The Improver's Path
After 15 years making every possible wrong turn, I finally hope to choose a path. But which one?
As Lao Tzu supposedly wrote: "The eternal way has no name". OK, so the Tao Te Ching "quote" is a little cliché, but honestly it rings true. There are countless paths that the average adult chess improver can follow, but are any of them THE path? I can't answer that, and I am not going to try. However, I can try to relay my own experience. I offer my many mistakes to Caïssa and hope that what I have learned has some impact on improvement.
That is what this blog is all about. Improvement. My improvement. Sorry (not sorry), but although I hope reading this may be useful, as an average club-level player I am not here to help you. I don't see how I can. There are so many titled players who offer a path to follow, who know a bucket-ton more about this game than me. Whether on YouTube, Chessable, via Lichess blogs, behind private paywalls, books, coaching, etc, you have a lot of choices, so take your pick: but before you do, read on...
My chess journey so far has seen me try it all. I have changed direction more times than the wind. I have changed openings even more than that. As I said, I have made every mistake - let's take a look, shall we?
- Constantly studying openings: check.
- Playing too much bullet and blitz: check.
- Not analyising my games: check.
- Buying books and courses and not finishing them: check.
- Giving up too easily on puzzles and just clicking to see the answer: check.
- Playing moves impulsively without working things out and calculating: CHECKMATE.
I could go on but you get the point. What have I learned from doing this? Not much. I know a little about a lot. I am pretty good at openings. Whilst I saw a steady increase in my ability for a while, my current plateau in strength has lasted four or five years.
So, I have decided to do something about it, and believe I have found my path. For those of you who want to know what it is, I will tell you, but I would like to stress I am not selling these platforms or affiliated with them or anything.
It started with ChessMood. I got access to a free month of learning and tried some of their courses. Honestly, they are the best quality courses I have ever seen. If you only try one, check out BlunderProof. If you want to see more on how this helped me, they recently did a success story on my first-ever OTB tournament win, gained after studying this course.
Through them, I discovered GM Noël Studer and his Next Level Chess course. This is a course about how to learn and is a total game changer.
Finally, there is IM Andras Toth. Struggling with what openings to play? Do yourself a favour, go and watch this and this and this video. I am currently watching his Amateur's Mind series.
I will add that, in the past, I found having a coach useful. I have worked with two of note: Phil Makepeace of Makepeace With Chess and Vlad Ghita. There are also other great resources that I have tried and can recommend, such as Chess Dojo and NM Robert Ramirez's YouTube. The latter is especially good for beginners, as you can follow his videos in chronological order as a complete (and free!) course.
Taking all the learning gained from these places, I have now put together a training program that suits my needs and fits the time I have available for chess (hint, it is mostly tactics, training games, and analysis). I have trimmed my opening repertoire down to just 76 moves, with 3 to 8 move depth per line, and will now only study openings whilst I am analysing my games, building this over time. Playing according to principals whilst adding calculation and logic is the real key here. I have also removed my OTB rating from my profile, and don't care what I hit this year, or next.
Finally, I have made two more important changes. First I have resolved to no longer spend any money on chess books or courses, and will use what I have already at my disposal. Second, I have deleted all my social media accounts so I don't get as distracted. I even deleted my chess-dot-com account.
All this has brought me here, to this Lichess blog. It is a space I hope to use to document my journey, to reflect on what I learn, and hopefully as an inspiration toward continued progress. The above is, after all, only a statement of intent. The famous saying about the road to hell comes to mind, but I am determined to follow the improver's path.
Perhaps, you would care to join me?
