I recently read a claim that 90% of the world's chess players are below the ranking of ELO 1600. As such this blog is about trying to help the average chess player (like myself) up the ratings ladder by sharing my own thoughts and ideas about how to progress.
Most chess players are a certain kind of animal. All they want to do is learn about the games of the grand masters, and play chess. If they don't do that, they think they're not improving.
Chess is a competitive game but it's also about competing against ourselves. We compete against ourselves when we compare our playing to how we were last month, last year or last tournament. As such, it's just as much about our inner world (hence the name of the blog, the inner game of chess). Most of us don't have the memory of a Fischer or a Kasparov. Therefore we have to be careful about how we spend our time learning in order to maximise the benefits.
Thankfully, there are plenty of blogs and sites out there with chess news from around the world and games of the grand masters, so I'll be leaving that to the experts. This blog is about sharing my inner journey trying to find a way forward; It's about motivation and the journey we all go through which I hope you'll find useful too.
I'm a sub-1000 ELO player having started to play again after many years away from the board. So being a novice player, you might ask, what useful information can I offer?
I know about learning. It was a crucial part of my life having been a professional musician and later taught music to others for many years. I learned that being a good player isn't enough to make you a good teacher. You have to be both. The same is true in Chess.
While I'm sure I can't offer more advanced chess players any useful advice about their play, equally there are many high level players/coaches who have forgotten what it's like to be a beginner (this I witnessed myself). This is another key motivation for wanting to write.
Having been through the many difficulties of trying to learn a musical instrument, at a beginning level and many years later, at a higher level of musicianship, there's one thing that is of key importance: if a player (chess or music) hasn't got the right foundations, s/he will hit an invisible ceiling and progress will suddenly plateau. This isn't because they need to learn something even more advanced, but there are some holes in their playing through having missed some basics (they've memorised several openings and their variations without having learned the opening principles, for example). With every player, what they need to learn in order to progress varies. This is part of the journey; not only moving forward, but understanding what we need to learn.
The perfect example are the many players out there who don't even realise, amazingly enough, that just playing games alone isn't the best way to improve. You have to sit down with a book and study, and not just any book, the right book for you! Even Bobby Fischer paid his dues and studied!
The last time I was interested in chess, none of this even occurred to me and I wasted a lot of time and money on educational materials (lots of opening books and lessons with coaches) but not really improving.
This blog will, hopefully, help players in a similar situation out. I will also try and provide some insights for those parents of aspiring young chess players. I'll try and keep my writing human sounding and not too technical. I just want to do my bit to encourage others and share my love of this beautiful game with everyone.
Most importantly, if you have any suggestions; if anyone comments and asks any questions and you know the answer, please write! Input from others makes it all worthwhile.
With my meanderings around the net I'll be posting sites that are useful, reviews of chess books and videos, and other (hopefully) interesting tid bits.
May the fiancetto be with you!
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