In this podcast, Will discusses his rapid chess improvement from 1000 to 2000, focusing on playing games for strategy, avoiding puzzle drills, and tactics in his openings. The episode highlights the fun and effectiveness of playing and analyzing games for rating points and improvement.
Consistent game analysis led to rapid chess improvement from 1000 to 2000 rating points.
Exploring strategic openings sparked performance spikes and accelerated progress in chess improvement.
Deep dives
The Power of Consistency in Chess Improvement
Consistency in playing and reviewing chess games has been instrumental in the speaker's journey from 1000 to 2000 rating points. By dedicating time every day to play and analyze games, small learnings from each match have accumulated over time, leading to significant improvement.
Finding Excitement in Learning Parallel Concepts
Engaging in parallel learning of new concepts within chess, like exploring strategic openings, has shown to reinvigorate and enhance the speaker's progress. Discovering new ideas or lines in openings has often resulted in a spike in performance, breaking through plateaus and driving further improvement.
Transition to Over-the-Board Chess
The transition from online to over-the-board chess has been a recent development for the speaker, with around seven to eight in-person games played. Over-the-board play has provided a deeply engaging and meditative experience, offering a fresh perspective on chess dynamics and strategic calculations.
The Role of Coaching in Refinement
Engaging with a coach at around 1750 rating marks a shift towards refining strategic and positional play. The in-person coaching sessions have balanced out the speaker's online-centric chess approach, broadening perspectives on gameplay and enhancing overall chess skills.
This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Will about his rapid ascent from 1000 to 2000 Rapid Chesscom. Will talked a lot about his focus on playing chess and examining his games. When asked questions like how did you learn strategy or endgames his answer was usually by playing games. The interview was a fascinating take on how just playing the game you love can be fun and help you gain piles of raing points! Most shocking may be that Will didn’t drill thousands of chess puzzles. He mainly focused on books containing tactics associated with his openings.