The Chess improvement Blog
Now it s time to talk about the weight of extra knowledge. Last week s analogy (You already know more than you can use): knowledge is the gear, skill is the body you built for the hike. This week, why loading gear you don t need costs you. The Extra Weight Same body, more weight, and you re slower [ ]
Last week I wrote about why trying to figure out strategy during a game is a lost cause. The logical reaction: learn more strategy. Stock up now, so you re never caught not knowing. If that worked, everyone consuming chess content would be a Grandmaster. They re not. So something else is going on. Going For A [ ]
One of the key aspects of chess playing that gets misunderstood is how to use strategy in a real game. Seeing Grandmasters and YouTubers explain so many interesting concepts can easily persuade you to try too hard to understand apply strategic concepts. Today I want to share a super simple rule of thumb: If [ ]
I keep getting the same question from Real Chess Training students: The 6 positions in 45 minutes really push me. Can I adjust it a little bit to make it easier? My answer is, and always will be: no. The difficulty is the whole point. A World of Comfort We ve confused comfort with success. And [ ]
I see it daily with students. They want to play so well that they end up in time trouble, spend time on fancy ideas and miss the simple things. I was the same as a Grandmaster. I wanted to play perfectly on every move. Often, I did manage to outplay my opponents. But at a [ ]
Calculation is hard. But many of my students make it harder than it has to be. The truth is: you’ll never see everything. It also isn’t necessary. You just need to see what is crucial to make a good decision. Here is how. When It Is Enough I recently had this position in a 1:1 [ ]
Some students misunderstand what I mean by saying: “Play with good focus.” In their minds, this means quickly getting into a state of flow, consistently. But that’s not possible. And worse, this wrong expectation is what makes good focus so much harder. Forcing Yourself To Fall Asleep I’m sure you know the feeling of lying [ ]
In my professional career I fell for the same tempting psychological pitfall many times: Dreaming about a perfect future tournament, instead of improving the current one. Here is how it happened, and what you can learn from it. The Trigger Bad tournaments happen to everyone. What we do while we are there, playing below our [ ]
Do you know that feeling lying in your bed, really satisfied with yourself because you ve done some hard things today? For me, it is one of the best feelings. And a great indicator of how good my day has been. That applied to chess, and now also elsewhere in life. Not During, but After Most [ ]
Recently I had a lesson with a student where we discussed opposite side castling. The main takeaway was this: As soon as there are opposite side castled kings, a flip needs to switch and it is all about attacking. The same day, he played a game and got in this position: After 9…0-0-0 he could [ ]