The Chess 'Mental Game' For Juniors

Introduction

Let me ask you a question...

How many chess games have you played?

(Probably a lot)

How much time have you spent solving chess puzzles?

(Probably a lot)

How much time have you spent improving your ‘mental game’?

Many people play chess virtually all their lives, yet hardly ever think about improving their ‘mental game’.

But what exactly is a ‘mental game’?

And why is it important?

Great questions! (You’re already showing a strong ‘mental game’ in engaging with what you read/watch by asking questions rather than taking things in passively, like a school lecture).

How The Mental Game Impacts Our Performance

The mental game refers primarily to our thinking – our mindset – that supports us (or hinders us) in making the most of our chess ability.

I’d like you to think back to your game against the highest-rated player you’ve ever beaten.

How were you feeling during the game?

What were you focusing on?

Most likely, you were in a state of intense focus, only thinking about the position in front of you. Such an intense state of concentration, where no extraneous thoughts enter our mind, is known as ‘flow’, although you may have heard your favourite athletes call it being ‘in the zone’.

Now, think back to the game you played against the lowest-rated player you lost to in the last six months.

What was happening (either externally or in your mind) before the game?

How did that impact your focus and thinking during the game?

You’ve likely noticed a big difference here.

Maybe you’d had a big fight with your parents before the game.

Perhaps someone had bullied you at school or a party, and your emotions were still intense during the game.

Where Emotions Fit In

A big part of the ‘mental game’ is learning how to manage our emotions so that we control our actions rather than being a ‘slave’ to our emotions.

The influence of our emotions is well summarised by the ‘Law Of Attraction’: Our thoughts lead to our feelings, which lead to our actions and results.

Furthermore, when we get highly emotional (such as from thinking about how amazing it will be when we win this winning position, beating ourselves up over a past mistake, or panicking that we will lose on time due to time trouble), the prefrontal cortex of our brain (the part of our brain responsible for logical decisions) shuts down. This puts us in a ‘fight or flight’ mode that kept us alive when sabre-toothed tigers were hunting our ancestors but doesn’t help us make more calculated decisions.

Just this awareness helps us to figure out ways to play chess with logic rather than emotion.

How To Have Our Thoughts Work For Us (Rather Than Against Us)

What could we do when we notice our emotions coming up during a game?

When I was a teenager, I’d often try to push the emotions back down and get in my head as I’d get nervous about feeling nervous (which only made me more nervous).

Sometimes, the way to resolve something is to flow with it, rather than resist it.

When you realise that your emotions and the opinions of others don’t hold power over you (unless you allow them to), the game changes.

It lets things slide off you, like water off a duck's back.

The next time you feel the urge to play a move extremely quickly, you can just pause for a moment.

Could you check if there are any better alternatives?

Make sure your move is safe to play. If it is, play it.

If not, taking a few extra seconds saves you a lot of pain.

How Patience Is A Virtue

The ’mental game’ is not limited to emotional control; it can also help us make better decisions on the board.

For instance, a common mistake you’ll see your opponents make is exchanging a pawn for a pawn or a piece for a piece without thinking about who benefits from such an exchange.

If you have the patience to consider whether the exchange will benefit you or the opponent, it opens new options for you.

For instance, you may keep the tension between the pieces, realising that if the opponent blinks first in the Mexican standoff (and initiates the exchange of pieces), we improve one of our pieces, or our pawn structure, with the recapture.

The Bg3 Bxg3 hxg3 idea in London is a good example:

A strong ‘mental game’ also helps us to develop our chess skills much faster, and start beating players who used to beat us.

A Different Outlook On Mistakes

When you started playing chess, you didn’t really care about making mistakes, right? You tried something, and if it didn’t work, no harm, no foul – you set up the board and tried again.

But at some point, you may have learned that mistakes are bad and should be avoided.

As a chess player and coach, I’ve discovered that mistakes are a good thing.

How?

Because mistakes are how you learn and improve as a player.

This shift in mindset translates in many ways:

- We aren’t afraid to try out an exciting gambit or sacrifice in our games because if it doesn’t work, we’ll learn from that (which will help us win more games later);

- We ask our ‘dumb questions’ to our coach or chess friends because we’ll learn from their answers. (By the way, there are no ‘dumb questions’ in my classroom)

- We challenge ourselves with more difficult chess puzzles because we understand that the point of solving puzzles is not to inflate our ego but to improve our pattern recognition and see things we missed.

Thinking Differently About Ratings & The Opinions Of Others

The final aspect of the ‘mental game’ I want to address is ratings.

It's very easy to attach our self-worth to our rating – especially when it increases!

In 2007, I reached GM-level blitz and bullet ratings on the Internet Chess Club (the equivalent of Chess.com today). It was an outstanding achievement, but my identity was wrapped up in this.

I’d feel euphoric on beating a Grandmaster.

But I’d also feel crushed entirely if I lost many games on the site.

Would you like to get off this roller-coaster?

The good news is there’s a better balance.

It's not easy to do, but it is simple...

The key is to let go.

What does that mean?

It means you don’t need a high chess rating to be worthy – you already are.

You don’t need to win many chess games to show you’re capable – you already are capable.

You don’t need to show off to your mentors to be a good student – you already are a good student.

Only our minds can be so tricky and creative as to tempt us with things we already possess.

When you know you’re already good enough and don’t need external validation (in a chess rating or approval from others), you’re free to focus on what really matters – bringing joy and doing the best you can with what you have.

Getting better at chess is a long process, and you may have a clear destination in mind. But it’s on the journey that you will find the most significant rewards and satisfaction.

Chess is challenging, but if you can shrug off the rough defeats and return twice as strong (like the World Chess Champions), you’re well equipped to handle everything else life throws at you.

Summary

What were the main insights you got from this article?

Write them down on a piece of paper (I realise that sounds archaic, but you’ll retain information more powerfully when you handwrite, rather than type).

The three main takeaways of this article are:

• To focus well for a game, flow with your thoughts, rather than battling against them;

• Allow yourself to make mistakes, because that is how you learn and grow;

• Let go of what others may think of you, and trust the process/journey.

Which of these are you going to start applying today?

That’s all for now, see you in the following article!