Stuck At 2200?

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝗪𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 '𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐜𝐤' 𝐀𝐭 𝟐𝟐𝟎𝟎 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝟐 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐓𝐨 𝐅𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐧 𝟑 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬

I have something shocking to share with you guys.

Believe it or not, my thoughts around chess were once as 'messed up' as yours.

I, too, had the struggle of 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 '𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫' 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠...yet, not showing it in tournaments.

I talk more about this in the video below:

Back in 2009, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨:

- Losing to lower-rated players in chess tournaments;

- Struggling at school;

- Getting bullied at school;

- Getting cyberbullied by people on the Internet Chess Club (my old 'safe haven');

- My Mum got wet macular degeneration (i.e. lost her central vision in her eye);

- My Dad was still depressed and making it difficult to focus on studying;

But then, closer to the end of 2009, 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞:

- I switched to Playchess, where I could just enjoy my chess (I didn't know of Chess.com back then);

- I totally disengaged from the students at school, so I could focus on my own improvement;

- I became a lot more patient and emotionally balanced during my tournament games, making me a lot more consistent;

- I got coaching from better tutors (shout-out to my friend Blair Mandla), who helped me get my marks back up at school;

- I learned how to block out the distractions at home and work productively on my chess and schoolwork;

- I interacted in chess forums each day with other strong players, learning from them while feeling the rewards of helping others with their chess. (this is the 'secret sauce' that allowed me to hit the ground running as a great coach at 18, despite not having a lot of 'experience' working for money).

What I found is that, I was 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, I was feeling a lot more 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞, and that soon showed in my chess results, too:

- 2009 Commonwealth Chess Championship - despite being in the bottom half of the field, I finished in =3rd place on 6/9, achieving the bronze medal and barely missing out on my first IM Norm.⁣

- 2010 Australian Championship - I had a slow start, and was only on 2.5/6 at the halfway point. However, I bounced back to win three games in a row, then scored 1/2 against 2400+ rated players in the last two rounds to finish in =5th place, despite - again - being in the bottom half of the field on seeding.

- 2010 Sydney International Open - For the first six rounds, I had a 'normal' tournament, losing to the two GMs I faced (I was winning against GM Gawain Jones with Black thanks to my preparation, but got outplayed later), but beating everyone below me.

Then on Day 4, after drawing with a 2400-rated Indian IM who had crushed me the previous year, I had my key game for the FM title - White vs. GM Darryl Johansen.

I had 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘎𝘔 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦, but I had beaten my coach at the time, GM Ian Rogers, in a training game, and that 𝐠𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 that I could also win against Johansen, despite being out-rated by over 150 points.

I played very boldly, going for the English Attack and playing the thematic g6! pawn sacrifice to rip open his king. The modern engines don't rate it that highly, but my fearlessness paid off, and after punishing some defensive mistakes, I was able to achieve my first ever tournament win vs. a Grandmaster, and in the process, secure my FIDE Master title! (As I had gone over 2300 FIDE 'live' with this win).

How does this relate to you?

𝗪𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝟐𝟑𝟎𝟎+ 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬.

And it comes in a relatively small number of tournaments.

So your path is also clear.

Put in the correct work beforehand - on your chess as well as on yourself - and if you do it for long enough, the results will come.

The problem is, most people 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘱 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴.⁣

And if you're not practicing your chess effectively, the progress is going to be too slow for you to keep going.

But chess is a lot more 𝐟𝐮𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬, yes or yes?

That's why I've set up my coaching program so that you can do all the work you need to get to the master title WITH masters (+ a Grandmaster), rather than on your own.

The reason I am sure of your success, is because I know all the ways someone can fail to become a chess master.

And I reverse-engineered all those problems into solutions for you.

Comment 'Solutions' below to find out more!