How can books help you get better at chess if their are chess engines? I believe that chess engines alone can make you better at chess . .
Neither of them will help you to such an extent as most probably think. You have to absorb the material through practical experience, you have to take responsibility for your own moves. Just "seeing" and just "reading" won't help much. Getting the feeling takes you years, chess is more practical skill than theory.
Books help more so with the theory aspect of chess than tactical prowess.
A person reading books all the time if they read the good stuff will learn some openings, have a good idea on strategy, but tactically will be lacking experience. I have played against such players before. They seem to get a great position, but them miss a key tactic rendering the position lost for them.
A person who plays tactics all the time will likely suffer from not having a good enough strategic idea. I have come across players like this before. You just gotta be solid for long enough, and when they don't get the tactics they want the get too aggressive, and wind up crumbling.
Put the strategy from the books in with the tactics from the engines and now you are getting somewhere, and you got a tough opponent.
A person reading books all the time if they read the good stuff will learn some openings, have a good idea on strategy, but tactically will be lacking experience. I have played against such players before. They seem to get a great position, but them miss a key tactic rendering the position lost for them.
A person who plays tactics all the time will likely suffer from not having a good enough strategic idea. I have come across players like this before. You just gotta be solid for long enough, and when they don't get the tactics they want the get too aggressive, and wind up crumbling.
Put the strategy from the books in with the tactics from the engines and now you are getting somewhere, and you got a tough opponent.
And by "Books" I don't mean just books. I'm not talking about grandpa sitting by the fire sipping a cup of tea looking at a Morphy game from a book... It can be looking at GM games, listening to lectures, looking into openings, tinkering around with table bases, and so on. Not actually playing so many games, but deep analysis. and all that. I figure you mean the theory side of things.
And by tactics I don't just mean tactics trainer, could be playing many bullet games, playing the machine, playing tons of games never stopping to analyze them.
It's all about balance.
It's all about balance.
On books:
When I asked GM Igor Kovalenko about this, he told me that you need to read a book like a novel. Most of Kasparov's books a readable this way. He also mentioned that anyone* can make a 2500 at home with hard work, so the answer is YES, books help. My tip would be to guess the move before you read it, and only then compare it with the text in the book.
About the engine: Anand once told that if you use the engine correctly it will help you a lot, and the correct way is to answer him correct questions. If you go threw variations yourself then compare it to what machine says and analyse why the engine suggests so, then it becomes a powerful tool in improving your chess.
When I asked GM Igor Kovalenko about this, he told me that you need to read a book like a novel. Most of Kasparov's books a readable this way. He also mentioned that anyone* can make a 2500 at home with hard work, so the answer is YES, books help. My tip would be to guess the move before you read it, and only then compare it with the text in the book.
About the engine: Anand once told that if you use the engine correctly it will help you a lot, and the correct way is to answer him correct questions. If you go threw variations yourself then compare it to what machine says and analyse why the engine suggests so, then it becomes a powerful tool in improving your chess.
Well I don't think like an engine and I have no ambitions of doing so either.
Practising with engines and thus learning from them and adapting their style belongs to the Top3 of excuses of convicted cheaters...
Sure, they can be helpful. But: they might make the good better and the bad worse. ;)
Sure, they can be helpful. But: they might make the good better and the bad worse. ;)
В своей жизни я не встретил ни одного сильного игрока, который бы не знал, не читал шахматной литературы. Зато идиотов-счётчиков, которым понимание книги, в силу их слабого интеллектуального развития, недоступно, сколько угодно.
P.S. Вообще, как можно без книг разобраться в эндшпиле?! В эндшпиле ведь надо мыслить не вариантами, а схемами!
P.S. Вообще, как можно без книг разобраться в эндшпиле?! В эндшпиле ведь надо мыслить не вариантами, а схемами!
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