Becoming a Strong Chess Tournament Player (Part 4)

Summary of the Plan

1. Tactical Exercises - Every day. The foundation of the improvement plan.
2. Thought Process & Time Management - Critical components to becoming a real chess player.
3. Playing Games - Focus on longer/slower games.
4. Analyzing Games - Helps you identify and eliminate mistakes.
5. Master Games - Play over as many as you can to learn about all aspects of the game.
6. Openings - Learn the fundamentals, and don't waste time learning too many opening lines.
7. Other Areas - Best learned through playing over master games.

Training Schedule

Everybody's schedule is different. Feel free to adapt the plan to suit your own needs. We've put together a recommended training schedule as a solid example to get you started.

• Every Day: Do tactical exercises for 30 minutes.
• At Least Twice a Week: Play a slow game (at least G90 is preferable). Work on practicing good thought process and time management as you play.
• Once or Twice a Week: Continue to work through your master level game collections for about 60 minutes.
• Twice a Month: Analyze your slow games. Review any specific openings/endgames from these games. Document and review your mistakes.
• Your Remaining Study Time: Spend time with the books you have decided to read on openings, strategy, endgames, etc.

Final Thought

Finally, the most important thing to remember:

Keep Having Fun!

Keep doing what you love most, and what got you into chess in the first place. If you are a blitz fanatic, keep playing blitz. If you like to play by correspondence, keep doing it. If you love puzzles, keep solving them.

If chess becomes all study and no fun, than it really isn't worth pursuing!