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The Big Problem of improving your chess

The Big Problem of improving your chess

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chesscoachdiego
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I think the biggest reason most people drop their training or are inconsistent is that they get overwhelmed by all the available options to train and improve.

One person will say: "Solve puzzles to improve."

Another one will say: "Improve your openings and win in 9 moves!!

And a different one will tell you: "Forget about it. Endgames are the soul of the game; start there."

You see? It's hard to know the best direction.

Not knowing how to improve effectively only makes things harder.

So, in this post, I will tell you where to start and how to make your chess training more effective.

Focus on THE ONE THING

Observe your last defeats

  • Did you win the positions you lost?
  • How many stupid moves have you made?
  • Do you get the feeling of "how did I miss such an obvious thing?
  • Does it take you forever to find better moves, and you feel your opponents are faster than you?
  • Can you calculate 1-2 moves, but often, you forget about the initial position and lose track of simple things?

If you feel identified by 1 or more situations, I have news: you lose 99% of your games due to 1 thing.

You won't solve this by spending more time reviewing your openings in chessable

Or solving more chess com puzzles

or, reading more books

nor watching more YT vids

"Doing more" is not the answer.

It's just understanding the reason why you are always one step behind your opponents

You lose 99% of the games because you don't know how to handle critical positions.

Critical positions in chess

A critical position in chess is the turning point of the game when you go from an equal position to a decisive advantage.

Or from a decisive advantage to an overwhelming advantage where the only good option for your opponent is to accept his fate and resign.

Knowing how to handle critical moments has 3 elements

  • Having a powerful and accurate board vision so you don't blunder material for free
  • Having a strong tactical vision and awareness so you seize opportunities 
  • Having a strong calculation process to  "see" more than your opponent and always be 2 steps ahead.

How to be 2 steps ahead

If I had to start over again and wanted to handle critical positions better, I would follow this 2-step guide.

The first step is to solve puzzles that are difficult enough to stretch my calculation skills as much as possible.

The second step is to train my ability to detect tactical opportunities before my opponent, that is, to recognize the "secret signals" that the position gives me to tell when I have a tactic in front of me.

The result of that training would allow me to be more alert to opportunities in any position, that way, I would take advantage of any small advantage.

That way, it wouldn't matter if I knew the opening or not. It would only matter to find the best move at the right moment.

Simply because I can see opportunities and calculate much better than most of my opponents. Always two steps ahead

An invitation for you

And that's only one of the first steps in our "2-step ahead" methodology

I know it helps because it has worked with many students before. Recently, my student
@silverdreams2000 had a 4/4 OTB performance, and his last opponent was a + 2000 higher-rated opponent.

He is a busy engineer, so I tweaked his study plan, including the two-step ahead method.
He got outstanding results. Also, he just reached 1620+ in rapid chess.

So here's my invitation for you.

If you are a busy professional, executive or business owner who loves chess and doesn't really have a lot

of time to figure things out for yourself, and if you want an effective training plan, let me help you.

What I can do for you is invite you to have a free clarity call to talk in more depth about your chess goals and help you create a customized training plan with our tools that will help you improve your chess and have more consistent results.

Do you like the idea?

Comment "2 steps" below, and I'll send you a message explaining how to improve your handling of critical positions and how you can always be 2 steps ahead of your competitors.

I hope this helps

See you on the winning side

Coach Diego.