Welcome back

I have a few thoughts...

Welcome back to Chess in Small Doses!

This break has been nice, but I’ve missed writing about chess. I’ve also missed thinking and writing about both the art and science of improvement. I’ve learned a few things during this break that I’ve wanted to share with my (admittedly small…for now) audience. This break has been very productive in generating ideas about improvement in general which are interesting to me as applied to chess. I’ve also learned a few things about writing that have helped me clarify what I want to say.

I will be taking a more intentional approach to writing, focusing on single clear ideas with each post that build (hopefully) upon each other. I’ll do my best to honor the following tenets:

1. Quality over quantity

2. Clarity over length

3. Aimed at adult improvers under ELO 2000

Before we get back into it fully, I wanted to highlight a few things you may have missed that I thought were worth your time.

First off there was a fantastic post on Mindcreaser by Dr. Benjamin Portheault about the impact online (meant video) chess content has on our attention. Since we only have control over our time and attention (and just barely) I think it was the most important piece written about chess recently. Please take the time to read it

The War on Attention

He’s not the only one to notice this trend, since it’s everywhere in our modern lives. Here is a review of a book called Amusing Ourselves to Death where the impact of constant distraction means you can’t really ever think deeply about anything.

The Price of Mass Amusement

Dr. Porteault (a chess performance coach in his day job) also did a podcast with Dr. Can which was worth a watch/listen to learn a new approach to this very mental game we play.

Lastly, if you’ve got appetite, Dr. Andrew Huberman did a podcast with Pavel Tsatouline about building strength. There were some absolutely fascinating overlaps between learning and building strength. Turns out strength training is really much more like learning a skill (like chess or a language) than getting big. Worth your time… it’s 4 hours long but IMHO worth every second. I’ve listened to it so far 4 times.

Thanks for reading and until next time.

Nick Vasquez, MD