How to Create a Chess Study Plan

A chess study plan works when it commits you to a small set of materials and forces you to study them deeply instead of jumping from one book, DVD, or opening to the next. That is the core advice in Bhavya Singhal's article "How to create a Chess Study Plan" on ohchess.org, published June 18, 2025. The plan below turns that principle into a routine you can actually follow.

The mistake most players make

Singhal notes that many students and enthusiasts ask how to build a study plan, and many have already tried several approaches. The recurring problem is not effort — it is switching. A player starts a tactics book, watches half an opening DVD, reads a few chapters of an endgame manual, then moves on before finishing any of them. Nothing gets absorbed deeply enough to show up in games.

The fix is structural: choose fewer resources, and build the plan around finishing and revisiting them.

Steps to build your plan

1. Pick one primary resource per area

Limit yourself to one main item for each training area you decide to work on — for example one tactics book, one endgame text, one opening repertoire source. Write them down so the list is fixed rather than decided fresh each session.

2. Set a realistic weekly schedule

Decide how many days per week and how long per session you can genuinely sustain. A short, repeated block beats an ambitious schedule you abandon in two weeks. Assign each session to a specific area rather than mixing everything every day.

3. Study deeply, not broadly

Work through the chosen material to completion. When you hit positions or lines, solve or calculate them before checking the answer, and note what you got wrong. This is the "extensive study" Singhal points to — depth over coverage.

4. Review and revisit

Return to earlier material instead of only pushing forward. Re-solving problems you previously missed is where the improvement compounds.

5. Track what you actually did

Keep a simple log of sessions and topics. It shows whether you are following the plan or drifting back into resource-hopping.

A simple weekly template

Adjust the areas and frequency to your level and available time; the structure matters more than the specific split.

Common sticking points

• Temptation to switch resources. When progress feels slow, the urge is to start something new. Resist it — finish the current material first.
• Sessions too long to repeat. If you cannot keep the schedule for a month, it is too heavy. Shrink it.
• Studying passively. Reading without solving or calculating produces familiarity, not skill. Always attempt the position first.
• No review loop. A plan without revisiting old material loses much of its value.

Where this fits on ohchess.org

The article sits alongside other instructional posts on the site, such as "Art of Time Management," which addresses a related practical skill: many coaches tell students to play slowly to avoid blunders, but that advice can cause players to slow down on simple decisions and then blunder late. Together, the two pieces point to the same theme — deliberate, structured habits rather than scattered effort.

For Ohio-specific context, the site also lists upcoming tournaments and event news, so you can pair a study plan with regular competitive play.