How do you learn to be an aggressive player?

I found Josh waitzkin's Attacking Chess at the library yesterday. Wonder if that would help me?

Grit

How to become a more aggressive player? Try getting my wife to see sense. You'll learn fast enough 🙄

Originally posted by atticus2
How to become a more aggressive player? Try getting my wife to see sense. You'll learn fast enough 🙄

?????????

Hi Grit.

Try not to jump around from book to book looking for the quick fix.

That Morphy book or any book that gives you tactcial ideas is good.

Give the Morphy book a going over. Have at least one book under your belt
rather than a few pages from dozens of other books.
Don't close the book because Morphy has sacced a piece....

I told you to resign all those other games and go out and throw pieces at
people and have some fun and you are Game 7725301.

I cannot say anything till they are finished, then we pick the bones out.

I want you to go down with guns blazing to snap you out of your shell
and shrug of this fear of defeat.

So what, you lost a game of chess?

At least now your pieces are coming off the back rank and chances and
traps for you are appearing where before you were just getting squished
without even producing a threat.

You need a few more bloody noses till it suddenly all gels, and it will,
but it won't happen over night and from few pages in a library book.

I've been reading a few obits for Bent Larsen one of the most aggressive player's ever.

This quote keeps coming up.

"To win, it is necessary to accept lost positions."

Larsen had a few horrible losses on his CV but far out-numbering these
were these glorious memorable super wins.

To win you have to accept you may lose and as long as you gave
a good account of yourself and fought toe to toe then there is no
shame in losing and nothing to fear.

It's a game, not a matter of life and death.

Public flogging.

I told you to take in those threads on Bates Motel.

Developing Miniatures and Traps RHP under 1400 Fall For

But it looks like you perhaps looked at one or two games and that was it.

Grit I blistered my fingers to the bone entering over 60 games in there.
Each one was carefully chosen to give players ideas and sharpen them up.

Now get back into Motel and look at those Developing Miniatures (do 6 a day).

And for the sake of us all Grit. Cheer Up!

Homework:

Punishment for posting in here, you will only end up with
a fresh armful of books not to read. 😉

After Black has castled I want a small note after every Black move.

Start at move 12...Nh5 as to why this move was played then a wee note
after each Black move, ignore White's moves I just want you tell me
what you think Black was up to. (add an improvements for Black if you see any).

Every move in every game has a reason, an idea behind it.
I want your thoughts on each Black move. Just a few lines.

But answer this in full to the best of your ability.

Did Blackburne need to stop for 16...cxd6.
What difference did allowing white to play Nc3 make?
Does it still work without 16...dxc6.
Play put the exact moves leaving out 16...dxc6. 17.Nc3.

What was going through Blackburne's mind on 16...dxc6?

This is you asking the game questions and you giving the answers.
It's called studying.

Post in your thread in Bates Motel. You have one week.

Steinkuhler - Blackburne ,Manchester, 1863

Three pieces always mate. Steinkuhler underestimated the attack
totally missing Blackburne's brilliant Q-sac.

GP, I will go back into the motel now and work on those games you told me to a long while ago. I will stick with Morphy this time. And i will try to analyze all of black's moves and thinking in the game you posted and do it within a week.

I know I come across as some kind of shrinking violet. Actully I am quite outgoing and go for things with a lot of confidence. But in chess - i have no confidence and think at the beginning of each game that I will lose.

Grit

Originally posted by grit
GP, I will go back into the motel now and work on those games you told me to a long while ago. I will stick with Morphy this time. And i will try to analyze all of black's moves and thinking in the game you posted and do it within a week.

I know I come across as some kind of shrinking violet. Actully I am quite outgoing and go for things with a lot of ...[text shortened]... chess - i have no confidence and think at the beginning of each game that I will lose.

Grit

I don't really have the patience to go over GM games in full or read chess books... So what I do (when I have the time) is get the pgn of some (relatively) famous attacking game and enter it into Fritz. I'll fast forward to the point where the evaluation is 2.00+ and then put Fritz on max playing strength.

I'll try and maintain the pressure against Fritz as long as possible, spending maybe 10-15 minutes per move. A lot of positions are so fever-inducingly complicated it's often impossible to calculate all variations to a meaningful ply, so I'll just play the move which looks most aggressive. 2/3's of the time I end up drawing or losing a better endgame as my interest wavers, but the point of the exercise is to keep the pressure on as long as possible, and to train yourself to recognize aggressive moves when you have the opportunity to make them.

***You can't do this drill with just any game/evaluation... Many times the evaluation is 2.00+ simply because you can snatch a piece or central pawn and then consolidate over the next 10-15 moves, which is no fun. Or, if you wait until the evaluation is at 4.00+ and then play, often times the computer will make a "computer move", sacrificing a rook or something to avoid checkmate in 5 moves, something a human would never consider.

Still, if you can find good games for this drill I recommend it. I actually find it pretty fun most of the time which is the most important part about chess study. I made a thread maybe 2 months ago asking people what their favorite World Chess Championships were, and someone recommended starting from the beginning! I accepted the challenge and so far I've gone through all of the Steinitz WCC's (just the attacking games). It's an awesome feeling to be playing the same position as Steinitz was 100+ years ago! For example, this position is from game 1 of the first WCC:



Black (Steinitz) to move. You're advantage clearly lies on the the kingside... therefore that's the side of the board you want to play on. If you dilly-dally white will consolidate and your advantage will dissipate... All your pieces are on great squares save the queen, you'd be wise to find a way to get her into the game. Give it a try.

Hi Grit

I know from your Bates posts you are anything but a shrinking violet.

We are talking about game here, not delving into the human mind.
I'm just here to help you enjoy playing and not treat all games as torture.

You will enjoy going over Morphy. And anythig you don't understand, ask.
If I cannot answer it then I know loads of stronger players who can.

You said:

"I think at the beginning of each game that I will lose. "

So do I Grit. So do I. 😉

Grit- At the start of the game, don't think about winning or losing. Think about making the best moves you are capable. See yourself calculating clearly and accurately- but don't be paralyzed worrying about the outcome.

Get in the Bates Motel, do your homework. That will cover the chess side. If you must read a book, read something more like"Book of 5 Rings" by Musashi or such. When you sit down to play, you are going to come home with your shield.. or on it. 🙂

Originally posted by greenpawn34
I told you to take in those threads on Bates Motel.

Developing Miniatures and Traps RHP under 1400 Fall For

Originally posted by Shallow Blue
Beg pardon, but where do I find those? Naturally I am very curious as to the latter one... A web search for Bates Motel, naturally, brings up only cinematic references. Even if I add Chess to the search terms all that adds is this thread. And looking through your blog and your Embra Chess column I can't find them either, so unless I didn't pay proper attention (again), they must be elsewhere.

Richard

2 wins and 17 losses... i'd learn how the horsey moves before doing anything if i was you.

what you need is some seriously simple tactics...

He's a challenge alright. The toghest I've had.

He moves far too fast, drops pieces and gets fed up.

Hard to do this not face to face, but enjoying it, else I would not attempt it.

Originally posted by Green Paladin
Club 196