Solitaire Chess

I found the previous article when I was doing research on "Solitaire Chess". It showed up when I did a Google search for "Solitaire Chess". For those who don't know what Solitaire Chess is (I assume this applies to most of the readers), it is simply a method of training where you play over an instructional game, and guess the moves of the winning player. So if Bobby Fischer was White in a game where he won, you try to guess only the White moves.

I recently became so fascinated by Solitaire Chess because I heard that at a recent training camp held for America's top junior players, Grandmaster Kaidanov was stressing the importance of the game. Nationally renowned chess trainer Bruce Pandolfini has a monthly "Solitaire Chess" column in Chess Life magazine, but I always ignored it. He also wrote a book with the same name (I think it is a collection of his articles). I decided to contact two friends of mine (a Grandmaster and an International Master) who are both stronger players than I am. I asked them what their opinions about this training method are. They both highly recommend it! I know a lot of great chess teachers and players are reading my blog, so I will appreciate any feedback you have related to this game.

I decided to be the guinea pig in my own experiment and play the game. After trying it out, I decided that it is a very fun way of improving. When I am playing Solitaire Chess, I find myselfing thinking the same way I do when I play a serious game. When I study using traditional methods, this does not occur. Grandmaster Kaidanov was recommending this training method to people with ratings over 2500 at the recent training camp, and he uses it himself (he is one of the top players in the country). Bruce Pandolfini uses it with his young and inexperienced students. I must warn you that it is important to use a good game to play Solitaire Chess with. If you are a beginner, you must find a simple game! I suggest you use something from a "Game Collection" book, or ask a strong player to recommend some games to use. It is also good to have an annotated copy of the game, so you can review the game in detail after you play Solitaire Chess. I used my book "The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played" written by Irving Chernv, and I used the very nice positional game Smyslov - Rudakovsky. From what I read online, some players play Solitaire Chess with a clock running, to really simulate the chess playing environment.

I created a special Solitaire Chess score-sheet that I highly recommend you use if you play this game. If you would like a copy of it, email me and I will send you the excel file. Fritz and Chessbase have a very nice "training" feature that will allow you to play this game easily. Basically when you load a game in Fritz or Chessbase, you can view the chess moves in "training mode" where it does not display any future moves unless you ask for it, and it will only show you one at a time. If you do not have Fritz or Chessbase, you can play Solitaire chess by simply covering the upcoming moves in a chess book or magazine, or better yet, have another person to help you play this game.

That is enough about Solitaire Chess for now. I am excited because I can use it to improve my own skills, and I will definitely introduce it to my students in the near future.