David's Dojo Journey - Installment 10

Here are this week's highlights:

Graduation to the 1200-1300 Cohort

This week saw my graduation to the 1200-1300 Cohort. This was a meaningful graduation for me and took a lot of hard work! I clocked 81 hours of work on the Cohort's tasks while in the 1100-1200 Cohort and still have a good deal of material that I am going to finish after graduation.

The Dojo continues to be a transformational part of my chess journey and writing about my journey here has been a great way to reflect on the journey, think about what is working and what needs to change and hopefully encourage others. My chess from when I started the Dojo 2.5 months ago and now is night and day. The people are amazing. The targeted training materials for various levels is brilliant and the gamified interface makes it fun to make progress. I still have a long way to go with using all my time and getting deeper in my analysis (after the game) and calculation (during the game). To be honest, I still feel very much like a beginner, but this program helps me see a path forward.

Thoughts on Cheating

This week I was the victim of a cheater. This is particularly frustrating in the Classical time controls that I play because you invest so much time into the game and unfairly lose points (though they are eventually returned if Lichess agrees with you). The reality of cheating truly impacts my enjoyment of the game, but my coach really helped me have a good perspective. I'm paraphrasing, but he essentially said: "Your opponent cheating is not your problem, it is their problem. They are simply wasting their time and not growing. While you can still learn from the game and how you could play better."

That was a really helpful perspective and helped to remind me that the point is not to win points, but to grow as a chess player. Thankful for mentors who can help provide fresh insights and perspectives!

While I was processing the bad experience, I came across this hilarious video where Levy exposes a cheater. Even my wife enjoyed watching this with me, so it is definitely worth a watch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2tt60oKKtI

Levy's concluding words are worth emphasizing: "Chess does not correlate to your intelligence. It doesn't correlate to your self worth. Let's get philosophical for a minute - you are going to lose half the games of chess that you play, if not more. Chess is a life long learning process. . . . You have to be willing to lose. You can't cheat like this because you don't realize how absurd you look."

Amen.

Mental Game Tip of the Week

As I mentioned last installment, I have come to believe that the mental game is as important as technical chess skills. To that end, I have been allocating a portion of my chess study time to the mental game. The book that I am currently working through is Mental Toughness in Chess: Practical Tips to Strengthen Your Mindset at the Board by Werner Schweitzer and published by New in Chess.

To be honest, I have not really loved the book, but there are some interesting insights that I will share over the next several installments. The first is a list of the mental skills that Schweitzer believes play an important role in one's chess:

• recognizing your own strengths and weaknesses
• increasing one's stability
• self-assuredness
• avoiding overestimation or underestimation of your opponent
• resolve and rapidity in making decisions
• dealing with disturbing thoughts and feelings
• increasing stamina and concentration
• coping with defeats and victories well

I thought this list was helpful as it helped bring the fuzzy concept of the mental game into practical terms and things that can be improved. To this point, Schweitzer noted: "Mental toughness can be trained in the same way as technical chess skills. In this book, I will explore different aspects of these mental states and processes, and will introduce and describe methods and techniques that can be easily applied." Bold claims for sure!

In the coming installments, I will share some high points from the book and you can make your own judgments as to whether the concepts in the book live up to the booking!

Some Fun Games from the Week

This is the game that got me the points needed to graduate to the 1200-1300 Cohort. I felt like I had a better position for most of the game and really liked the finish with a Rook sacrifice!

This was a very instructive game where I had an instructive blunder in the endgame that prevented me from converting my advantage and drove home the point that it is time to start learning some endgame principles!

Dojo Booklist
Given the number of books that I am going through in the Dojo, I thought it would be helpful to create a list, so I can quickly recall that part of the journey!

• Completed
  • Giannatos, Everyone's First Chess Workbook (completed)
  • Polgar S., Learning Chess the Right Way (Vol. 3) (completed)
  • Brennan and Carson, Tactics Time (completed)
• In Progress
  • Polgar; Chess:5334 Problems (in process)
  • del Rosario, First Book of Morphy (in process)
  • Chernev, Logical Chess Move by Move (in process)
  • Chernev, Most Instructive Games (in process)
  • Silman, Complete Endgame Course (in process)
  • Seirawan, Winning Chess Tactics (in progress)

Until the next installment!