Stop Wasting Time

This is not a rant against people who let their clocks run down, nor is it a monograph on the importance of time and tempi in chess.

This is a word of warning for beginners based off of my own frustrations.

Do not waste time.

When you learn chess you are a blank canvas, uncarved wood. Whatever happens in the first year or two will largely determine your future in the game. Habits that you form, the mindset you adopt, your conceptions and misconceptions about the game: all of this is mostly formed when you are taking your first steps in chess. Failure to get this right will cause you a ton of problems in the future.

Therefore you need to be relentless in your training. Get a solid and simple opening repertoire sorted- learn the plans; train tactics every day to keep sharp; study master games from the past and present- try to take something away from every game; brush up on your endgame skills- not enough beginners do this and it will allow you to rescue many games that could have been losses or draws.

Play as many games as you can but you must analyse them extensively. Every single game is an opportunity to learn.

Not everyone has loads of time so at least try to look at something to do with chess everyday. Watch a video or read a book on something that interests you: openings, master games, endgames, tactics, and so on. Doing so keeps your mind ticking over.

If you don't set a solid foundation for chess growth in the first one or two years you will make it extremely hard for yourself to get where you want to be.

I am probably not in a position to be giving out such advice but today I have came to the conclusion that I fell into a trap. "I am talented enough, and my results are starting to improve," I perhaps thought to myself, "I don't need to work on my chess today". I wasted my time.

Chess is like a running race- don't let yourself get left behind

Hi! How old are you?

I fell into the same trap!

Having asked that question, it is never too late to improve. Can you afford a coach? If you can, a good coach can accelerate your progress.

Otherwise, just have fun!

The main prerequisite to be good at something is you have to LOVE that field!

So yes, do what you can, enjoy it, and be as good as you can, within a balanced life!

I do love chess but I find it so frustrating sometimes.

I know that I have the capability to pretty comfortably reach and perhaps exceed 2000 or 2100 but I've reduced my own chances of going beyond that by being lazy.

What you say about having balance in life is true. Lots of people in this site would probably take the chance to have a career in chess but it is not realistic or even healthy to play and study 24/7.

Join the club

I am certainly at an age where I can reset my bad habits. It's just making me feel think that if I'd taken things more seriously I wouldn't need to take this detour.

I've been hitting stumbling blocks the whole of my chess 'career'- as everyone who is a human will- but I end up trying to come up with some grand training plan, as if that is going to change anything. 

My coach is about 2200 strength. We mostly look at openings, which I dislike- I don't think it's a good use of time. However, the circumstances make it hard for me to let him go and find a new one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

It is more your attitude...anyone who says "I have the capability to pretty comfortably reach"

Fair enough. I presume that you are an adult, simply by the way that you write. 

It would still take 99% of adults several years of studying a few hours per day to reach 2000.

So true, so damn true, Novacek. You put it so nicely

That is why the majority of players advance up to a certain point and stop progressing. They hit an invisible wall. No matter how much time and effort, the results are meager at best.

Then what? As they say, back to the basics. Alas, it is impossible to get back to the state of a blank slate, blank canvas, to the original piece of uncarved wood...

Thanks Novacek for a thought-provoking piece...

Tim Conlon, Blank Canvas No45 - Chessie Systems, 2014 Spray enamel and paint marker on canvas

If I could start again I would. But anyone would say that. Oh, I'd also start earlier. There's nothing I can do about that now, though.

There's something called 'deliberate practice' Prof Dr Anders Ericsson, who studies how people improve at anything, defines in Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

Novacek, what is your rating right now? Also, are we talking OTB FIDE or USCF?

I think that AGE is also a relevant question. 

Well, OK, what is the age? But the goal is 2000 or 2200, not IM or GM, so age is not THAT relevant.

I think that it is relevant if he is still a teen. 

Openings. Omg.

Here's how I think the chess player's improvement should look like.

The improvement means Updating your mindset, something like new release of your chess operating system that stays invisible in the background while supporting all applications running on the chess computer in your brain. In other words you need to make your mental models, your mind maps, your way of (subconscious) thinking change! They give you ideas, direction and orientation during chess battles, not practical solutions!

And mental models, and update thereof, has nothing to do openings, techniques, methods, procedures, etc. that all chess book discuss.

Now, when we say mindset, what we mean by that? Here is some possible candidates that you should pick one from (feel free to expand the list) and work on it by deliberate practice as defined by Anders Ericsson in his Peak,

1) Pay attention to what your opponent is up to, to his intentions, plans etc ("the best strategy is to fight the opponent's strategy," Sun Tzu, 500 BC)

2) Identify Chess Center of Gravity, "what matters most" (Soltis) 

3) Look for targets/Identify weaknesses

4) Pawn play (how to change pawn structure favorably to make your pieces work hard for you),

etc.

You get the idea. Now, as I said, you pick one. The question is how to work on it, what method to use? That may be tricky as chess books don't tell you much about it. You may want to check Andy Soltis' What It Takes to Become a Chess Master to get an idea how that might work.

Good luck!

This is Serbian Monastery of Hilandar on Mt Athos, Greece, founded 1198.

This is waht it looks like in your chess cathedral of your head. Where all your chess algorithms are executing below the level of consciousness, in almost complete darkness. The ancient chess mental objects and models hardly change. They are there as you juggle them mentally looking for your next move. Those rays of light are possible enlightenments/improvements