he just went to live in INdonesia and Japan because he was kicked out of the US for playing in USSR during the cold war, and finally was kicked out of Japan as well because of the USA and went to live in Iceland. Now he is a bit ugly fat a@@hole who says a lot of very stupid things. Too bad such a great player was born is such a sorry @@@@@@.

 

The only formal training I have is from a good friend of mine, a man around 40 years older than me who used to be a big time chess enthusiast until he had a stroke. He enjoys the company so we've played a game of chess every week or so for about three years now. I started studying the game for the simple reason that I love to come back next week and throw him a curve ball.

Although I've known the rules of chess for 30 years, I've only recently begun to study the game. I haven't taken lessons as yet. Right now, I'm using Chessmaster 10 and Chess Mentor software. I have a few chess books, but Chess Mentor has, at least for the moment, replaced them all.

I learned Chess in 1970 from a book written by Baruch H Wood.  That's the only book I read and it helped me to quickly start enjoying the game.  I had a long break from chess  as there were no chess clubs in India in the region where I lived.  Now thanks to chess.com I've got back to the game.  I guess reading, playing and solving problems is the fastest way to improve your game.

i was fortunate enough to get a course in college(nights) dealing with the basics of chess from a teacher who could play and win 20 simultaneous games of chess. i was also in a chess club for a while where this teacher was ranked first. i am not sure which taught me most, but i think also reading about 15 books about chess helped. i have been away from chess for about 15 years, but would like to get back into it. i find the problem solving is helpful also.

 

d34l10 wrote:

Just a point of curiosity, I was wondering how many people here have received professional coaching or if you just learned by reading books and playing?

---

At first I learned the basic moves and rules from Ray Keens Simon and Shusters pocket book of Chess but I Iater had a Coach his name was Mike Griffin he's a good Man he taught me to play we worked every morning on the game he was critical when he had to be and he pushed me to play better whenever I'm feeling like I'm being lazy I think of him behind giving me a slight shove and I straighten up and come alive. When I went on my own after I finished School I learned even more from experince and getting my ass kicked 1000+ times and losing games. I spent many hours in the City Library every week I'd take home every book they had on Chess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first game of chess I remember playing was with a friend in fourth grade during a rainy day. After that, I played my dad hundreds of times, slowly I learned how you should play and I gained enough confidence to play more at school. Eventually I was the best in my elementary school - and later, it turns out I was the best in a boy scout camp I went to and was the best player in my high school eventually. My dad had been the chess champion of his high school, but he tells me he won the tournament on luck - I learned a lot from my dad, and he had taught himself from playing and playing and studying some and playing some more.

Now I'm in college and I've met a bunch of really good players, I'm probably the least expirenced, so again the learning process starts.

Many years ago, I had a coach for a brief period of time. Now it's all book training. Because I travel, I find that book training is the easiest way to go. Of course, great lessons are learned by simply playing the game with an opponent!

I learned the rules of chess from a friend and played very infrequently until the 1972 Fischer/Spassky match, then I was stricken forever with the chess bug. I reached 2200 on my own, just studying (mostly) and playing every chance I got , which in the US Southeast wasnt too often living in a small town. I now am stuck between 2200-2300 since 1984 !  The mother of all "walls". Its clear to me that I have progressed as far as I can on my own and now need a serious trainer to climb that wall. However, at age 54 perhaps I have reached my peak and will start declining?  My current goal is 2300 fide and the FM title. Now I am retired and have all the time I want to work on chess but I am very lazy .