i wish i could draw better
as much as i bag on ICC, i still like it a lot. i do play on FICS occasionally (my FICS handle is mandalorian), i like it, but i seem to prefer the look and feel of ICC to FICS. i find my mind wandering and i’m not able to see the board or concentrate as well when i play on FICS. i use the baba chess interface if that matters. i think part of the fun of ICC is the tools on there, as well as some really cool people. but the cool people aren’t interesting to write about, they are just cool pe0ple.
so i’ve been revisiting and re-going over games in chernev’s logical chess move by move and i got turned on to the colle system of 1d4, where you put your bishop and knight so they can support e4, and you tear open the middle and such. i really like it, it speaks to me, i feel comfortable with it. my brain seems to understand and accept it, it feels like a pair of comfy warm slippers, and it seems to work out ok on ICC.
i was reading secrets of chess training by dvoretsky/yusupov, which i know is waaaaaaay beyond me, but i like it, it makes me think and i intellectually understand what’s happening. in it, yusupov talks about keeping a sheet of papers (i use my notebook) and when you come to an interesting position in a game, draw it and talk about it and such. this helps to burn it into your brain, you end up with a nice catalog of positions, and it helps you learn all around. in the book they use a position from the zukertort – blackburne london 1883 game, (ive mentioned this in a previous post) and yusupov says draw the position and label it “attention to opponents possibilities” etc etc etc.
so i’ve been doing that with positions i like and i seem to get into or near. thing is, my drawing is shit. i could and probably should do the position online and print it out, but sketching it seems to help make you really “see” the position. so now my notebook has a bunch of pages with some shitty drawings that you cant really tell what the hell is going on in, and my 3rd grade scribbles next to them.
i can only assume im somehow learning. at least its a fun activity i can do on a rainy day, and it keeps me off the streets. it doesnt keep me from blitzing though. i still have to deal with that addiction.
oh wow, after reading my title, i bet it looks like i’m gonna make a joke about getting a drawn game. i’m not.
Ray Cheng said,
February 16, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Keeping a collection of interesting chess positions is a great idea. Did it myself for a while. I can’t draw either, so whenever I came across an instructive or fascinating move I’d devise a mixed drink based on it. For example, 35.Kg3! in Capablanca-Tartakower 1924 is
2 oz. Amaretto
4 oz. rum
5 oz. orange juice
5 oz. pineapple juice
juice from 1/2 a lemon
(Someday, you have got to taste 17.Rxb7!! from Kasparov-Shirov 1994.) After a while I realized I had a nice bunch of recipes, but this wasn’t helping my chess at all. Plus my physician threatened to remove my liver. So instead I entered the positions into a Fritz database.
abuteague said,
February 16, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Use this utility to draw better: http://www.eddins.net/steve/chess/chessimager
It can make things like this:
That is, if I’m allowed to post like this in one of your comments…
abuteague said,
February 16, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Didn’t work in the comment.
But it would work on your blog though.
Then you can print out your positions or post them on your blog.
blunderprone said,
February 17, 2009 at 5:59 am
Wetzell talks about a simple way to draw diagrams in his book ” Master at any age” .
Let me know if you don’t have the book. I might be able to scan a few pages and forward.
Yup, diagram positions and evaluate them yourself is a good method. I do this also with my own games which are more insightful of my chess-sanity.
Rolling Pawns said,
February 17, 2009 at 11:58 am
I started with Colle when returned to OTB chess 1.5 years ago and it served me pretty well. There are some anti-Colle systems that you should be aware of, though not everybody knows them.
) of my blitz addiction after understanding that it doesn’t improve my OTB chess. Now I think – almost doesn’t, so I play sometimes.
I am glad you are working on books. I got rid ( almost