Nova Daily - 27 April 2025: Recap Week 17
Hi!
Eighty percent of success is just showing up.
- Woody Allen
When I started my blogging to chronicle my chess journey, I entered a process. A lot of my writing for my blog has been about this process. I might be boring my readers by mentioning this process once more, but I can live with that. It's my personal open journal after all, and by repeating the thought of process I'm using my writing as a reminder of what it is I'm here for.
I've been well aware all along what kind of negativity that involves: pain, hardships, an awful lot of work, setbacks, doubts, failures, sacrifices, and a lot of general negativity along the way. In the long run, when I reach my personal goals in chess, I will be able to enjoy the higher, more satisfying rewards that this will bring. I can stomach the scorn, the missed parties, the people I lose along the way (no matter how painful at times), the setbacks, the emotional turbulence and the tears I've yet to endure. It will all be worth it in the end.
Today's weekly recap blog will feature the fourth point of Iain Abernethy's podcast "10 things the martial arts should have taught you about life."
4. Being both unrelenting and flexible
are needed to progress.
When I was 8 years old, our school hosted a games afternoon. I sought out the place in which we could play chess, and I had to play against someone who was a year older and a head taller than me. When he set up the board, I noticed that he did it wrong, with the bottom left square being a light square. When I pointed this out, he loudly talked over me and said that I had to start the game. I was annoyed and offended, but back then I didn't have the guts to oppose him.
I attempted to win by Scholar's Mate. It had already been impressed upon me back then that it shouldn't work, but I reasoned that if Loudmouth doesn't even know how to set up the board, he probably doesn't know how to play well either. And if he falls for it, then at least I'm done with this guy in only a few moves and I can get out of there to play some other games. And if not, well, so be it then. I thought it was worth a try.
And it worked.
Bad habits
I didn't tell the above anecdote to show off. I meant it as a warning.
When little kids first see the Scholar's Mate, they might be so entranced by the opening and the quick success of it that they'll play it for years. Even though the well has dried up long ago, they still play 1.e4 and 2.Qh5 because by this time they've become a one-trick pony that doesn't know any better. If this behaviour goes unnoticed, if it isn't adequately addressed by their peers, trainers and coaches, it'll become progressively hard for them to unlearn the automatic early queen escort that ultimately yields white nothing but a lot of abysmal games, and years of valuable time that have been wasted on these nonsensical promises of quick and easy money.
I was well aware even at the age of 8 that such a bold way to play for checkmate early on is not supposed to work. If chess were this easy, it wasn't worth bothering, and they wouldn't have needed to invent queenside castling.
At the start of this week I faced a player who was so kind as to play for the Alien Gambit against me. I hadn't studied it in-depth that much by that time; had my opponent done his homework properly, I might have been in serious trouble. This became readily apparent when only a few days later I faced King Alien himself in a bullet game. I played an inferior move 11 in the game and should certainly have lost, but he let me off the hook and I was able to clutch in the time-scramble.
I gave the Alien Gambit and several related lines the unflattering name "El Dorado." I stand by this name, because it might promise gold but must ultimately fail to deliver. Chronic gambiteers are a slightly more sophisticated version of the Scholar's Mate adepts: the time will come when their favourite party-trick will stop yielding results.
The method
All effective scams have one thing in common: there appears to be an essence of truth in the bullshit that they try to sell you. When self-help charlatans tell you to "be yourself," the one thing that they get right is what this phrase means: actively pursue and carry out the best version of yourself. That this often means that you have to try out their scandalously overpriced products and services is their business model; if you see through the ruse, it becomes blatantly obvious.
Nothing of value comes for free. Anything worth pursuing will take time and effort. It's not easy, but it's worth it in the end. And there may be setbacks along the way, but that shouldn't deter us from our goal. We have to follow the process.
From the Scholar's Mate adepts it follows that not every method will serve to reach the goal we've set to achieve. Such bad habits actually keep people from it. So it's a bad habit that needs to be dealt with. The same goes for all the other methods that we use to further our journey: we have to evaluate honestly what works and what doesn't. If your favourite King's Gambit stops working because the surprise has worn off, stop being pigheaded and stubborn and just switch to a different opening.
The week in chess
I'm continually questioning and adjusting the methods that I've been using to become better at chess. I've recently adjusted my method of work again, and so far it's been working quite well. I've managed to break another rating floor:
I said I'd work more on tactics, and so I did. I will have to contemplate honestly whether not having a membership and limiting my tactical training on the site is serving me well in the long run. I do have other resources that may allow me to spare the expenses, but this will be something that I'll need to think about.
In a different vein, Mauricio Flores Rios' new book Chess Imbalances has arrived, and I'll be very eager and excited to study it in-depth.
This week I:
- Got 3 points out of 6 games, with two wins, two draws and two losses.
- Recovered my bullet rating to some extent.
- Got a new score in blitz.
- Reached 1800 in Daily.
My current scores:
- Rapid rating: 2208 (+1)
- Blitz rating: 2402 (+56)
- Bullet rating: 2553 (+3)
- Survival: 62 (=)
- Puzzle Battle: 1919 (+35)
- Puzzles: 3522 (-58)
- Repertoire: 4157 moves (+26)
Blogs:
https://www.chess.com/blog/nova-stone/nova-daily-20-april-2025-recap-week-15
https://www.chess.com/blog/nova-stone/nova-daily-21-april-2025
https://www.chess.com/blog/nova-stone/nova-daily-22-april-2025
https://www.chess.com/blog/nova-stone/nova-daily-23-april-2025
https://www.chess.com/blog/nova-stone/nova-daily-24-april-2025
https://www.chess.com/blog/nova-stone/nova-daily-25-april-2025
https://www.chess.com/blog/nova-stone/nova-daily-26-april-2025
Extra note: I'm currently at 99 rapid games for 2025. Once I've finished my 100th, I'll write a longer post about what I've learned from those 100 rapid games this year.
