How to Beat Me, Final Lesson!

For more than 8 months I have posted advice on how to beat me at chess. You can find a list of those posts here. They range from fundamentals to turning the tables on my favorite tricks and stratagems. But there is one thing you can do that almost certainly guarantees a win over me, and I place it here as my final lesson in the How to Beat Me series.

Are you ready?

Care.

I love playing chess, and winning is much better than losing, but I don't care all that much. When I joined Chess.com in December 2020, I cared a lot. I celebrated when I broke 1300 in rapid, and spent a lot of time analyzing my losses.

I was pressuring myself, and the games were getting to be less fun. I found daily games suited me better, and have been playing daily exclusively for months now. Most of those are tournament games, where doing well gains you points that don't mean anything, and if you win you get an image of a trophy.

I'm a long distance runner, and now I treat chess the same way I treat running. It's always great to improve my time, or achieve a personal best, or win an age group award, but the real reward is keeping physically fit, healthy and happy. Chess performs the same function for my mind.

I play daily as if I'm playing rapid, rarely spending more than five minutes on a move. And I'm not good enough to calculate more than three moves ahead. I treat games the same way I treat puzzles. Stare at it for awhile, work out what seems to be the best choice, then make the move. I've worked my puzzle rating up over 2250, but I get it wrong 46% of the time. My middle and endgame decision-making must be about the same.

I don't care about my rating anymore. Each move is simply a problem-solving exercise. I don't like hearing the buzzer when it's wrong, but there's always the next move and the next game.

So study dozens of openings, take lessons from masters, spend hours on puzzles and drills, and memorize king-pawn endgames and you'll destroy me, because I'm not doing any of those things and don't plan to... ever.

I'm having a great time on Chess.com, I've met some truly awesome people, and I treasure those who look at chess through the same lens I use. I laugh at my blunders and commiserate with yours. I laugh when you surprise checkmate me, and I laugh when Chess.com tells me I've checkmated you and I didn't realize it. I laugh after I discover I've resigned in a drawn position.

Chess is a game. Like Monopoly or Stratego. Keep calm and have fun. I am.