I’ve spent a considerable amount of time and energy studying lots of chess books and playing online trying to improve. However, I found a lot of the material too complicated or difficult to retain and saw little improvement.

I did make some useful discoveries though:

1. Openings WHITE: The London System and the Colle System are easy to learn and play and you can survive opening mistakes. 1. d4 seems very forgiving!

2. Openings BLACK: The French Defense 1 .. e6 is reasonably easy to learn and the ideas can be used to defend against 1. d4

Armed with the above I managed to avoid getting wiped out in the opening since immediate tactics are less of an issue and the king is fairly safe.

However, I came to the conclusion that tactics were the way forward in January 2008. I found Dan Heisman’s book recommendations the most helpful.

http://home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Events_Books/General_Book_Guide.htm

Studying – Chess Tactics for Students by John Bain made a massive improvement to my online play

Look at my graph from February onwards (http://www.playtheimmortalgame.com/profile/playerprofile.php?uid=367600)

I do have the seven circles book and I did start the process off. I did all the board vision exercises and that made a BIG difference.

I did all the CT ART level 10 and level 20 with good percentages but struggled on level 30 and found that I didn’t have the time to stick to the plan

However, it inspired me to put a programme together that includes:

Studying the Bain Book – Every theme 10 times
Studying the Woolum Book (from Heisman’s page) – Every section 10 times
Studying Pandolfini’s Endgame course – Every section 10 times
Studying the 306 mate in ones for Lazlo Polgar’s Chess 5334 problems – 10 times
Running through CT-ART level 10 and level 20 when I get opportunity – when you have a family it can be easier to put a book down than a computer.

I would disagree with the seven circles book when it comes to openings, strategy and endings. I believe you do need to study them as well but tactics is the most important thing to study and should be given the most time. However, if you don’t study openings then you probably wont survive the opening to play your tactics.

Andrew