David's Chess Journey - Installment 45

Reflections on Two Chess Rebukes

I recently received two rebukes that helped me. The first was to a response from last week's blog that criticized my approach to chess improvement because it is "all over the place." Fair point was my response. I flip from Aim Chess to Chess Tempo to Lichess to several books. Okay, maybe I've lost my way a bit.

The second rebuke in the same spirit was from the great Noël Studer. He compared folks like me who are always looking for the secret formula for chess improvement success and those who just do the work. I actually think I am somewhere in the middle, but I took the rebuke for all it is worth. In the bucket of those who don't talk but just do the work was a young girl who beat him in Blitz. The rebuke from Noël was in his response to the question how that little girl got so good:

By actually working on chess improvement rather than talking about chess improvement.

I'm receiving these rebukes and processing them. One of the tenants of Mastery from George Leonard's book Mastery is surrender. Think Karate Kid type surrender to Mr. Miyagi. I have had moments of surrender, but not full surrender. I get bored and move on to another idea. But, in all of these ideas, there has been much activity but little progress.

I think it is time to look for a coach that I can totally surrender to and trust with my improvement and then just put my head down and do the work. I will write more about the search as it progresses.

Lichess Broadcast Team

One of my goals in chess is to contribute to the larger chess community. One of my first (and very small) ways to do this is joining the Lichess broadcast team. I participated in training this weekend and created my first broadcast for the Israeli U18 Youth Rapid Championship.

I have always been impressed by Lichess and am thankful for the incredible role that it plays in the chess community. I am also very happy to be able to contribute in this very small way. If you are interested in joining the army of Lichess volunteers, I would highly recommend it. My experience so far has been great and I look forward to continuing to learn and contribute.

Continued Slump

At this point, I would be thankful to be on a plateau! I continue to hemorrhage points like my son can go through Roblox currency:) But, through this season of sustained losses, I'm learning of my deep love for the game. Noël had a really helpful article on Vincent Keymer that really helped me reframe what this slump means in my overarching journey and how I can place it in a narrative that will help me improve through it. For those of you who are experiencing this struggle alongside me, I would highly recommend giving it a read. I think he is 100% right - a long-term focus is the key. It is easy to give into discouragement and to stop doing the work and go off to other pursuits, but there is something about this beautiful game that keeps drawing me in and pushing me forward. I can't articulate what it is, but it is, for me, a confirmation that I'm on the right path.

https://lichess.org/@/NoelStuder/blog/how-to-transform-09-into-world-14/o1k8tFZf

Until the next installment!