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Learn from mistakes - part 2

Study your own games and learn from your mistakes! This is an age-old piece of advice that is thrown around in the chess community all the time. But how do you actually learn from your mistakes? This is a tricky question that rarely gets the same level of attention. So when you come across a book with the title Learn from your chess mistakes, it has to be a good sign - right? A friend of mine had this book in his collection and suggested I read it. It took me some time to get around to it, but finally I went through it. And let me just warn you at the get-go; this book has very little to do with your chess mistakes. But anywho, let's dive in!

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What can you expect from this book?

Chris Baker (author of this book) is a British IM, and as far as I can determine, this is the only chess book he's written. However, he is also the writer of the column "How bad is your chess?" in Chess Magazine, which seems to be a sort of inspiration for this book.

According to the back cover Learn from your chess mistakes aims to present typical mistakes of average players and help them identify and avoid these mistakes in future games. However, I am not entirely sure this statement is correct.

First of all, the book contains examples from master level games, and not your typical amateur player in the 1400-1800 range. This is a minor issue, as illustrative mistakes can be made at all levels. Instead, my main objections go directly to the core of the book: Learning from your mistakes. Does it help you do that? Instead of me telling you, let me give you a chapter-by-chapter summary so that you can make up your own mind.

The book has three "parts" which cover (1) openings, (2) middlegame and (3) endgames. These are in divided into sections that are numbered continuously throughout the book. This is a bit unconventional, but does not detract from the reading experience.

The openings part contains six subsections. These cover opening preparation, choice of openings, opponent's preparation, move orders and traspositions, and standard themes. Some key learning points from these sections are:
  1. Don't fall for traps!
  2. Don't get rigid. Try new ideas from time to time.
  3. Good preparation = deep preparation. Also: Don't forget your lines!
  4. Practice your openings in real games.
  5. Understand the theme of the opening and know more than your opponent!
  6. Try to predict what opening variation your oppenent is aiming for.
All of these points seem valid - at least for play at higher levels. However, I am having some difficulty seeing the relevance at lower levels. Also, I don't really see how all this relates to the topic of the book. Of course, you could turn everything around and say that there's a typical (?) mistake behind every point (e.g. failing to choose the right opening, not understanding the opening theme or forgetting lines). But even so, the book does not help you correct these mistakes.

Part 2 of the book is about the middlegame. This part also has six subsections, and these discuss problems related to losing the thread of the position, miscalculation, confidence (too much or too little), judgement, initiative, and missing opportunities. Here, I found what I think is the best piece of advice in the book (at least pertaining to the topic of learning from your mistakes). The following quote illustrates the point (p. 49):
Before you write off a mistake as just a tactical oversight, be sure that's what it really was. (...) Then try to root out the real cause of the defect in your position and correct it.
The remainder of the part (what's wrong with the term 'chapter'?) has some other learning points that may be more or less useful:
  1. Think in terms of concepts rather than heavy analysis.
  2. Check the position and do a new analysis every time your opponent has made a move. (Contradicts point 1?)
  3. Don't have too much or too little confidence! (Paging Goldilocks...)
  4. Be good at judging 'quiet' positions! (Easy peasy!)
  5. Try to gain/keep the initiative!
  6. Be mindful of critical moves. Don't miss your shot!
Once again, all of these point seem valid. But simply showing a few game examples does not help me as a reader improve any of this. Maybe I could improve my middle game judgement a tiny bit by studying the three games in section 10. But somehow I doubt that will suffice. Let me know if I am being overly critical here.

Finally, part 3 of the book is about the endgame. Unlike the first two, this part has only five subsections. The topics at hand are endgame technique, planning, spotting tricks, good and bad pieces, and control. Once again, we have some key learning points:
  1. Know your theoretical endgames!
  2. Be good at planning!
  3. Always look for tricks!
  4. Beware of good pieces turning bad!
  5. Control the game if you can!
The book ends with a puzzle section of sorts. The header is 'Spot the mistake'. Here, we are given ten positions and prompted to find the 'worst' move in each of them. The objective is not to find the absolute worst move, but rather a bad move that seems viable. Also, you should aim to find the correct move in each position. I found this a bit confusing and gave up after the first two. However, I found it amusing that you get a score from 1 to 100 on a 'Patzer Scale'. Bonus points for the name!

Although I have tried (not very hard) to stay relatively neutral in my presentation of the book, I think my sarcasm and disappointment in the book shines through. So as you probably have realized by now, this is not a book I would recommend as a resource for correcting your mistakes. However, the examples in the book are overall rather entertaining. Also, the games are well annotated and could definitely be used for learning purposes. But I think the book fails miserably in terms of its main objective.

Who should read this book?

As stated above, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. But the book happens to be available for whatever reason, you can definitely read it like any other game collection. But don't go out of your way to get it.

About this book

Author:Chris Baker
Title:Learn from your chess mistakes
Type of book:Game collection
Level:Beginner, Intermediate
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