The Plan...

Solving the chess dilemma

Once GM Yasser Seriwan was asked if he was starting all over again in chess, what would he do differently. His answer was he’d spend time trying to see which learning tool would help him the most and how to use it. We chess players are awash in options now. Youtube, books, Chessable, G-Chess, Twitch streamers, apps for your phone… the list just goes on. This is a serious dilemma for chess improvers. There’s so many options. It’s like trying to choose a medication for a cold. There’s tons of options and they all work about the same…which is not that much.

Barry Schwartz wrote about the strange paradox of choice, where having too many options was almost worse than having no options at all. This is the reality for adult improvement in chess. There are so many options that it is almost overwhelming. People can waste a lot of time trying to choose the best one. Often we will start down one path only to get distracted by another option later.

The simple answer is…just choose. Being stuck in analysis and then re-analysis wastes precious time. It’s almost like trying to see which work out routine is the best for you at your age and what equipment you’ll need. All that time spent doing research could have been spent lifting a weight or going to a gym. I empathize as I routinely obsess over “the best” approach to all sorts of things only to find it really didn’t matter.

Time management is one of those areas I obsess over. What am I doing, when am I doing it, and for how long? How will I fit it all in? All of us have limited time. Many of us might wish we could spend all day studying chess, but I don’t know that would actually work. I am an adult improver, but also a parent. Free and unencumbered time is rare and I often find myself trying to steal a few minutes here and there. Lately. however, I have come to believe that time is not the problem, attention is.

The strange thing is it’s almost easier to find time than to focus attention. Life is full of distractions, many of which are gamed to be addictive. We live in a time where our attention is monetized. Think about how it’s so much easier to play a late night blitz session than it is to dedicate 30 minutes to focusing on just one thing.

Jame Clear once said “Where you spend your attention is where you’ll spend your life.” (and energy). What has your attention? Is it the latest opening course? Is it the latest recommended chess book? For me it’s been trying to make an opening repertoire and playing blitz. However since I am <1850 USCF opening knowledge is probably not what’s holding me back. It’s probably basic stuff (tactics, development, calculation). It may seem strange to say it, but I wonder if I’d be better off if I did less chess work overall but made it more focused.

So I come to you with a plan… of sorts. I believe that Focused Attention / Time = Progress. The greater my focus is, even for short periods of time, the greater my progress. Even just 20-30 minutes of near 100% focus is better than 2 hours of distracted chess work. If I can’t bring the focus, then adding more time won’t really help. In fact it will probably hurt my progress.

But what to focus on? We all face the reality that there’s too much to learn in chess to ever finish. It is a never ending quest. Chess isn’t so much a subject to study but it’s a skill to grow. To improve that skill we must practice it. Therefore my plan is simple. Prioritize my attention and chess study time in the following order:

1. Slow game play (Game 60 or longer)

2. Game Analysis

3. Tactics study

4. Openings/Strategy/Endgames

5. Rapid or Blitz (to practice repertoire)

Each of these have a role.

• Gameplay

  • The best way to learn to do something is to do that thing. Our attention is a muscle I have to build up. Slow games are the also the best way to improve my stamina over the board. With longer time controls I have time to calculate and evaluate positions.

• Game Analysis

  • Decision making improves slowly, but it doesn’t improve at all if you don’t review the decisions you made. What did I miss? What did I get right? What had my attention? Analyzing our own games is critical in bringing new patterns into our awareness. The feedback I get from game analysis lets me know where I need to work. I’ll be publishing my analysis in the Analyze This! series and would really appreciate your comments.

• Tactics

  • Chess is 99% tactics. Practice them, often. I’m mostly using Chess Steps Mix workbooks for that right now. The Mix series differs from most Chess Steps which will typically tell you the theme of the puzzle. These Mix workbooks are a great way to test yourself and build tactical awareness. CT-ART is great option too.

• Opening/Strategy/Endgames/etc…

  • All those books, courses, videos, and whatever else is published on chess land here. I can read whatever I want, but I’ll do it only after I’ve done the hard work of game play, analysis, and tactics. Mostly I’ve been working on my opening repertoire with a book.

• Rapid or Blitz online

  • Great way to practice the opening repertoire but shouldn’t be something I do all that often. I’m not losing based on my openings from what I can see, but I still need to practice them.

One thing about this list… it’s a prioritization list. If all I do is play a slow game, great. If I can only do a few minutes, then tactics is my focus. If I’m blessed with time and I’ve analyzed my game, then I can do some Opening work.

While having a plan is better than no plan, time comes back into play here. Whatever time I can set aside to focus can be structured based on the plan. I still need to dedicate the time however. I can’t wait for it to happen, it needs to be scheduled. Here’s where the rubber meets the road for me. When am I going to do it? Scheduling makes it real and not some vague intention to be acted on later. Scheduling the work is the last step towards progress.

One crucial thing about this plan. If I can’t bring the focus, it’s better I stop and try again tomorrow. Whatever I was able to get done, it will have to suffice. I could always do more, but that’s not the point. This about bringing my full attention to the work and trusting the process.

My goal is to get better at playing chess. My plan here is based on the idea that the only way to get better at something is to do that thing. This list will (hopefully) help me avoid the inevitable temptation to buy the latest course, watch that opening video, or play 17 games of blitz after 10pm. It’s designed to help me focus on the hard things first: slow game play or game analysis. Just like learning an instrument is best when you play that instrument, so it is with chess.

So, want to play?