Chess and the Dopamine Cycle
Dopamine has been described as the 'wanting system', as opposed to the 'liking system', such as serotonin. Its purpose is giving us small rewards for taking steps that cause pleasure, such as that little rush you get when playing online chess. It's very sensitive to 'cues', such as the sound of an online chess game beginning! The problem is that we want more than we can have. The good feeling of winning a chess game gets reduced as one's rating stagnates: we try to seek more and more, while the rewards diminish, and the dopamine loop is created.
Ten years ago, I was addicted to blitz, while my rating stuck stubbornly to 1300-1400. I would play thousands of games, making the same mistakes, in thrall to that dopamine buzz. Nowadays, when with a bit of work I can raise my rating 50 points without a problem, it seems extraordinary to me how long I stuck to the same rating. One word of warning, though: the opposite of addiction is obsession. It's the joyless, dopamine-free grind of people hellbent on self-improvement. It is the best way to improve, but not what you want from a hobby.
The midpoint between those two Aristotelian extremes is to do a bit of work, while keeping a realistic target to preserve that feel-good reward system. The work element breaks the addiction, since there's very little dopamine involved in e.g. studying openings; the realistic target stops you from developing an obsession, because you don't need to do that much work. What I would advise people to do is to spend time looking at their games, and working on the necessary concepts to improve, whether endgame knowledge, tactics or strategy.
I am always happy to help beginners and intermediate players to break the dopamine cycle. If you would like some advice about how to improve your chess at a gentle, non-taxing rate, feel free to contact me here. In conclusion, my advice to anyone stuck in the dopamine loop is to seek out what Vygotksy called a More Knowledgeable Other: books and videos may be catered towards people with loftier chess ambitions, so ask for advice from more experienced chess-playing friends and people online about your specific game.
