Skip to main content

All by myself

How do I study chess in the most effective way? This is a question most chess players ask themselves at some point. Once in a while there comes a book that promises to deliver the definitive answer. And just a few months ago, such a book came out; How to study chess on your own. With such a title, this is a book that I just had to read. Should you read it too? In order to answer that, I think you should read this review and figure it out for yourself.

If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details.
Become a Patron! 

What can you expect from this book?

Like many other books, the first time I heard about How to study chess on your own was on the perpetual chess podcast that featured an interview with author Davorin Kuljasevic. The interview made me curious about the book, so I decided to get it.

How to study chess on your own is a big book. It has 380 pages that spans 9 chapters (plus solutions), 71 annotated games and 34 tests of different kinds. As is customary for new books, the publisher has provided some sample pages where you will find the table of contents and a small taste to give you an impression of the book.

According to Kuljasevic, the core of your chess studies should be analysis. He argues that you should analyze your own games carefully and list your mistakes.  This is an idea that is also recommended by Axel Smith in his book Pump up your rating. However, Kuljasevic goes a bit further and suggests that you can do the same with other people's games. For instance, you could look up a few of Alekhine's games and analyze them on your own, and then compare your analyses to what Alekhine writes in his collection of best games.

Based on the mistakes that you find (in your playing and/or your analytical work), you should identify the areas of your game that are in need of improvement, and this should be the basis for your study plan. For instance, if you find that your calculation is off, you should do some calculation/visualization training. Or if you make tactical mistakes, focus on tactics. For me, personally, the main problem is positional evaluation.

For most club players, we will identify mistakes in all parts of the game. This means that the list of areas that need improvement will be quite long.  As I discussed in my previous post on chess improvement, a study plan can cover all parts of the game (opening, middlegames, endgames, tactics, calculation, visualization etc.) or it can be focused on one or a few areas. As I indicate in that post, distributing your study time over all areas that require improvement will lead to a sort of Bilbo Baggins effect - "like butter scraped over too much bread". If you spend 30 minutes per week on a certain area, your improvements will probably not be very substantial. And this is where the usefulness of the book starts to decrease.

The study plans recommended in the book require about 30-40 hours per week. That's the equivalent of a full-time job. For mere mortals like us, for whom chess is a hobby, this is simply not realistic. He does address this fact, and suggests that if time is very restricted, you should stick to a more focused plan. The problem is that with such an approach, a large proportion of his advice will not be very relevant.

Kuljasevic defines five different categories in his book. 

Intermediate:1500-1800 Elo
Advanced:1800-2100 Elo
Improving youngster: 1900-2200 Elo
Master-level player:2100-2400 Elo
Strong titled player:2400+ Elo

Most of the advice in the book presumes that the reader is at the higher rating levels. So as a reader in the "intermediate" category, I felt a bit neglected at times. For instance, how realistic is it for a player at my level to study openings and trying to find novelties? Not very likely at all.

Despite the fact that I felt that the book wasn't written for me, there are a few suggestions that I take with me in my further chess studies:
  1. Create your own personal study plan based on your goals and improvement areas.
  2. Study openings deeply, all the way through the endgame. (Also recommended by JJ Lang)
  3. Gradually build your personal databases for each part of the game (openings, middlegames, endgames). Each database should include things like:
    • Themes
    • Interesting positions
    • Model games
  4. Don't study tactics only through puzzles. Also study dynamic play and learn how to generate tactical opportunities.
  5. Analyze games,  your own and other people's. Study critical moments and important variations, and conclude each line with an evaluation.
Richard James reviewed the book in British Chess News, and he essentially captured my impressions in the following quote:
There’s a lot of great – and highly instructive – chess in the book as well, so you might enjoy it for that alone. Much of it, though, I felt, was aimed more at the higher end of the rating scale. It would also be good to read a book on how to study chess written more for average players with limited study time.
This is a "talky" chess book, almost philosophical at times. Those who are familiar with my reviews will recognize that as the kind of book that appeals to me. And while I did enjoy it, I will not recommend it to everyone.

When I picked up this book, I hoped that it would provide the guidance that I need in my studies as an amateur player. But I realized that complex plans are probably only relevant for advanced players with high ambitions. So for the time being, I’ll stick to my own plan.

But it was an interesting read.

Who should read this book?

This book seems to be written with advanced players or very ambitious players in mind. The average patzer without ambitions of world domination will not get the most out of the book. If you're a regular person with other things to do, it can be an interesting read, but probably not the best use of your time. This being said, it is very insightful and good. So if you are a titled player aiming to improve further, or if you're up and coming and aiming for a title (FM or higher), this book will most likely be very useful.

About this book

Author:Davorin Kuljasevic
Title:How to study chess on your own
Type of book:Book review, Chess improvement
Level:Intermediate, Advanced
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular reviews

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. ...
3 comments
Read more

Estimating playing strength

Have you ever felt like your chess rating doesn't represent your actual playing strength? Sometimes we want to be able to estimate playing strength based on individual games rather than rating (which changes more slowly). During the past few months, I've been taking a number of online courses and learning python for data analysis. In one of the courses, the final project allowed me to choose my own dataset. So surprise surprise! I chose something chess related. (Not really surprised, are you?) When we play games online, getting a computer evaluation is just a few clicks away. And a commonly used statistic is the average centipawn loss, or simply the average deviation from the computer's best move. Many of us tend to think that centipawn loss (CPL) is a good estimate of playing strength. And, of course, it gives some indication, but it's far from a perfect predictor. Fellow chess/statistics blogger Patrick Coulombe has investigated the correlation between rating and CPL ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Master of strategy

During the past two years, I’ve been working on improving my strategic/positional play. In this process, I have read a number of books, and two books that have long been on my reading list are the strategy books by Johan Hellsten. So when the Swedish chess federation requested reviewers for two of these books, I didn’t hesitate. I am happy that I was given the opportunity to review these books, and hope this review can be of help to you as a reader. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from these books? Johan Hellsten has created a name for himself as one of the leading experts of chess strategy in modern times. His series of strategy books ( Mastering Opening Strategy , Mastering Chess Strategy and Mastering Endgame Strategy ) have received glowing reviews from many parts of the chess world. So it feels good to finally dig into these nuggets. His endgame book is still in my boo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Understanding middlegames

Have you ever found yourself unable to find a move in the middlegame? Of course you have. We all have. About ten years ago, this was a recurring problem for me, which led to a lot of frustration. My conclusion was that I needed to learn how understand middlegames. So what better way than to read a book with the title Understanding Chess Middlegames ? Sound like the perfect remedy, right? Ok, let's find out. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron!   What can you expect from this book? I first read this book when I was just starting to study chess seriously. I bought it after reading a recommendation in an online forum. I would say this was ten years ago, but the book came out 2011, so it couldn't have been before that. Anyhow, my playing strength was probably around 1200 (I was unrated at the time) and I was having trouble choosing moves in non-tactical positions. Basically, I was playing without ...
1 comment
Read more

Attack the king

One of the finest chess books ever written. Those are tall words from the back cover of this classic book. But The art of attack in chess is one of those books that keep popping up in lists of best chess books. It is highly regarded by many players and trainers, so the initial statement is probably not all wrong. This is a book that has been on my reading list for several years, but it has taken some time for me to actually pick it up. I've been curious about what the hype is all about, and now that I've finally found out for myself, I am ready to share that insight with you. So let's dive in! What can you expect from this book? Before we begin, let me just get one detail out of the way. One thing that struck me when I picked up the book is the title, which seems to be missing a "the". When reading about the book online, it is referred to both with and without "the". When I looked up the original book (this one is a revised edition, edited by Joh...
3 comments
Read more