CHESS FOR ZEBRAS thoughts

Zebra thoughts. yes.  I've browsed the Excellent Book "Chess for Zebras" and I wanted to quickly blog my thoughts.

first GM ROWson is officially my hero!  I love his writing style and I think he has a very persuasive writing style.  my "reading" of his book was a little quick and Light- but I Caught the main gist' and I wanted to spill the main instructive points (as I understand them)

• GM Rowson clearly officially agree with a heck of a lot of other strong chess players-- Studying Complex Chess positions improves Chess players
• Having said that, I broke the first rule and Didn't read participate in all the complex chess positions in his book, in order to get a full sense of what he wanted to say about improvement...  I think it says many things about what I have tried (and trying) to do in my chess study program, many of which are wrong!...
• WORDS are not the magic road towards improvement, and I definitely have spent too much time on that thought in the last year particularly
• NARRATIVES in my games can reinforce limitations or overgeneralize on specific game play.  IN the game itself; words that you say to yourself are Definitely a problem.  instead you want to be aware, predicting what will occur and falsifying your choices- Concentrate strictly on finding the best move.   Narratives can Obscure the best move and mislead us.  Instead the best moves are best, when we observe the power of our pieces.  narratives can easily become illusions and imaginary, not really describing what is happening in the position.
• BEING aware of the WHOLE position and what all the Pieces do, PRIMARILY- might be considered the compromise between Silman's Imbalances and Rowson's Words are NOT the way.  cause if you read both authors, you realize silman often talks about describing the position in words, while Rowson's distrusts those assessments.   Its probably worth a second study to try to understand how the authors agree.  (or perhaps disagree)
• MUCH is lost when we strive to describe what we are thinking, or what will happen, or what SHOULD happen. 
• we are Too sensitive to LOSING.  we see it as a PERSONAL tradegy or something- and it is - a GAME and moreover; all the emotional behind LOSING does not help.  in fact it hurts.  Don't TRY to lose or anything, but don't be upset by it.
• we are Too afraid to GRIND and to DEFEND.  both are great ways to Win games.  you can Paradoxically Defend and be winning!  as the premature attack will not work.  Grabbing an Initiative and Attacking!  is seizing on the power of those words  will not make you automatically a GM.
• HIDE in complexity!  this is another reason to work on solving complex positions.  Create Tension!  Take is a Mistake!  all this is about getting to intricate positions and carefully playing them. 
• Even the strongest chess player Can't always understand exactly what will happen or what the strongest move(s) are:  so we need Clear ideas (what will/can Exactly happen when I make the following move) and Vague assessments and flexible plans.
• PLAYING without vision and STUDYING with too many words and (concepts) will not help
• I think there's substancial Evidence that some of my problems is STRAIN!  playing particularly needs done without breaking or disrupting your natural thoughts with words- and trying to LEARN something from mistakes that you always seem to MAKE, disrupts and already older mind. 
• Instead CALM DOWN!  quite being so PUSHY about winning.  Quite GIVING A CRAP about RATING.  your not going to increase it on WILLPOWER alone.

ok. today is Labor day.

it is also my Working holiday- so I have limited time to blog.   But.  I think this is significant.  I'm going to try to increase the amount of time I spend moving peices (and recording those variations) in my book.

I've often had a problem with that because I thought;  whats the point of all that peice movement WITHOUT concepts and clear mistakes,etc.  the idea that moving them Without reducing them to Concepts is NEW.

but how many times have I seen GM's,etc advocate it?  ALOT.

PS. yes it was a quick browse- yes I Cheated by Not solving complex problems throughout his books- Yes I will work through it again.

I think I understand now.

GM Rowson knows these are Hard puzzles.   but by solving* them you are doing EXACTLY what he recommends to become a strong player.  in the END, his WORDS will not make someone strong either.

but solving* his puzzles might.