Improvement plan for a senior

[Andy Stoker]

That's really helpful, Mr Hooshdaran. Thank you! I seem never to have passed on a few books from my youth ("My System"!, "The Middle Game" - Euwe and Kramer (2 vols), "Basic Chess Endings" (Fine), "Attack and Defence in Modern Chess Tactics" (Pachman) and "Chess with the Masters" Beheim. Perhaps I should now read them!

I will certainly look at your suggestions. I like the idea of Lev Alburt's "Chess for the gifted and busy" - and feel I am half-qualified to benefit from such a book (!).

I note your advice about the number of games - I can't imagine I would ever approach 70 - but your advice is probably sound.

[soheil_hooshdaran]

You're welcome.
Well, GM Miroshnichenko said anything between 40 and 150 is OK, but the normal advice is about 5 per month.

Hope it's helpful. Have a good luck!

[John McKenna]

Good to hear of your return to chess, Andy.

Soheil forgot to mention one thing in his, otherwise sound, advice - you could follow his example and post your games on a foreign chess forum in the hope that players there will comment constructively.

Your book list contains mostly classic works that will always be worth reading, and rereading (I'm not familiar with 1960s' "Chess with the Masters" by Martin Beheim - Bernard Cafferty wrote a book of the same name in the 1970s).

Enjoy, no matter what.

[Andy Stoker]

Many thanks Mr McKenna. I think I am tuning in to the nuances of this forum!

Having taken it down from the shelf, and opened it for the first time in *many* years, I see that Beheim's book was revised by the marvellous Mr Barden "... bringing the story right up to the Hastings congress of 1961-2" - JE Littlewood-Barden (1-0, generously chosen by LB) and JEL-Botvinnik (0-1). I received it as a school prize in 1969 (same school as Tony Miles). I don't know if Mr Cafferty (a school teacher also in Birmingham in those days) revised this same book or produced his own (with AJ Gillam, I see) - haven't seen much information on the web, though one site indicates 80pp - so possibly a compilation of diagrams challenging readers to find the next move - I seem to remember that BC compiled the puzzles for "Chess" magazine at that time.

[Reg Clucas]

I seem never to have passed on a few books from my youth ("My System"!, "The Middle Game" - Euwe and Kramer (2 vols), "Basic Chess Endings" (Fine), "Attack and Defence in Modern Chess Tactics" (Pachman) and "Chess with the Masters" Beheim. Perhaps I should now read them!

That resonates with the advice given by John Saunders in his column in a recent Chess magazine. Someone was wanting to buy a new book, and asked for recommendations. John's advice was along the lines of "Don't bother buying a new book. Instead, read one that you already own - but read it properly this time!"

[Andy Stoker]

You mean that sleeping with my engineering textbook under my pillow didn't actually do my revision for me? Explains a lot.

OK - a plan is forming - many thanks to all - more suggestions welcome ... first need to retire and prioritise chess against the myriad other things I want to do.

[Roger de Coverly]

(same school as Tony Miles).

You could check out 4NCL squads for familiar names.

Warwickshire Select have Chris Shepherd and Malcolm Hunt who I believe were of that era.

http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2016-17/me ... t.html#wks

[soheil_hooshdaran]

Here you can find other great books free of charge:
https://archive.org/details/folkscanomy_chess

[Andy Stoker]

Many thanks Mr de Coverley.
CCW Shepherd and MA Hunt were indeed of that school and just about that era - though 2 or 3 years older than me (and I was the year above Tony). Ameet Ghasi is the strongest more recent product - but of course much younger.

[Stewart Reuben]

Andy Why not join in Senior International Chess? You would have been good enough to join us in Crete in May for the World Senior Team Chess Championship. There is also the British Senior Individual in Llandudno.