25 Jan '08 03:39>2 edits
Originally posted by hammster21I have to wonder if you've read the right books 😉
Read a crap load of chess books. I've been on here for a little over a year and I have read close to 15 books. Subscribe and play more games. Study tactics and practice. Go play on FICS or RHP blitz...
Actually I'm only kidding about that. I find with books, maybe some types more than others, it can take a long while for the knowledge gained to kind of gel together, or click, and begin showing up in your games.
Probably this too is part of why so many players (particularly those rated under 1600 on RHP) treat tactics as though it were the solution to all of one's obstacles in chess. If only that were so. One thing studying tactics does do, that other types of chess study doesn't, is that you assimilate it faster. And as you learn more positional ideas that tactical knowledge provides a weapon to deliver that final blow when you've accumulated sufficient positional advantage. But not always.
In many games your opponent opts to play quietly and solidly and starts to squeeze you. And there are no tactics to be found anywhere. If tactics is all you know, then what? That's rhetorical by the way. I suppose I'm saying that even if you've read a lot of books (hopefully not 15 different opening books) and the rating hasn't caught up, its just that the understanding of the newly aquired knowledge - outside of tactical study - takes time to catch up.