The Importance Of Unlearning In Chess - Part 1
You may be wondering...โฃ
โฃ
What is ๐๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐ซ๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ ?โฃ
โฃ
Why does this especially matter for ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ?โฃ
โฃ
How can we 'unlearn' the things ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐น๐ต ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ?โฃ
โฃ
Let's discuss each of these.โฃ
โฃ
Unlearning means 'to make an effort to forget your usual way of doing something so that you can learn a new and sometimes better way' โฃ
โฃ
Our 'usual way' of doing something is not limited to ๐ก๐๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ but also the ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฆ๐ง๐ด and ๐ธ๐ข๐บ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ that lead to these habits. โฃ
โฃ
This is ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐บ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด๐ด, else everyone would be doing it. Many are so caught up in ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ that the idea of 'unlearning' never occurs to them. โฃ
โฃ
But much like there are several moves of similar strength in many chess positions (or several actions with the same value in different poker situations), there may be ๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ง ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ญ๐ก ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ข๐ซ๐๐ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐. โฃ
โฃ
I first understood the concept of 'unlearning' from Jonathan Rowson's 'Chess For Zebras' book in late 2005, and it made a great impression on me at the time. โฃ
โฃ
At that time, I'd been s๐ต๐ถ๐ค๐ฌ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ท๐พ๐ถ๐ถ ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ข ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ and was getting ๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ญ๐บ ๐ง๐ณ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ by my first real plateau. โฃ
โฃ
It took a considerable amount of reflection to realize that my positional understanding, which had been my strength in 2003, was now my ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด. And that my tactics, which were my big weakness in 2003, were now my ๐จ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ๐ต๐ฉ. โฃ
โฃ
I learned some new opening variations in 2005. The good reason was to improve my chess understanding and learn how to play other types of positions. The real reason was that I was ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ณ๐ช๐ง๐ช๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต'๐ด ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ (after playing in the 2004 World Youth Championship and 2005 Australian Junior Championship with a very narrow repertoire). โฃ
โฃ
But it wasn't until I ๐ฎ๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐ซ๐ง๐๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ฒ ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐๐ญ๐๐ in chess, and replaced it with new, ๐๐๐ญ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ค๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ฆ๐ฌ (using 'How To Choose A Chess Move' by Soltis) in late 2006, that I broke the plateau and surged from the high 1800s to a 2100+ level. โฃ
โฃ
We'll explore this further in Part 2, see you there!
