May 2024: Smithy's Taking A Break

So this is a quick update: the blog will be lying dormant for a month.  I haven't written a new blog post in six weeks and I have exhausted all articles I've kept in reserve. I don't have any new content ready, and if I'm being honest, I'm not really interested in doing any more right now.

Relatedly, I am taking a break from chess.  I won't be studying, reading, watching or checking anything.  This month felt like a struggle, like chess was something I was forcing myself to do rather than something I wanted to do because, you know, it's a fun game.  I need to pause and take a step back to make this is something I want to be doing.

So, for those reasons, I'll be stepping away from both the board and the keyboard for May.  If I come back more in tune with this game, great, let's get going.  If it doesn't, great, then I know I'm focusing on worthwhile things instead.  Thanks for understanding. 

Smithy's Monthly Update: March 2024 (We're Back, Baby!)

For the first two months of 2024, I have done almost zero chess training.  I predicted in February that I would do much more this month.  I was right.  I effectively re-started chess, and it feels really, really good.  And I also managed to keep most of my life in balance as well, a real win-win.

Here's the breakdown.

[Edit: The glut of joke emails in my inbox has reminded me that today is April Fools.  Let assure you that, despite the unfortunate timing, this is legitimately my monthly update.]

Smithy's Monthly Update: Feb 2024 (Hope?)

In my January update, I hinted I might do very little with chess this month.  I was right.  I did almost zero chess training... but not zero.  I also kept myself vaguely engaged with chess, and that might be pulling me back into training mode ... but we'll have to wait for the March update to see, I guess.

This will be a short one: I'll briefly say what I have done, both in terms of training and non-training activities, and where I predict things will go from here.  I'm optimistic these last two months represent the nadir of my 2024 chess status.

(Non-Chess) Why I Write

[During my January update, I shared how writing a story has monopolized my chess time.  This explains that in more detail.  It's not chess related, so don't say you haven't been warned.]

I have a love-hate relationship with writing. It's something I really enjoy ... and also something I never voluntarily do. Given the amount of digital ink I've spilled on this blog, I can understand your skepticism.  Allow me to explain.

Have you ever taken a little kid to an after-school activity?  A decent percentage will whine and beg and plead not to go.  It's a real struggle to get them into the car ... and then you get there and they have a great time.  Absolutely love it.  Can't wait to go back ... until the next day, when the struggle repeats anew.

When it comes to writing, that's me.  I'm a grumpy kid.

Source: peacefulparent.com

I never write by choice.  I write because I have to.  Something compels me to do it. For this blog, I literally have time scheduled into my calendar to write something. If I didn't do that, I'd have 1/5 the content, probably less. Without the schedule, my writing doesn't get done.

With fiction, it is even harder.  I never "have" to write.  The scheduling trick doesn't work.  I'll just stare at a blank screen for an hour. I can't force myself to write, and usually I don't.  I have gone years without writing a sentence of a story ... and then I turn around and write something in a single week, start to finish.

Why do I write?  It's because I must.  It's because something demands to be written.  It's because the discomfort of not writing starts hurting more than the pain of writing.  This is why.

Chess as a Mirror: Learning About Yourself

 "Mirror, mirror, on the wall..."

I've often heard that a person's personality shines forth on the chess board.  It goes beyond the choice of opening and into the moves themselves: you can often tell which famous player played a particular game, and no one confuses a Tal brilliancy with one of Petrosian's, even if they started from the same position.

Whenever we play chess, we look into a magic mirror, one that reflects back at us.  If you look at it critically, you might see portions of yourself otherwise hidden.  Today, I've stared deep into the abyss.  Let's see what the magic mirror says about me.

Weaning off of Forums

Social media addiction gets a lot of press.  Fortunately, I don't suffer from this.  I don't use any of the big sites (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter ... or whatever Elon is calling it).  I guess I use YouTube, but watching how-to videos and listening to music in the background is about as far away from doom-scrolling as you can get.  All-in-all, I have a healthy relationship with the Internet...

Except for chess forums.  That one has proven a problem.

Curse this easily accessible link!

I like chess.  I am a teacher.  I like talking about chess and I really like helping people get better at chess.  I have spent a considerable amount of time doing this.  I don't regret it ... but, and of course there's a "but" coming, refreshing a page 15 times an hour to see if someone might have posted something is a wee bit overboard.

My story may or may not resonate with you, but I think the subtext, of spending a lot of time around chess and discussing chess but without actually doing chess, is quite common.

Why I Stopped Using Online Opening Trainers

Chessable.  Chess-Tempo.  Chess Position Trainer.  These are just some of the opening trainers out there.  They all work more or less the same: you train your openings on a real board, and spaced repetition determines what positions you are to train.  They differ in features but essentially serve the same niche.

I spent 3+ years using Chessable.  I spent another year on Chess-Tempo.  And now I've stopped.  Completely.  This post will explain why. The short answer: these don't provide enough value for the time investment.  The longer answer... well, read on.

Make a Personal "Best Games" Database

"Analyze your games."  This advice reaches back generations.  Whenever you play a game, you should analyze it for mistakes and improvements.  Ideally, we learn something from every game we play, and it would be a really good idea if we saved these games, or at the very least our notes of the game, somewhere.  This process will lead to gradual but long-term improvement.

So far, no surprises.  Nothing I've said is new.  Here's my personal twist: save your very best games in a separate spot.  At the click of a button, you can revisit all your favourite chess moments, your brilliancies, your crushing victories.  Heck, whenever you play an interesting game, one that fascinates you or gives you a rush just from remembering it, save it here as well.

I've done this for years, and I'll share the concrete benefits I've received from it.

Visualization Journey

Starting November 1, 2023, I began actively training chess visualization, with the goal of eventually playing blindfold games. Exactly 50 days later, on Dec 20, 2023, I played my first blindfold game.  It was against a bot and I had infinite time, but nevertheless, a major milestone.

This post documents my training history.  Every day, I wrote a small note about what I trained, which I have included in full.  I have also summarized it, so you can get a sense of what I did, and then you can check the detailed notes for more information if you care.

Update: I Just Played My First Blindfold Game!

 I did it!  I just played my first blindfold game!  It was against Stockfish level 1, only lasted 17 moves and I had infinite time to think ... but I still did it!

It will be fun to look back at this in a few years time, when I'm a seasoned blindfold player and laugh at my indecision.  Nonetheless, right now, I'm pretty hyped.  The game itself was fairly accurate as well.  Funny, because I saw some potential tactics, but I also completely forgot whether some pieces existed or not.  Definitely a huge step, though.  Do this a few more times and I'll be able to graduate to playing against real people, and then I'll slowly climb the rating ladder until I reach my ultimate goal, playing "good" blindfold chess within 300 points of my normal rating.

Here's the game itself (which is on my new blindfold only account):

https://lichess.org/qsk2eIYR/black 

And as proof, here's a video of my attempt. I had tried to get it to record the live board as well (after all, no one wants to watch a video of a blank chess board), but apparently minimizing the tab meant that my recording software didn't pick it up.  It's also pitch black because I didn't turn on any lights, so I look like a ghost. So the video isn't that useful ... but it proves that I did it!

I'll have a full breakdown of how I trained to get here at some point, but for now, I'm off to celebrate.

Know Thyself, Part II: General Preparation

"If you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles."

In part 1, I showed how to prepare against specific openings, or at least my openings.  I covered some common ideas and things to watch out for.  Today, for part 2, we will continue preparing against me but in a more general way.  Rather than what openings do I like, what kind of player am I?

This takes more work than just looking at a database and recording the statistics, but I think it's more revealing and more fun.  The opening is only one aspect of the game, and it's arguably the least important one.  Looking at broader tendencies (attacking vs defending, open vs closed, static vs dynamic) will give us a much better understanding of us as a player, which we can then use to inform our training.

Inside, I will explain how to do this and then demonstrate on myself.  It should be fun.  Let's go.

Know Thyself, Part I: Specific Preparation

 "If you know your enemy and your know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."  That sounds absolutely great, and it applies to chess.  Indeed, preparing for specific opponents goes back centuries, but I am more interested in the first part: know thy self.

This week, I have written a two-part process on the idea of preparation.  Normally we prepare for a specific opponent, trying to learn strengths and weaknesses.  I have never done this, but I have prepared against myself.  In other words, if I had to play against me, what would I do?  What would I find?  If I know this, then I know more about myself, and I can use that knowledge to improve my game.

Today, I will cover the idea of specific preparation.  This is what most people think about: what openings do I play, how do they do, what vulnerabilities may appear, that sort of thing.  The second part will cover general preparation, which basically encompasses everything that isn't opening related.  Without further ado, let's prepare against Smithy.

Smithy’s Training Plan

 I’ve written a lot on chess training, but it has all been theoretical: how to train and what to train, but not what I am actually doing right now. In truth, I have not been training. I’ve simply been treading water, staying connected with chess but not actively putting in work. Because I’m balancing a new career with other competing priorities, this was fine, but I’m now preparing to dive in.

Therefore, what follows is my training plan: what I intend to do, why I will do it, how I will do it and when I will get it done. All chess players are unique, so the details of the plan likely won’t help you, but hopefully seeing how I set it out and what I intend to do will give you an example on how you can structure your own plan.

Also, frankly, writing this gives me accountability. I will write monthly updates and rely on readers to keep me on track if I start slacking. Well, without further ado, let’s go.

The Trap of Consumpton: I Own Too Much Stuff

I own a lot of chess stuff.  I could just list it, but a picture is worth a thousand words:

Unfortunately, that's not all of it.  I likely have more books strewn around, and I've given away a good chunk.  Don't forget my hardrive, packed full of digital content, not to mention digital books on Kindle and Forward Chess, random products from random sites, and then my most recent money pit, Chessable.

I recently went through my library and counted the stuff I wanted to study but haven't gotten around to yet.  I hit 81.  That's 81 books, courses or products that I bought, eager to dive in ... and then never did more than an hour, and certainly never after the first week.  And this is only the stuff I want to study; there's a large pile, probably equal in size, which I've accepted are a lost cause. 

Today will be a quick post.  In my chess education materials, I focus on how find the best move, on the right way of thinking.  Well, I will share how I made the wrong moves when it came to buying stuff.  Learn from my mistakes so that you, too, don't end up with a backlog you have little hope of clearing.

Smithy's Chess Goals

I've written a lot about having clearly defined (chess) goals, about having a plan, and about how consuming chess material isn't the same as developing chess skill.  I've also given advice on how to implement these ideas ... but I haven't mentioned what I, personally, intend to do.  Do I follow my own advice, or am I just being a hypocrite?

In all honestly, I don't have a current training plan, but I do have a defined set of goals.  These have remained fairly constant for a while now; I haven't done much about them because law school took most of my time and energy, but they are still there.

Today, I figured I would list my own personal goals and define what I hope to achieve in chess.  I'll be specific, I'll explain why I desire these goals, and I'll include my initial thoughts on how I'll get there.  Soon I'll outline my detailed training plan, but for today, let's look at my end goal.

How I Made My Biggest Leaps

Frustratingly, improvement in chess rarely comes in neat linear fashion.  We like to imagine that spending X number of hours means Y number of rating points, but it doesn't work that way.  Chess is a grueling climb, with ratings slowly inching up in between long periods of plateaus and dips.  Sometimes, though, we seem to magically level up and jump dozens if not hundreds of rating points seemingly overnight.  

I have been fortunate enough to have at least three of these level-up moments.  Today, I want to briefly list what I was doing just before each phase, and then to give a summary of the common factors.  I can't guarantee copying this will give you equally large leaps, but perhaps training like this is something to consider.  Certainly I plan on doing this more.

Quick Update: My Course was nominated as one of the Best Chess Books for Improving!

 What do I have in common with Capablanca, Fischer, Dvoretsky and Aagaard?  We all made chess content that made this list: the Top 23 Chess Books For Improving!

https://saychess.substack.com/p/the-top-23-best-chess-books-for-improving 

A friend sent me congratulations, and I was confused.  Then he sent the link and I was delighted!  Apparently the SayChess site ran a survey among its members, asking for the chess content that helped them improve the most.  My course ended up in a tie for 17th place, and the other books feature authors much more famous than I, to say the least!

 I wrote "Smithy's Opening Fundamentals" because I saw the need. So many people asking the same sorts of questions on chess forums.  The answer was inevitably "focus on opening principles", but few provided a way to do that.  That was my goal, and I'm delighted that, for many people, it has helped them appreciate this great game a little more.

Obviously, thank you to the people that voted for my course, and thank you to SayChess for featuring me.  It may just be a random Internet list, but I greatly appreciate it.  I've always wanted to be an author, and now it seems undoubtable that I am.  Maybe I'll have to create a follow-up...

Update 1: Using the ChessMood Opening Method (Change of Plan!)

You know what they say about the best laid plans...

Yesterday I announced my intention to learn GM Shankland's Neo-Catalan repertoire using the ChessMood recommended approach.  I fully intended to do that ... and then immediately changed it.  Why?  Because about two hours later, my friend NM Matt Jensen released a new course on the QGD Exchange.

I will thus be learning the QGD exchange instead of the Catalan.  Fortunately, this probably improves the experiment:

• The course is literally 10x shorter, 3.5hrs instead of 30hrs.  It's actually something I can complete before 2024;
• The course is primarily plan-based, which seems better for the "re-creation" aspect of the ChessMood method (admittedly, this is an assumption on my part);
• It covers the most common moves at club level, so it should be easier than the GM-approved mainlines from Shankland;
• If the Method works, I can then approach the Catalan with confidence.  If the Method doesn't work, then at least didn't have to bang my head against the wall with a much harder course to find out; and
• It supports my friend.

So, in short, I am still trying the ChessMood approach, but I'm doing it with a less-ambitious course.

My Challenge: Learning an Opening through the ChessMood Method

How to learn an opening?  Everyone asks this question.  I have tried several different methods, with varying degrees of success.  Let's try something new: for the rest of 2023, I will try the ChessMood approach to memorizing an opening.  

I've meant to try this for awhile now but had other priorities come up.  With those priorities lessening and GM Shankland finishing his Neo-Catalan repertoire yesterday, there's no better time.

This post will describe the general process and explain how I plan to finish 2023 chess-wise.  Let's go.

Josh Waitzkin's Influence

Many books and people have influenced my chess development, and I've written about most of them at various times.  One, though, I had completely forgotten about until I saw his book in the local library.  A rush of memory came back as I remembered the amazing Chessmaster videos of IM Josh Waitzkin.

We now live in a golden age of chess content, where you can find an endless supply of YouTube videos touching on everything chess.  That's likely why Josh's 12 videos on the ancient Chessmaster 8000 slipped my mind.  Nonetheless, these remain some of the best videos ever recorded, and they showed me what high-level chess, and a high-level chess thought process, was for the first time.

It literally changed my life.