Life Master
A.J. Goldsby (a believer in the hard sell from his writing style) recommends memorizing grandmaster games as a training tool (tip 18). I do not believe in memorization alone as a good thing. I specifically recommend against memorizing opening lines for class players (except for traps to avoid in your openings). I firmly belive your opening study time should be spent concentrating on understanding the whys behind the moves played, while studying verbosely annotated complete games. But studying a grandmaster game so completely that you memorize it seems like a good idea to me.
I have already started a project of trying to analyze the games from Chernev's The Most Instructive Games Ever Played. The second game is a Sicilian Dragon that is similar to some lines of the Pirc that I play. So I think I will combine the two ideas. I will try to memorize Tal v Lisitsin by study and analysis.
Here is my analysis (with Fritz's help) of Tal v Lisitsin:
I have a mixed picture of the blessings of memorizing games. I decided to give it a try after reading the same advice from different sources.
ReplyDeleteAfter trying to memorizing a single game, then I was more positive. It came as a surprise. I think the goal to try to memorize the game made me think deeper about the game to gain deeper understanding of the reasons for the moves.
SO, I think it can be useful in minor doses. The benefits from the method is probably somewhere inbetween the belivers and the skeptics views.