Month 4 excercises evaluation - learned something?

I'm at 25% of month 3. I feel a lot of those lessons is merely looking at the games and nodding "yes". Not sure "how" to learn what exactly; For example cramped enemy piece gives me extra space, but not sure what tangible things I should learn.

So I looked ahead at the tests in month 4. I was surprised they didn't ask me to identify the problem domain (lead in development, cramped piece, collaboration, local superiority). They do that for you! You have to find the winning moves instead it seems. I don't know how useful this is compared to regular tactics exercises elsewhere.

So what did you learn/achieve in month 4?
Remember, I'm FIDE 1400. These tests look very difficult as well. I'm kinda nervous I'm doing something wrong. The visualization practice is going great. So that gives me some hope.

Good question. Remember that the course goal is to teach us how to think.

I think you must reframe your approach for this set of problems. The goal is to train, not test, your strategical thinking.

The intent is to give us practical exercises to reinforce the lessons in month three. For example, the very first problem is identified as a situation where white is behind in development. Month three identifies actions for both sides in such positions, so when you look at the problem you should be able to recall the actions an apply the correct course of action.

I think that a lot of folks never achieve mastery in chess or elsewhere because they fail to appreciate the differences between training, testing, and competing. Each has it's place and time, train to learn, test to confirm learning, and compete to advance your goals.

You will receive plenty of opportunity to solve "cold" puzzles later in the course.

Hang in there, you will do fine.

Okidoky.

I also think there is too little exercises (I'm in month 5). Mostly the study is passive. You look at the examples, nodding "yes, it look good", but you are seldom asked about the best moves or how to think.

As others have said, there will be more exercises further in the course, but I wished more exercises had been included in the early months.

I'm not a big fan of tests, although I do enjoy solving problems.  They are useful to verify I recall what was taught, but not very useful to evaluate understanding.

I mentioned I was looking again at the stuff from month two on the centre and pawn structures. Drazen Marovic's book Dynamic Pawn Play in Chess covers the same topic in detail with annotated games. The introduction states "every opening system and variation is based around the relation between the pawn formations, pieces, and central squares". This is a complete "reframing" of my approach when I first studied the lesson. I was satisfied that I had got it initially, now feel my understating at the time was superficial. They state that there is more to come in the lesson, but they really don't dig down until the lessons on the "Systems of Champions" in a following year.

Could it be that the comprehensive approach by Drazen Marovic is a little much for Month 2? I felt Month 2 perfectly introduced the types of centers and the relevance of identifying them. But ways to exploit this knowledge, just like almost everything else, requires something of a book.

Personally I have set the goal to study the ways of healthy piece and pawn play furiously, with the intent to move on to excellent books such as mentioned by PawnCustodian.

Balancing chess study is so hard.

Valmont wrote:Could it be that the comprehensive approach by Drazen Marovic is a little much for Month 2? I felt Month 2 perfectly introduced the types of centers and the relevance of identifying them. .

Yes. I suppose I am being harsh.

The course materials provide the best introduction to the topic anywhere. Years ago before ICS I tried to work my way through Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis, organized around the openings. At the time it was way over my head because the openings and strategies were unfamiliar to me. I think I still have the book around somewhere, I recall that all of the openings are introduced in the openings course so it may be worth a relook.

This book by Soltis strikes me as really good, but I don't have time for it.
This Soltis book and this Marovic book are on top of my list. Haven't decided on endgames yet.
But the ICS course has priority for me.

Valmont wrote:Haven't decided on endgames yet.

If I could have only one endgame book in my library it would be Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual.  It has a fast track with all of the basic techniques; triangulation, coordinate squares, rook distance, etc. and when you are ready to dig down it has the advanced examples for study. It's a book you can grow with.

My second addition would be Kasparyan's Domination is 2,545 Endgame Studies. It's kind of nerdy, and as the title implies is focused on the theme of domination. The studies are analytical (they are representative of what you might see OTB) and are great puzzles that leave a deep impression on how pieces coordinate. I recall reading once that the Polar sisters' dad would assign problems from the book when they were up and coming children.

Before anyone runs off to buy the Domination book be aware that there are some annoying cooks and typos that are scattered throughout the book. (Not unlike Fine's Basic Chess Endgames where it became great sport to be the first to find errors).

I keep a copy of Harold Van Der Heijden's endgame database (HHdbVI) on hand for when I get stumped. If you can deal with the annoyances the book is still a great resource.