The Truth About Chess Improvement (It's Not Easy)

It is just like mathematics. Some get it easily and some don't. That's simple. Even those found it easy have a hard time improving. People are tempted by the fact by the recent takeover by teens in the Chess world. Dudes, these teens have been playing for 5-8 years, after that they have reached that level, that too after rigourous training by top coaches.

16:18 books

this feels like the Rafi Law Firm but for chess, direct, honest, and void of any unecessary optimistic exaggteration

But okay, once we're no longer seduced by the clickbait improvement methods, the topic for many ambitious adult improvers is this: "I know it's hard but there must be more efficient ways of training than others."

Thank you

Thank you for all the useful advice! You're my favourite chess youtuber when it comes to psychology. Which brings me to my question: Could you maybe at some point make a video about how to recover from a setback? I just had a horrible tournament in which I lost almost all my progress from the last year of playing. I know elo shouldn't be the focus, but it is an indicator of improvement and it's so tough to think you're doing fine but then one single weekend gets you back to square one. I also struggle to deal with tilt during tournaments. Contrary to online chess, you can't just stop playing when things don't go your way!

Fixed timeslots for people working in three shift system? Good luck with that. Especially after night shifts - it's good if I can avoid blundering puzzles let alone do actual practice.

Or those chess videos where the thumbnail says ‘I’ll teach you in 10 minutes what took me 20 years’ ya okay buddy.

noel im 2200 ultrabullet are you proud of me :)

NOEL .. Excellent .. I was a training and operations instructor in the army , after college went into management . have done my share of teaching . Your approach to simplicity in understanding the basics then to work ones way up slowly is well put and should be easy to understand for most . You have explained the " KISS Principal "which I learned in the early 1970's . Keep it simple stupid , which has become at least here in the USA , an approach to various disciplines in both research and development . Never to make training / learning so hard it cannot be learned .

Most of the chess club players that I know have been vacillating between 1600 and 1900 elo rating for the past 30 years despite practising and play chess everyday.

I love the content and the community here! It’s rare to find a channel with such thoughtful, intelligent, and humble followers. Keep up the great work, everyone.

There is an actually very simple test we can all take by ourselves. We just open a good puzzle book and try to solve most of the difficult but realistic positions and if we feel difficult then there a lot of work we need to do I mean hard work because when you face such positions in real over the board games, if you can’t solve, then you will lose as simple as that no chess knowledge or shortcut can replace your hard work.

Yes there are a lot of grifters out there in all walks of life BUT there are also a lot of people who are just waiting to be grifted. They want to know "The only chess opening you need to get to 2000 ELO" Even when I had no clue about chess, I was very suspicious of these types of video titles because my gut instinct was - Even if it is a great opening what do you do after the first few moves? Even the Caro-Kahn (which is a good opening btw) has three variations on like move 3 or something. And that is just the 3 common variations but what if your opponent does something weird? Then there's the issue that by the time you get to move 10-12, in any opening, the chances are you'll be in a position that has never occurred before in any of your games and quite possibly never occurred in any game of chess ever! So where's the video for that scenario??

In every day life the words "Simple" and "Easy" normally mean the same thing and can both be used to describe the same task. But in this video you have explained the distinction between the two words very well.

Thanks for sharing your approach

12:50, what does it mean exactly to learn one opening? A lot of openings have a lot of variations and transpositions. If you play 1… e5 as black, for example, you’re learning the italian, the ruy lopez, scotch, kings gambit, etc. Something like this seems like it would require a hefty amount of study to be sufficiently prepared.

What worked for me was identifying how I lose my games. Mostly because of surprise surprise, tactical overseights + thinking too long and getting into time trouble. Both issues really came down to one thing -> I was weaker and slower than my opponents in spotting tactics and calculating. So I stopped studying strategy and/or openings as I was already better than my opponents in that and instead I spent 90% of my study time doing tactics ("100 tactical patterns you must know workbook" was a nice book I went through) and some calculation training. 6 month of good work later and I played a few tournaments and achieved both norms for 1st polish category which Ive been trying to get for the past 3-4 years. Focusing on my biggest weaknesses first was the way to go. It's still my biggest weakness but instead of getting a 4,5/9 or 5/9 score in a tourmanet now I'm getting a stable 6/9 or 6-5/9 score which is huge.

"Thank you so much for the valuable insights! Your video helped me clear my mind. I am currently 2000 ELO online and 1500 FIDE. For months, I struggled with the doubt that I might be 'too late' to pursue professional chess, since most start as kids. However, despite being a university student and working, I realized I still have precious free time that I want to invest in what I love. I have an international youth championship in 4 months. Despite the fears and the voice inside saying I might be wasting my time and i wont achieve nothing in chess , I’ve decided to push through the doubts and start my professional journey now. I’d rather try and fail at what I love than never try at all. Wish me luck and if you guys have something to add please let me know !

I agree with your premise but I would add a third dimension, it has to be sustainable. And here is where the tension starts, the perfect plan should be simple and as easy as possible as long as it is more or less effective and sustainable. If is easy but very difficult it will probably end up being unsustainable with the risk of burn out.