Comments on https://lichess.org/@/letpchess/blog/do-you-hand-write-your-chess-studies/ugiB8ujt
Your blog posting has made me stop and think about my own learning methods, so thank you for that.
I know I learn best from reading. I hardly ever watch videos because I like to go at my own pace, which is exactly what reading allows. But perhaps pausing videos and writing notes would actually really suit me too.
Like you, I would also write things down much more readily than making electronic notes.
Against that, my general laziness stops me writing notes. Like most players I study chess for enjoyment, and the discipline of noting things down seems like hard work. But I might give it a try now I've read your blog posting.
@Brian-E said in #2:
> Your blog posting has made me stop and think about my own learning methods, so thank you for that.
>
> I know I learn best from reading. I hardly ever watch videos because I like to go at my own pace, which is exactly what reading allows. But perhaps pausing videos and writing notes would actually really suit me too.
>
> Like you, I would also write things down much more readily than making electronic notes.
>
> Against that, my general laziness stops me writing notes. Like most players I study chess for enjoyment, and the discipline of noting things down seems like hard work. But I might give it a try now I've read your blog posting.
Oh wow! I am happy that you would consider something I said about training seeing that you are much higher rated than I am. I am not a strong chess player for many reasons, but I do like learning new things and have some ideas on how to enjoy the learning process. I am glad something I wrote was useful to you. THANK YOU so much for saying so!
There's a chess book authored by Daniel Naroditsky when he was 12 years old, "Mastering Positional Chess." His parents Vladimir and Lena wrote the preface, in which they explain that the book was based on notebooks that their son had written over the years:
"Daniel would spend hours filling notebooks with small, calligraphic characters and diagrams he printed from ChessBase. Since he was about four years old, Daniel enjoyed writing and kept countless notebooks of his thoughts and short stories. Daniel loved writing in his notebooks much more than just typing on the computer. Writing is inevitably slower, and allows you to comprehend the material much better. It has always been aesthetically pleasing for Daniel."
@Gerundium said in #4:
> There's a chess book authored by Daniel Naroditsky when he was 12 years old, "Mastering Positional Chess." His parents Vladimir and Lena wrote the preface, in which they explain that the book was based on notebooks that their son had written over the years:
>
> "Daniel would spend hours filling notebooks with small, calligraphic characters and diagrams he printed from ChessBase. Since he was about four years old, Daniel enjoyed writing and kept countless notebooks of his thoughts and short stories. Daniel loved writing in his notebooks much more than just typing on the computer. Writing is inevitably slower, and allows you to comprehend the material much better. It has always been aesthetically pleasing for Daniel."
Nice! I didn't know that. Thanks for sharing. I am thrilled to have these types of responses. I learn a lot from people.
@Gerundium said in #4:
Perhaps the phrase "diagrams he printed from ChessBase" is more of a nod to the computer age.
Diagrams are a problem when writing notes. Before the computer age I had a set "transfers" for making diagrams on paper. You could make chess positions by starting with a transfer of a bare 64-square board coloured light and dark and then adding a position using transfers of pieces. For those who don't remember them, transfers were pictures in synthetic material attached to a sheet of soft transparent plastic, and you could place the plastic on a piece of paper and scribble on the other side to make the picture transfer itself from the plastic to your piece of paper. I could make nice looking diagrams with the set but it was laborious, slow work. I'd lose my train of thought while making the diagram!
@Brian-E said in #6:
> Perhaps the phrase "diagrams he printed from ChessBase" is more of a nod to the computer age.
>
> Diagrams are a problem when writing notes. Before the computer age I had a set "transfers" for making diagrams on paper. You could make chess positions by starting with a transfer of a bare 64-square board coloured light and dark and then adding a position using transfers of pieces. For those who don't remember them, transfers were pictures in synthetic material attached to a sheet of soft transparent plastic, and you could place the plastic on a piece of paper and scribble on the other side to make the picture transfer itself from the plastic to your piece of paper. I could make nice looking diagrams with the set but it was laborious, slow work. I'd lose my train of thought while making the diagram!
Oh yes! I know about these... a little before my time... but my mom was a teacher, so I know about some of the odd tech and low tech methods of copying things... Time consuming for sure, but I am sure the result looked cool at the time...
I remember seeing a video about this guy who played correspondence chess THOUGH ACTUAL snail mail. He would receive a letter in the mail with the player's next move and he would write it down make that move on his board, make his move, write it down and mail the move to that player. Slow, tedious and expensive over time.... The cool part, he had a notebook with more than 20 games going at the same time and the "boards" he used were paper sets where the pieces were moved around the board by sliding them into slots on the page. Notes were made on the opposing page. Then he could turn the page and play a different game. SO, SO tedious, but I liked the look of his notebook and thought about making my own just because it is flat and portable and adorable. Sorry, I think I am completely off topic to what you wrote, but some of the old technology is so cute to me.
Yes, I played postal chess like that too throughout the 1980s. Except for very important games where clear proof of each move and date sent was required and where we would therefore use special postcards, most games were played by writing the move down on a special sort of scoresheet which you would send to the opponent and receive the same scoresheet back in the mail. We saved paper and some time by reusing envelopes: they were window envelopes and our names and addresses were written on each side of the scoresheet to show through the window. The postage stamp would be stuck over the other ones on the envelope, and each envelope would get quite thick in the top right corner with the little mountain of used stamps. Those paper sets that you mention were indeed available for postal chess but I didn't actually have any, so even more laboriously I would play through the whole game from the start on a normal chessboard to reach the current position before playing each move!
Those were the days. :-)
@Brian-E said in #8:
> Yes, I played postal chess like that too throughout the 1980s. Except for very important games where clear proof of each move and date sent was required and where we would therefore use special postcards, most games were played by writing the move down on a special sort of scoresheet which you would send to the opponent and receive the same scoresheet back in the mail. We saved paper and some time by reusing envelopes: they were window envelopes and our names and addresses were written on each side of the scoresheet to show through the window. The postage stamp would be stuck over the other ones on the envelope, and each envelope would get quite thick in the top right corner with the little mountain of used stamps. Those paper sets that you mention were indeed available for postal chess but I didn't actually have any, so even more laboriously I would play through the whole game from the start on a normal chessboard to reach the current position before playing each move!
>
> Those were the days. :-)
Oh my word! Playing through the whole game from the start each time?!!! The patience required is commendable. I wonder if those paper sets still exist. I would love to have one. I have quite a collection of different chess sets and like to play them in different situations. That would be a good set for a long metro commute sitting next to a friend. I think it would be better than the small magnetic boards because you could just close it when getting off the train.
@Letpchess said in #9:
> Oh my word! Playing through the whole game from the start each time?!!! The patience required is commendable. I wonder if those paper sets still exist. I would love to have one. I have quite a collection of different chess sets and like to play them in different situations. That would be a good set for a long metro commute sitting next to a friend. I think it would be better than the small magnetic boards because you could just close it when getting off the train.
If any such paper sets still exist I expect they must be quite valuable. Museums would probably be interested.
Though I didn't have any, I understand that they were quite flimsy and not really suitable for actually playing a game with a friend. You'd have to handle them quite delicately anyway. Not suitable for blitz games. :-)