When you study chess by yourself, it's not surprising if you come across time when improvement is near to impossible. Like every serious chess players, you do your share of hard work and sacrifices. The difference being that you are stagnant whereas others are smoothly enjoying the fruits of their labor. You feel that you had reached a plateau and no amount of dedication or practice would help.
During this time of negativity, it's best to take a break. Take the game as it is i.e chess is a game. In the meantime, reflect on yourself. When my rating remained consistent for almost 5 years, I thought I had reached the plateau. No amount of study increased my rating. On the other hand, players who were a class below me had become a master.
So, I was disappointed and thought life is unfair. When I reflect on myself, I realised that I was playing too much. Even though my chess understanding improved dramatically, I was lacking that spark. The spark that is the finisher. I found out it was due to a nervous system breakdown. Eventually I stopped playing chess.
After years of irregular chess study, I couldn't keep up with the latest opening theories. I played sicilian defense against 1. e4. Hence, I started playing surprised opening like scandinavian defense. I saw better results. I asked how did an objectively inferior opening gives a better results. From that moment an inspiration dawn on me. I'm no longer interested in superficial knowledge anymore rather I concentrated on true understanding.
The very next tournament I increased approximate 20 rating points. I was doing very well giving my 100%. Unfortunately I got headache during the tournament due to extreme heat. I was scared that I might get brain damage, so I played cautiously. Therefore, I lost a game and drew two in the remaining three games to push me far away from winning a sizable prize money.
TRY TO CONTRIBUTE SOMETHING OF YOUR OWN TO THE EXISTING THEORY
This is very important as a learner. There come a point when everybody knows what you know. Getting an edge out of it isn't easy anymore. Here comes the benefit of your discovery. Hard work paid dividend. This approach gave me vigor to start learning chess from another angle. It gave immense pleasure to realize that you indeed contribute something.
TRANSFORM YOURSELF
Doing the same thing gives the same result. Hence start doing things differently. Try incorporating contrasting ideas to your existing philosophy. If you are a die hard fan of open games, try closed game on purpose. If endgames are boring, make sure that you study endgames more. This will not guarantee sudden improvement but it surely forced yourself to grow.
Note: I love 1.e4 openings but I stopped playing forcing myself to start learning 1.d4 openings. My chess journey will continue.
SET A NEW GOAL KEEP A CLEAN RECORD
Learning is a personal thing. Forget others. Whether they are doing better or worse is not our business. Let's focus on improving our self. Day by day try breaking your own best performance. If our best rating is 2000, crossing 2000 is an achievement. Remember the day that happen. Go back to your initial start and see how far you had come. That will give you satisfaction.
As Voltaire puts it, "God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well." Chess is not the end of the world. When any attempt to improve failed, there is nothing a person can do. Maybe change the hobby or just wait as nature takes it's course.
During this time of negativity, it's best to take a break. Take the game as it is i.e chess is a game. In the meantime, reflect on yourself. When my rating remained consistent for almost 5 years, I thought I had reached the plateau. No amount of study increased my rating. On the other hand, players who were a class below me had become a master.
So, I was disappointed and thought life is unfair. When I reflect on myself, I realised that I was playing too much. Even though my chess understanding improved dramatically, I was lacking that spark. The spark that is the finisher. I found out it was due to a nervous system breakdown. Eventually I stopped playing chess.
After years of irregular chess study, I couldn't keep up with the latest opening theories. I played sicilian defense against 1. e4. Hence, I started playing surprised opening like scandinavian defense. I saw better results. I asked how did an objectively inferior opening gives a better results. From that moment an inspiration dawn on me. I'm no longer interested in superficial knowledge anymore rather I concentrated on true understanding.
The very next tournament I increased approximate 20 rating points. I was doing very well giving my 100%. Unfortunately I got headache during the tournament due to extreme heat. I was scared that I might get brain damage, so I played cautiously. Therefore, I lost a game and drew two in the remaining three games to push me far away from winning a sizable prize money.
TRY TO CONTRIBUTE SOMETHING OF YOUR OWN TO THE EXISTING THEORY
This is very important as a learner. There come a point when everybody knows what you know. Getting an edge out of it isn't easy anymore. Here comes the benefit of your discovery. Hard work paid dividend. This approach gave me vigor to start learning chess from another angle. It gave immense pleasure to realize that you indeed contribute something.
TRANSFORM YOURSELF
Doing the same thing gives the same result. Hence start doing things differently. Try incorporating contrasting ideas to your existing philosophy. If you are a die hard fan of open games, try closed game on purpose. If endgames are boring, make sure that you study endgames more. This will not guarantee sudden improvement but it surely forced yourself to grow.
Note: I love 1.e4 openings but I stopped playing forcing myself to start learning 1.d4 openings. My chess journey will continue.
SET A NEW GOAL KEEP A CLEAN RECORD
Learning is a personal thing. Forget others. Whether they are doing better or worse is not our business. Let's focus on improving our self. Day by day try breaking your own best performance. If our best rating is 2000, crossing 2000 is an achievement. Remember the day that happen. Go back to your initial start and see how far you had come. That will give you satisfaction.
As Voltaire puts it, "God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well." Chess is not the end of the world. When any attempt to improve failed, there is nothing a person can do. Maybe change the hobby or just wait as nature takes it's course.
No comments:
Post a Comment