Late chess bloomer here, tagging 70 soon, and lately I have been crafting my "Manifest 2026" training regimen for chess and health. Played my 1st and only OTB(866Elo) last spring then took the rest of the year off for other pursuits. Enjoying your content and all the great ideas. Hoping we both can enjoy the journey and move closer to our goals!
Thanks for the comment and best of luck on 2026! Unsolicited advice but if you're starting out, focus on training visualization and basic tactics. It'll get you far!
You kind of threw in the part about turning off your lichess ratings for the next six months at the end. I’m intrigued what effect that might have. I’ve really gotten into Nate’s 100 games of blitz challenge this month (115 games and counting), and see lots of benefits to playing much more than I was. One key is not to get caught up in ratings where I start valuing a new breakthrough (like, now I’m 1800 and I don’t want to jeopardize that). I have been handling that by telling myself, hey, your goal is 2000 and the way to get there is to play 500 more games— so being 1800 doesn’t mean anything. Turning off the rating might accomplish the same thing…
Thank you! Yes, I would rather spend time with my kid and wife than be 1800. I'm willing to accept losing at chess but am not willing to accept losing them.
Late chess bloomer here, tagging 70 soon, and lately I have been crafting my "Manifest 2026" training regimen for chess and health. Played my 1st and only OTB(866Elo) last spring then took the rest of the year off for other pursuits. Enjoying your content and all the great ideas. Hoping we both can enjoy the journey and move closer to our goals!
Thanks for the comment and best of luck on 2026! Unsolicited advice but if you're starting out, focus on training visualization and basic tactics. It'll get you far!
You kind of threw in the part about turning off your lichess ratings for the next six months at the end. I’m intrigued what effect that might have. I’ve really gotten into Nate’s 100 games of blitz challenge this month (115 games and counting), and see lots of benefits to playing much more than I was. One key is not to get caught up in ratings where I start valuing a new breakthrough (like, now I’m 1800 and I don’t want to jeopardize that). I have been handling that by telling myself, hey, your goal is 2000 and the way to get there is to play 500 more games— so being 1800 doesn’t mean anything. Turning off the rating might accomplish the same thing…
Give it a try and see how you feel
Thank you! Yes, I would rather spend time with my kid and wife than be 1800. I'm willing to accept losing at chess but am not willing to accept losing them.