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Rapid chess improvement

Would you like to gain 400 rating points in 400 days? That is what Michael de la Maza did. And he wrote a book about his progress and the methods that got him there. Quite an appealing idea, and many players at the beginner and intermediate level will be enticed. I was. Are you?

In 2001, Michael de la Maza wrote an article in Chess horizons called "400 points in 400 days". In the article, he outlines the main components of his training program and gives a short account of his own progress. He managed to to get from about 1300 to 2000 in just two years, which is quite an accomplishment. His ideas were later elaborated upon and presented in the book Rapid chess improvement.

 This book was published quite a few years ago, and can be difficult to find. But it has been republished in a new form, together with two other books in A chess course: from beginner to winner. If you decide you want to buy Rapid chess improvement, this three-in-one volume may be a good option.

What can you expect from this book?

Let me be up front with this: This book will probably not make you gain 400 rating in a year. Although de la Maza did, I think there might be other factors involved than the ones he describes in the book. Also, I think that his methods are not necessarily universally valid.

This being said, Rapid chess improvement will give you some interesting ideas for training your visualization skills, your tactical ability and your thinking process. Each of these three topics are given separate chapters in the book. The tactics part is what has given the book the most attention, and in my opinion the biggest takeaway from reading it.

Michael de la Maza suggests a quite rigorous training program when it comes to tactics. According to his method, you should first identify a large number of fundamental tactical patterns, about 1000 puzzles. Secondly, you work through all of the puzzles systematically, at a slow pace. In the book, the recommended time is 64 days for all puzzles. Then work through them again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and once more. For each iteration, you cut the time in half. This method is referred to as "the seven circles" in the book. Some of you may recognize this as the "woodpecker method" described by Axel Smith in his book Pump up your rating and in the recent book The woodpecker method, written together with Hans Tikkanen. Dan Heisman suggests a similar approach in his Novice Nook article "A different approach to studying tactics", which can also be found in his book A guide to chess improvement (my review here).

It is generally accepted that there are no shortcuts or quick fixes when it comes to chess improvement. But using this method is probably as close as you can get. My Twitter friend Neal Bruce has used a similar approach in his tactics training, and has found it to be very helpful. I have also tried it myself, but not quite with the amount of discipline that Neal or de la Maza have had. Still, it has improved my pattern recognition and my tactical abilities. I have written a couple of posts about this on my previous blog.

Who should read this book?

This book is mainly for players at the beginner to intermediate level. It may help some readers to find a more structured approach to their chess studies. Personally, I found it interesting and somewhat inspiring, but it is not among my favorite books. The message and the content is basically the same as in the original article, and in my opinion, there is simply not enough content to fill an entire book (albeit a rather thin one). If you happen to stumble upon the book, I recommend that you read it. But I wouldn't go out of my way to get hold of it.

About this book

Author:Michael de la Maza
Title:Rapid chess improvement
Type of book:Chess improvement
Level:Beginner/Intermediate
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Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 18, 2020 at 12:53 AM

    "The message and the content is basically the same as in the original article, and in my opinion, there is simply not enough content to fill an entire book (albeit a rather thin one)."

    That is the consensus view. Best just to read the article (which is available online for free). It's also worth noting that de la Maza quit chess after hitting 2000 USCF.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ArdbegJuly 18, 2022 at 1:31 PM

    First of, I think you have a really cool site over here. I often find myself (and I guess many others as well) in the same place as you, as an adult chess enthousiast. But somehow learning new things doesn't come as natural anymore as it once did. I think many can relate to that, so keep up the good work here!

    I have a question about your blog on chess.com. There you state that you create pgn files from chess books with lucas chess. Could you please explain how to do that? I still do this manually, which takes an awful lot of time. Thanks in advance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dr PatzerJuly 18, 2022 at 9:47 PM

      Thanks for your kind words. It’s always nice to get positive feedback.

      My method was to scan the books to pdf and then scan with Lucas Chess. Now you can do this easier with apps such as Chessify or Chessvision.ai.

      Delete

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