The Worst Teacher

Players on this site (and other sites, such as Facebook) make threads asking for help. These requests bring out legions of players, some strong but many weak, who offer terrible advice and a handful of those who offer good advice.

Every such thread will attract some of the same posts from some of the same posters as all the others. Reasonably strong players, more than likely possessing some natural talent (if there is such a thing) will tell you how they got where they are. They frame their autobiographical assertions as advice for what the OP should do. Such advice is rarely useful. Experience may be the best teacher, but my experience more often than not will not help you. Our capacities and best learning modes usually differ. Books and self-education have been my mode of operating since childhood. That’s not gonna work for very many who were born in this century. You’ll learn more from Gotham (even though I will tell you that he will harm you with bad advice).

If you want to improve your chess, there are many ways to do it. What worked for me may or may not work for you. Your best route is to find a teacher with teaching experience who can understand your learning style and design a curriculum that suits you well.

Most posters, however, are seeking free advice and more often than not shortcuts. Good luck with that.

Your writing style in the above post reminds me very much of the Dylan Thomas essay - "A Visit To America" Your chess advice too is very sound methinks.

The main thing I know about Dylan Thomas is that Robert Zimmerman liked his name, and took it.

Sounds like an essay I’ll read soon, now that you’ve mentioned it.

BTW . . . a great line among many great lines by Thomas - "I've come to America in pursuit of my life long quest for naked women in wet macintoshes."

Supposedly his last words, also spoken in America, were " I've just had eighteen straight whiskeys. That must be a record. "

He wrote perhaps the most musical poetry in the English language, and wrote what must surely be its finest villanelle.

"Toying, Oh boy, with a blunderbuss bourbon, and being smoked by a large cigar . . ."

- one of many great lines of prose from "A Visit To America"

What works for one player may not work for another, and finding your own path—guided by thoughtful advice and resources tailored to your needs—is the key to meaningful progress.

Many beginners seek advice and they are taught the standard openings. E4,D4 and maybe later C4 together with all the chess piece movements and opening repertoire. The chess openings are well known as book openings and this is sound instruction together with positional and tactical plays. For social, occasional chess players like me entering intermediate level you are however faced with much stronger players who know the openings inside out and far better than I ever will. Those are E4, D4 and C4. Yet when I ask many coaches if they have studied in depth and played the Sokolsky opening I found in some cases it has been years since they have seen it.Yet the modern version has been updated to a sound opening with a huge element of surprise. The goal ( in my personal case) being to draw in a closed game with white against higher ranked players. The alternative is to lose every game against higher ranked players which is what I do with the standard openings. I have not mastered this at all but did draw with a chess coach who was puzzled why a very occasional ordinary chess player could achieve it.

This makes my eyes hurt.

😂 lol

One of my students plays the Sokolsky, as does a long-time member of my local chess club. I’ve never lost to the old guy, but I’ve had some difficult games.

The theory with white is to exchange the white fianchetted bishop with the black knight at the right moment and then populate the black squares with your pawns to close the board. In the exchange variation ( the most orthodox opening by black) the new variation is C3 rather than C4. as outlined by Carsten Hansen and played by Magnus in a surprise opening match in tournament play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFlM2-VFKCU

Yes. Exactly as outlined.The commentators have never seen it played at this level so the element of surprise is clearly outlined regardless of winning or losing for very ordinary players like me…. . It’s chess from move 1 if you don’t play the exchange variation ….but drawing is the goal for me😊😊

btw…. the commentators call the opening the “ Orangatan” . There is a humorous story behind this but it is actually called the “ Sokolsky “ opening after a strong Russian master called Alexey Sokolsky. So the theory is sound

Yeah I agree and that’s why I only ever contribute to specific questions, anything general like ‘how do I get to 1800’ I never bother with as it’s basically a waste of everyone's time.

I would give a piece of general advice .... which is that anyone who wishes to take chess reasonably seriously should make a point of discovering if there's a local chess club that's accessible, accepting and friendly, but which has a few strong players who are not averse to coaching newcomers a bit. The human contact should make a massive difference. Even a 1400 FIDE is capable of getting people up to a point where they are capable of improving more but in general, anyone over 1800 FIDE can make a good coach. It doesn't matter whether or not they have coaching qualifications, which are only useful if someone wants to coach for payment.