8 mistakes you are making in your chess training

Hello, during all these years as chess player and coach, I have seen some common mistakes people make as they try to progress in chess. In this post I want to mention some of these ones and help you to get over them.

• Moving the pieces on the board to analyze any idea: This is basic and extremely important. Most people have the habit of moving the pieces on the board as they analyze small variations talking with a friend or reading a book. But this is a huge mistake, you need to calculate more (in your mind) and move less your hands, this is the first step to begin improving. Of course it is going to be more comfortable just to pass the line on the board moving the pieces, but if you really want to improve, you need to make some uncomfortable things.
• Ignoring your own games: This has been mentioned many times. I will be brief. After every game you play with 10 minutes time or more, analyze it with the engine or keep it to analyze it with your coach. The engine is better if you want to find more mistakes, the coach is better if you want to learn how to avoid those mistakes. Use the engine, the coach, or both, but do not ignore your own games.
• Playing too many Blitz and Bullet games: Fast games are good to practice some opening lines because you are playing many games in a short period of time, but, actually, if you want to make progress, you need to think and work in front of the board, and you will not get that if you are playing with 1 minute for each side. So, also play games with 10, 15 or 45 minutes, maybe you do not find them so amusing, but they are very helpful.
• Studying too much one specific phase of the game: I have seen some players who love to study openings, and that is the only thing they do to try to progress. And the same happens to others with middle games or endings. What I suggest is you try to work frequently with the 3 phases of the game. It is logical, but many people just forget it.
• Analyzing everything at every moment with the engines: The engines are good and powerful, that is obvious, but you need to think a little, and work by yourself. In general, I prefer to use the engines to check what I have already thought about.
• Expecting for immediate reward: In chess you do not study today, and see the results tomorrow. It takes time and work. I have heard that the results of your studies from today will come in three months. I do not know how reliable this could be, because we are all different, we do not learn at the same speed, and we are not always studying what we really need to study to make progress. My advice is: work hard, believe in yourself, and do not give up, your best results are just coming, it takes some time, but they will come.
• Seeing defeats as defeats: I read this idea from a master to see your opponents as your coaches. They are just telling you which things you are making wrong. Take advantage of your defeats, and learn from your mistakes. Thinking in that way, you will never see a defeat as a real defeat. The goal is to be better tomorrow than you were today.
• Not thinking in books diagrams: When reading chess books, many people just read as fast as they can. This is a mistake, I suggest you make a pause when you see a diagram, put it on the board if you want, and try to analyze it by yourself around 3 minutes, and then continue reading. Check the lines or moves you thought with the book continuation. You will understand everything better, and it will be more helpful for you.

Also, if you want to overtake some of these mistakes or improve with any aspect of the game, as for example tactics (finding motifs in your own games), or maybe your endgames general knowledge, feel free to contact me as Chess Coach (you have my link at the right side of the post), charges are interesting and got some available time.

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