the harsh reality of 'chess improvement'

[iancunningham]

In my experience, it's about accepting the fact that effective chess study/gameplay will never be purely fun (if "pure" fun implies letting one's intuition lead the mental processes behind the training/gameplay unquestioned/unrestricted).

[RealityCheck]

Beginners have a "favorite piece" my opinion is they focus on using more of the queen &/or bishops. I tested this theory 4 months ago & to my suprise, I ended up suffocating the position everytime the beginner activates their queen &/or bishops. I did it with the knight & pawns. Once it happened, they shook hand everytime, simply bec they were clueless about other pieces.

[GigaShiv]

Ok, I'm a 1570 fide, started playing 2 years ago

I watched one of your main ideas in catalan vid and tried it against an 1856, he played the semi slav setup and I went for that nd2 idea and it worked! I squeezed his position so nicely and that idea really helped! Thanks ❤

[polyphony]

I like the very simple analogy "the brain is a muscle". As much as I love the artistic side of chess, I've come to realize that improving at chess isn't so different from the gym. There's a ceiling somewhere, but you can improve a LOT through consistent training before you reach it.

[happyhornet]

It's a myth that you can always improve. People have ceilings that it's almost impossible to get beyond, especially if they've been playing chess for a long time. It's like saying you can run as fast as Usain Bolt, when we have a limit to how fast we can run. Chess creates this crazy hunger to constantly improve and people think they can be a grand master, when the reality is that our brains limit us. It's far better to enjoy chess than have this crazy lust to improve your chess and your rating. Enjoyment is more important.

[christopherparsons]

The better you get, the harder it gets to improve yourself and your opponents get more difficult also. Or, another way to look at it is that the closer you get to perfection, the harder it is to see your faults.

[walterbrownstone]

I prefer to think of it like this: If the ability to play chess was tied to the ability to walk, we would all be better at chess. Chess is not hard, but chess is hard to make fun sometimes.

[RobertZitka]

Once you plateau, you either stay there or hire a respected coach.

[JoseDownUnder]

Great topic to discuss, a very relevant one for all the club players out there. Thanks Sam.

[jonshive]

Russian chess trainer Mark Dvoretsky wrote that most chessplayers reached a plateau from which they could never advance regardless of how diligently they trained, played or studied. Apparently there's a Peter Principle at work here; everyone has their own level of incompetence at anything and once you're there that's it. Also if you're not a GM by the time you're 30 years old you might as well forget it. (Just ask John Bartholomew.) Fabiano Caruana recently had something to say about people at that age who might consider other options if they've reached their limits playing chess, which is just a board game after all.

[rajahzia]

Age is a big factor here. A 13 year old has a room to get 1000-1500 ELO over the next 10 years. A 30 year old will be lucky to get 100 points. A 40 year old will be lucky not to lose his current rating.

[nomoreblitz]

sure, many players simply don't spend enough time & effort on the right things for their level. however, the harder question imo involves the larger group of adult improvers who get stuck between 1650-1850 FIDE despite working hard & smart for years.

[КонстантинДемьянов-лп]

That Bob example lowkey cracked me up 💀

[mariorossi]

If you are watching this video (or any other of course) you are not improving 🙂
this is the harsh reality of chess improvment

[humlakullen]

There are different brain “hacks” you can use. If someone needs to memorize a bunch of facts, they can use mnemonics for example.
To see the different possibilities on a chess board, you can start practicing expanding your awareness. Close your eyes and imagine a random number (or a letter) in the darkness in front of your eyes. If you can easily “see” two, or three numbers/letters next to each other, then try to expand that to four or five. Don’t “count” them left to right. Visualize them all at once.

[BobChess]

Youtube can make you 1600 elo fide. After that it's only yourself.

[galanda]

Why Does the London system receive so much hate?

[kristianrother]

Solid advice. Regular habits trump grandios plans. Subscribed :)

[fpsmeter]

No training = no improvement, simple as that. Same in every sport. I play golf. My handicap was dropping very fast as I learned how to play and was training a lot, then it stopped aroud 20 it was becaming more and more difficult to improve so I gave it up and started playing just for fun. There's always a plateu and law of diminishing returns, where each hour of training will yield less and less gains and it takes HUGE amount of time and systematic & organized effort to achieve the "holy grail" level in given discipline e.g. HCP 0 in golf or FM title in chess. And even this holy grail does not put you in the best, coz best golfers have even lower HCP and in chess there are IMs and GMs and super-GMs. At certain point individual talent also helps, but it just moves the plateu level a bit further.

[alexanderlicudine]

Have you considered applying for the candidate master title? Since your peak rating is well over 2200, I’m sure it’ll be approved!