Answers.Body: <p>Memorizing things move by move is very hard indeed. There's evidence that masters use something called chunking. Google chess masters chunking to see various links. A basic example would be instead of Nxd5 Bxd5 Bxd5 cxd5, you might think "everything is exchanged on d5." Masters might think "OK, we set up the King's Indian formation."</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://www.chessprogramming.org/Chunking" rel="noreferrer">https://www.chessprogramming.org/Chunking</a></p>
  
  <p>Once you understand basic structures and motifs, memorization will be easier. Until then, it may feel like studying for a test in a class you don't like.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-01-06T06:43:57.173Z
Answers.Text: the link is broken... the correct link is https://www.chessprogramming.org/Chunking
Answers.UserDisplayName: a3.14_Infinity
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-09-24T00:46:41.993Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-01-06T08:03:34.900Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2020-01-06T08:03:34.900Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: aschultz
Answers.Body: <p>In chess, memory is related to learning. The deeper you study, the easier it is to remember the most important points. Its about quality not quantity. You can "cram" openings, but unless you understand the position you'll start making mistakes. You'll play better if you focus on the types of positions that interest you.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-05-30T17:44:22.140Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2015-05-30T17:44:22.140Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Joe
Answers.Body: <p>There are a few techniques to remember openings - </p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>In the beginning, stick to a single opening. Ex: play only <code>1.e4</code></p></li>
  <li><p>Choose an opening that has fewer variations or that has (more or less) standard set of moves. For ex: King's Indian Defense or Sicilain Dragon variation. You can mostly play standard moves without worrying about white's moves.</p></li>
  <li><p>Study common traps in your opening</p></li>
  <li><p>Last (but not the least) - practice. Study more games and play often.  </p></li>
  </ol>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-08-02T03:38:42.690Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2013-08-02T03:38:42.690Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Nishanth
Answers.Body: <p>I found that flashcards are a great tool to help memorize complete games and game openings. They allow one to implement in practice many concepts mentioned in earlier answers.</p>
  <p>There are many flashcard software available, including free ones. Some allow to schedule future reviews based on the difficulty of a recall. The idea is to drill difficult moves more often then easier ones.</p>
  <p>A single flashcard could be created by taking a screen shot of a particular game position and inserting it in the question part of a flashcard.
  The answer part will contain the screen print of the next position of a game.</p>
  <p>One potential drawback of this method is that it can be time consuming. A game containining 70 moves will require 140 screenshots.
  There are ways to streamline it and even fully automate it.
  For example this <a href="https://www.chessflashcards.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">website</a> will create chess flashcards automatically out of a game saved in Portable Game Notation (PGN) file. Full disclosure: I am the author of this website.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-11-07T18:43:58.883Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-11-09T02:47:59.163Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2020-11-09T02:47:59.163Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: chessflashcards
Answers.Body: <p>Maybe just write the openings and some games down and read them very often. Just hang them up on some mirror, for example in the bathroom and then every time you brush your teeth, you see it and will remind it. You could probably also hang some post its on your cupboard / desk.</p>
  
  <p>On the openings part, just play your opening often and then you will automatically remember it. </p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-08-02T02:35:30.867Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-09-17T16:35:12.700Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2019-09-17T16:35:12.700Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Niklas
Answers.Body: <p>As trivial as it sounds, learn the board first. To the point where you can instantly identify any square just by randomly pointing at it. This will make memorizing easier by abstracting the board component while trying to "burn" a game into your brain.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-01-07T20:29:43.313Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-01-07T20:29:43.313Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: postoronnim
Answers.Body: <p>In my experience, memorization of chess games simply came from improvement. I first realized that I could remember the games of past tournaments when I was around 1600 ELO, and as I improved my visualization became sharper and I could recall games played years ago. My advice to you is to have the games notated and not just read, but <strong><em>play through</em></strong> them regularly. This repeated process of playing the moves of a game will help you retain the information necessary for you to recall the game in the future.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-08-02T08:40:45.663Z
Answers.Text: +1 I agree.  I just want to add that playing through the game on a physcial board helps memorization more than playing through the game on a computer.  This probably has something to do with your brain not just remembering the moves but also remembering moving your arms.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Halvard
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-11-08T08:00:46.393Z
Answers.Text: I'd add to this that stronger chess players need to memorize fewer moves to accurately remember a game, as some parts of it will just "feel natural"
Answers.UserDisplayName: David
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-08-02T06:57:55.693Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2013-08-02T06:57:55.693Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Andrew Ng
Body: <p>I study games from books, and would like to retain some of them in my memory, especially the opening part. I also want to remember my own games (I play about 5-10 tournament games - mostly against >2000 ELO rated players, and some rapid ones here and there). Are there any particular techniques or tips?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-01-08T08:48:28.740Z
Comments.Text: How do you memorize a song? You can just read it until you can repeat it, or you can try to understand it. Lyrics, melody, chorus verse and bridge. The deeper your knowledge about what makes music beautiful to you, increases your ability to remember beautiful pieces effortlessly. Same applies for chess.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Stian
Tags: <master-games>
Title: How does one memorize a chess game?
ThreadText: # How does one memorize a chess game?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2013-08-01)
  
  I study games from books, and would like to retain some of them in my memory, especially the opening part. I also want to remember my own games (I play about 5-10 tournament games - mostly against >2000 ELO rated players, and some rapid ones here and there). Are there any particular techniques or tips?
  
  **Tags:** master-games
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: How do you memorize a song? You can just read it until you can repeat it, or you can try to understand it. Lyrics, melody, chorus verse and bridge. The deeper your knowledge about what makes music beautiful to you, increases your ability to remember beautiful pieces effortlessly. Same applies for chess.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 7 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_8 on 2013-08-02. Score: 15 | Accepted answer
  
  In my experience, memorization of chess games simply came from improvement. I first realized that I could remember the games of past tournaments when I was around 1600 ELO, and as I improved my visualization became sharper and I could recall games played years ago. My advice to you is to have the games notated and not just read, but ***play through*** them regularly. This repeated process of playing the moves of a game will help you retain the information necessary for you to recall the game in the future.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_9**: +1 I agree.  I just want to add that playing through the game on a physcial board helps memorization more than playing through the game on a computer.  This probably has something to do with your brain not just remembering the moves but also remembering moving your arms.  
  > **username_10**: I'd add to this that stronger chess players need to memorize fewer moves to accurately remember a game, as some parts of it will just "feel natural"  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2016-09-24. Score: 6
  
  Memorizing things move by move is very hard indeed. There's evidence that masters use something called chunking. Google chess masters chunking to see various links. A basic example would be instead of Nxd5 Bxd5 Bxd5 cxd5, you might think "everything is exchanged on d5." Masters might think "OK, we set up the King's Indian formation."
  
  <https://www.chessprogramming.org/Chunking>
  
  Once you understand basic structures and motifs, memorization will be easier. Until then, it may feel like studying for a test in a class you don't like.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_3**: the link is broken... the correct link is https://www.chessprogramming.org/Chunking  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_0 on 2015-05-30. Score: 5
  
  In chess, memory is related to learning. The deeper you study, the easier it is to remember the most important points. Its about quality not quantity. You can "cram" openings, but unless you understand the position you'll start making mistakes. You'll play better if you focus on the types of positions that interest you.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2013-08-02. Score: 2
  
  There are a few techniques to remember openings -
  
  1. In the beginning, stick to a single opening. Ex: play only `1.e4`
  2. Choose an opening that has fewer variations or that has (more or less) standard set of moves. For ex: King's Indian Defense or Sicilain Dragon variation. You can mostly play standard moves without worrying about white's moves.
  3. Study common traps in your opening
  4. Last (but not the least) - practice. Study more games and play often.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2020-11-07. Score: 2
  
  I found that flashcards are a great tool to help memorize complete games and game openings. They allow one to implement in practice many concepts mentioned in earlier answers.
  
  There are many flashcard software available, including free ones. Some allow to schedule future reviews based on the difficulty of a recall. The idea is to drill difficult moves more often then easier ones.
  
  A single flashcard could be created by taking a screen shot of a particular game position and inserting it in the question part of a flashcard.
  The answer part will contain the screen print of the next position of a game.
  
  One potential drawback of this method is that it can be time consuming. A game containining 70 moves will require 140 screenshots.
  There are ways to streamline it and even fully automate it.
  For example this [website](https://www.username_5.com/) will create chess flashcards automatically out of a game saved in Portable Game Notation (PGN) file. Full disclosure: I am the author of this website.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_6 on 2013-08-02. Score: 1
  
  Maybe just write the openings and some games down and read them very often. Just hang them up on some mirror, for example in the bathroom and then every time you brush your teeth, you see it and will remind it. You could probably also hang some post its on your cupboard / desk.
  
  On the openings part, just play your opening often and then you will automatically remember it.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_7 on 2020-01-07. Score: 1
  
  As trivial as it sounds, learn the board first. To the point where you can instantly identify any square just by randomly pointing at it. This will make memorizing easier by abstracting the board component while trying to "burn" a game into your brain.
  
  
  ---
  
  