How do YOU Study Chess?

Hi,

I'm contemplating changing the way I organize my time for chess study. Currently, I get in an hour or so every morning, brief stints during the day, and sometimes a concentrated effort in the evenings. This I do following an 8 hr breakdown as outlined in the "How To Study Chess" document provided on this site. So, typically I would devote an hour in the morning to a rotating schedule of subjects (Opening, Endgame, Middlegame, Tactics) and a smattering of tactics and board visualization drills, on and off, during the day.

I feel like I am thrashing about, however. To this end, I was going to try focusing on one aspect for an entire month of study. As I play during the month, take notes as to what areas are asking for attention, and focus on one of those areas following the next month, etc., etc.

Any suggestions out there?

If you are also doing the openings, esp. 1.d4 you might find it more efficient to try this...

In the lesson on Tactics in month three the final page to "Calculation in Chess" gives "specific training to improve calculation" Basically they recommend analyzing games, after a brief warmup, You have already been shown how to analyze games from month 1.

Month 11 opening study is a collection of games from the first three months of the course. Each collection has a one or more model games that are annotated and are ideal for practicing the lessons on calculation. The unannotated games in the collection also are useful to work with.

In addition to providing a practical focus for your study, game analysis is the place to practice the lessons from the course and get a balanced rationing of openings, middle games, and endgames.

The only thing you *might* need to do is some work on basic endgame techniques.

Thanks PC,

It never occurred to me to look forward to the coming months for some extra advice. I will review some of those docs this weekend.

Thanks