Chess improvement - trap of doom awaits

Chess improvement. Rating. Courses. A little of this. A little of that. Hire a coach for a few lessons. Study master games! Buy some books. Does it work. No.

Jeeeez, why is it that its so hard to improve in chess?

I just feel flooded with information about "how to do it"... but seriously nothing really sticks :D lol!... and then I realized: Hey, instead of studying chess - all I do is reading up on "HOW to improve". I mean - I am not really DOING it!

Have I moved the pieces on the board? no. Have a tried to think about the position on myself? no. Did I calculate anything? no. Did I turn on the computer engine and let it do the hard work? yes. Did I just brainlessly memorize opening moves and blunder when out-of book? yes. Did I type "how to improve" in google a million times? yes. No wonder its hard to improve :)

I have been caught in the trap of doom: "I have done so much to do absolutely nothing".

Sounds familiar to you? :D

everything is vanity

yes: all is chasing after the wind or something yadda yadda yadda. You can lose a lot of sleep doing things the wrong way(infact Kasparovs book how life imitates chess says that unfortunately there are more ways to do a thing wrong than to do it right) so just put on some good music and remember that you shouldn't let anyone take away your creature comforts- if you like going through old games or new ones, but you feel you aren't learning DO IT ANYWAY COS ITS FUN!

 CHILL BILL SETTLE GRETTLE

 THE MIND DOESN'T WORK BY CRAMMING TOO MUCH INTO IT- IT JUST DOESN'T: the david copperfield test proves multi-tasking is a joke!

 A little birdy told me that it's not that man corrupts system: system corrupts man! Trust me: ..........................==>chill pill bro!

 You'll find what you like,... and start from there. Look up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspicacity , "

Oportet ingenii aciem ad res minimas et maxime faciles totam convertere, atque in illis diutius immorari, donec assuescamus veritatem distincte et perspicue intueri.

We should totally focus the vision of the natural intelligence on the smallest and easiest things, and we should dwell on them for a long time, so long, until we have become accustomed to intuiting the truth distinctly and perspicuously."

 

...is that the time??

Sounds like my love life

lol :)

I don't think it's wasted or a trap. If you learn how to train effectively, this will save you a lot of time on the long run. Lot's of people will tell you diffrent things so you will have to invest time on that issue and find out what really makes you play stronger for yourself - but this time is well invested.

I did quite the opposite myself, when I first learned chess, I bought a book written by GMs for GMs, complicated stuff and lot's of opening theory. Didn't understand much of it, tried to memorize variations (forgot them anyway after few weeks) and wasted 70-80% of my chess training time on learning some complicated opening lines.

Today I wish I'd done some more research on effective training first instead wasting hundereds of hours over the years on pointless things that didn't make me play stronger at all. I think this was a much worse trap than yours ;)

Maybe you aren't studying correctly.  To properly study master games you need to look at various positions, write down what you think and analysis in a Word document (no peeking ahead, the point is checking your calculation and visualization for errors), compare your moves to both the master and the computer, who stands better in the position and why, and potential plan based off imbalances such as pawn structure and what pieces are left. 

You are correct to note that's how many people try improving, and I myself was in that trap years ago.  Many people think they "deserve" to be a higher rating.  Well if you really are that good you would have a rating that reflects it and actually learn how to apply your knowledge. 

Yup, the brain is a muscle, if you work it, you will get smarter! 

Its though, and you might dropped in rating, because your mistake/game ratio will increase when you try new ideas. But offcourse you will get better.

But then others are also working and chessplayers overall gets stronger, but intense, work and hour a day, and you will get must better. Some say 15 minuts. Its the doing it often, reguraly as a muscle, push you limits just like, wheight training. I guess. 

Yeah that is very true - to make real improvement you must work harder at improving the skills you need to play better, ie. calculation and visualization skills are vital but its hard work to train it. Yet, some ways are more effective than others if you do them right.