Adult Improvement Methods

I'm very interested in what methods other adults (over ~25) are using to improve.

I haven't studied much until this past week (just occasional YouTube lectures and very occasional tactics practice), and currently trying out the spaced repetition tactics available at braimax, as there seems to be good evidence that it's very helpful when you just don't have that gold dust level neuroplasticity anymore.

From what I can tell, 'deliberate practice' is the best way to improve at a skill, i.e. continually identifying your mistakes and bit by bit changing what you do, preferably with immediate feedback. Books contain the knowledge which helps you to identify which principles you're messing up on, to then be able to change your approach, so I can see their value. I'm working slowly through Reassess your Chess, but it all just feels so dry.

Just wondered if anyone has been using some more enjoyable methods they can recommend. Emotion is really closely tied to learning and it's super hard to absorb information and learn if you're not enjoying the experience, I've found that to be true for sure.

I mainly work on my tactics, simple end games and game analysis/skim.

Come the colder months, I play more routinely and the game analysis are more in-depth.

Part of it is how much time do you want to devote?

Improving at chess is usually not easy. If you can afford few lessons, I would advise getting a coach. I can teach you how to think during the chess game. After that, your progress is inevitable.

If you can't afford any lessons, here is the excerpt from very good article on how to improve:

Play a lot, analyze your games, and primarily study tactics. Your knowledge of openings, endgame, middlegame, etc. will come from analyzing your games and going over grandmaster games. Only study one of those specific topics if it is clear you are specifically losing because of that topic.

Source: https://www.gautamnarula.com/how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast/

Good luck either way!

Hmm, I know a guy who's like 36 or 37, and he reached 1900 from scratch in about two years, and a lot of it is i think because he just simply likes playing, so i feel like just sheer enjoyment of the game can bring you far. Not to discount the value of studying through some of the methods you listed, but just thought I mention.

Deliberate practice is effective, but not fun. It is hard work.

Also most people who use the term don’t know what they are talking about. Malcolm Gladwell horribly mangled the explanation and created a lot of misinformation. If you want to understand the term, read K. Anders Ericsson.

To be totally honest, I have plenty of time to dedicate but I'm not all that interested in study which isn't enjoyable- or at least, I ultimately prioritise enjoying myself over maximising my improvement rate. I have ADHD so focus only comes when I'm genuinely interested in and engaged with something, and positive emotions are a big part of that.

I do think I understand what deliberate practice is, I've read about it at least, and so far, deliberate practice has almost exclusively been fun for me- I figure out what I'm doing wrong, which is pretty easy so far, and I learn by trial and error how to do it right, which is fun because I enjoy playing (and only play when I feel like it, which luckily is usually every day). I set clear goals which are beyond my abilities and step outside my comfort zone to achieve them, such as switching to blitz for 2 months to improve my speed to reduce timeouts and really ingrain what I'd already learned, even though I was terrified of it. After a while I found it fun instead of daunting, which kept me engaged. It boosted my rapid rating +250 when I went back to rapid.

I know my approach will raise some eyebrows, but it's resulted in rapid improvement for me so far, and I have some other experience of success with it. I managed to become fluent in Swedish in a couple of years by only practicing and learning in ways I found fun- gameified spaced repetition, music, listening to the news, learning jokes, trying to translate quotes from my favourite shows and movies etc. If I didn't feel like it, I didn't study, and whenever I got bored, I just stopped, which made things low stakes and low pressure enough that I didn't even once psych myself out or feel worried about how well I'd perform, and I'm pretty sure I didn't miss a single day. I've done the same so far with chess- if I'm bored, I stop.

It not being easy is fine with me. It can be difficult, I enjoy a challenge. I just don't do difficult plus boring, it's a surefire way for me to lose focus and burn out fast. My local chess club restarts in September and I have a coach lined up for a few hours a week, both of which should be enjoyable. I think I'll give annotated grandmaster games a try actually, I've only looked at one before but I did enjoy it, I've heard that with Tal in particular you can see his plans executed start to finish which is really instructive. And perhaps you're right @ice_cream_cake that just enjoying playing will take me pretty far. I kind of wish I was a child so that silly stories about the battle between the pieces would engage me lol

Thank you for that link, it has some interesting ideas! My progress has been steeper than the results the author obtained with their method, but I may still follow up on some of this.

I think I'll look further into that tactics training software, since I'd appreciate a program which builds on previous ideas to introduce you to tactical combinations, though I think I'd need it to offer spaced repetition too. I know algebraic notation, but I like the suggestion of analysing games without the help of stockfish, I was chatting with @ice_cream_cake the other day about doing that for a few of their games to get some practice anyway. Might get an opening book to have a few more responses to certain moves, I don't think my openings with black are quite adequate (pirc & old Benoni). I'm hesitant to make it my focus though, as it's only very rarely that I'm much worse out of the opening as black.

As for strategy (especially middlegame strategy) and endgames, those are what I'd like to focus on now, but the author just recommends books but I'm hoping to find some ways to improve in those areas in a way which fits my learning style better. Naroditsky's speed run is pretty good, I'll probably have a look for a channel with engaging content in those topics.