5 Strange Ways to Get Better at Chess !!!

5 Strange Ways to Get Better at Chess

You probably heard many times, from different chess players

and coaches that if you want to improve your chess you need

to do this, this and that. What if you tried all that and it

did not work? Should you get disappointed and give up

chess forever?

Probably not, and if you're reading this you've made the

right choice and keep trying to get better.

Here we present the list of somewhat counter-intuitive

approaches to chess improvement that, however, are very

effective:

1. Play stronger opponents and don't be afraid to lose

What type of chess players do you think you need to play to

get better at chess? Those who are of your level? 100 points

higher rated? 200? 400? Just think for a second.

Answer: definitely not those of your level. If you want to

play an "interesting" (entertaining) game, sure, play

those who are 100-200 points higher/lower rated. You will

win or lose. You will feel good about yourself but will learn

nothing new. Why? Because those of your strength know

and think in a similar way as yourself.

If you really want to improve your game play those rated

400 points higher. That will give a good kick to your brain,

and you will be on the way to improvement!

2. Lose more games

I will never forget the words of an old chess master, who

told me that he 'lost more chess games than I played in my

whole life'and that's how he succeed. The truth is simple, the

more games you lose the more chess you learn.

"Most players ... do not like losing, and consider defeat as

something shameful. This is a wrong attitude. Those who

wish to perfect themselves must regard their losses as lessons

and learn from them what sorts of things to avoid in the

future". - Jose Capablanca

You need to play your best, however, and fight until the

very end. Also record the moves for future analysis and

learning from the mistakes. Only then you will improve.

3. Get motivated by your own failures

Obviously, if you follow the first advice and play

those 400 points stronger than yourself you will lose about

95% of the games. That's more than 9/10 lost games. You'd

be lucky to draw 1 game out of 10. That shouldn't

discourage you though.

You should think that every failure brings you one step

closer to your success. If you will learn to get motivated and

work harder by your defeats, you will become a very strong

player.

"If you wish to succeed, you must brave the risk of failure". -

Garry Kasparov

4. Communicate with stronger players more often

If you want to be 1200 rated, talk about chess with those

who are 1200 rated. If you want to be 1500 rated, talk

about chess with 1500 rated players. If you want to become

a master, discuss chess with the masters.

Once you do that, you will be surprised how your thinking

process will change.

5. Observe weaker players' games and... don't do what they

do

That maybe difficult sometimes to observe the stronger

players play and to discuss their games with them in person.

Least you can do, is to observe the weaker players play

and analyze their games.

Learn from their mistakes and don't think how they think.