Looking Back at 2025

It was very much a Goldilocks year for my chess: first too much then too little then just enough.

Part 1 (Jan-May): Lots of Unfocused Work

The first part of the year was filled with online classical chess and tactics. Season 42 of the Lichess4545 team league ended and was soon followed by Season 43. My S42 team had had a cheater who was only identified and removed in the next-to-last round. Reasonably, all their games were forfeited. What had seemed like an epic run for the team turned into an epically mediocre final result. I had planned to take S43 off, but we wanted to redeem ourselves and remove the bad taste from our collective mouths. At the same time, the Chess Gym Discord was running its second classical Swiss tournament. There were many weeks later in this period where I was playing two games a week (45+45 and 30+30).

While I was ramping up my classical I ambitiously started on a project to finally put my Step Method books to good use. I'd bought them a while back and while I'd tried to find one that was my level, they didn't really work for me. I decided, based on the experience of one of the other Chess Gym Discord members, to go in order through all of the Steps starting from Step 1. I'm impressed with how much is packed into even the very first step—subtle things that I learned through experience like sometimes needing to sacrifice material for the win or needing to keep an eye on that bishop on the other side of the board. I started with Step 1 in January and had done Step 1 Plus, Step 1 Mix, Step 2, and Step 2 Plus by the beginning of May.

It was all too much. Not because I wasn't getting good experience, but because it was largely unfocused work. I was playing classical games but didn't have the time, energy, or interest to analyze them because of the tactics work. The tactics felt more like a chore than a revelation because they were either too easy or it was difficult to see the point.

Part 2 (May-Oct): Burn Out

I burned out in May, but didn't realize it at the time. I tried to do things but my heart really wasn't in it. I had struggled through Step 2 Plus due to a lack of focus, so I tried to do it again with full focus. I eventually gave up. I played Season 45 of the Lichess4545 team league, but I was there more for the community than for the games. My chess was hit or miss. I was happy to see, even though I wasn't doing any serious training, that I was still able to hold my own for the season.

Part 3 (Nov-Dec): Finding my Passion Again

By the end of October, after three weeks away on vacation, I was finally looking at doing something more serious again. I knew that part of problem has always been not playing enough.

It was around that time that Nate Solon announced his 100 Games of Blitz (100GoB) challenge. I signed up. I wasn't doing anything else, so why not play 5 games of blitz at a time with quick analysis between each? I'd have to do 20 sessions in November, but that seemed achievable. In the end, I didn't make it. I played 17 games and got a peak blitz rating, but the pressure of finding enough time for the challenge was too much after I'd missed a few games by mid-month. I'm not the only one who had trouble, but I'm extremely happy that I tried.

I realized at this point that I wanted more structure. If only there was some course that I could take that would give me some sense of accomplishing something useful. I wouldn't just be doing tactics or analyzing games for the randomness of it. I realized (facepalm) that I already had a course that would likely do that. Instead of trying to finish the 100GoB challenge, I started Nöel Studer's Simplified Chess Improvement System (SCIS). I'd bought his Next Level Training program a few years earlier, but when he released SCIS in late 2024 as an update, I wasn't in the mindset to start a new program and I was already starting to burn out on the old one.

The new course addresses many of the drawbacks of the original course. I can't say that the old one led to my burn out, but I can say that the new course is designed to avoid it happening again. Nöel really listens to feedback and I was happy to see that the new course incorporated feedback that the community gave him on the first course.

I started that course and then immediately went on hiatus. Why? Because I still don't play enough games. I've never had a blitz session where I just kept on hitting the next game button. I've never tilted. I've never played a game on phone (aside from bots). The only bullet game I ever played was because I accidentally hit the quick pairing on the Lichess home screen. I think I made it 8 moves. So, for the last part of December, I'm just playing whenever I want and whatever I want. It's difficult and I'm still finding more excuses to not play than to play, but I am having fun and starting to loosen up a little. I picked up this game as something to do when I retire. I want it to be fun. I'm slowly getting there.

Things I Learned from...

...Burning Out

It's okay to take time off. Your rating might suffer. You might feel like you're missing out. You might feel like you're admitting defeat. It's okay. Sometimes you figure out that you've been overdoing it and the best thing to do is to step back and just let go. It may take a week or a month or a year, but when you return you'll be better for it. If you push through it, you probably won't improve and you might get so frustrated that you give up the game entirely. It's a game; it's okay to do other things.

...The Step Method

RTFM. Read the Manual. The thing I didn't do when I was doing my speedrun of the Step Method was use the manual that comes with every Step. That was a mistake based on old advice. I got a lot out of the exercises, but I would have gotten a lot more and it would have been more coherent if I had read the manual alongside the Steps. I'm doing that now following the advice of the Nöel's new course, so I'm less concerned that I'll overdo it again. The complete set is an incredible resource and a one-time cost (I bought them all at once from New in Chess to save on shipping to North America).

...Nöel's New Course

Nöel's new course is much like his old course but better. If you can't afford it, Nöel's newsletter contains much of the same information. The course is just more complete and includes access to a community of others using the same approach. Rather than teaching you chess, he teaches you how to plan your own training effectively and how to update your plan as your circumstances change.

There a few big takeaways from going through the course again that are worth noting. Here are two. Pick a plan and stick with it. Too many people follow the latest fad and never follow through on just doing the basics (what Nicholas Sloan would call sweat work). Use the one-third rule. One third of your focussed training sessions should be playing games and then analyzing them; one third should be tactics where you write you down the solution before you play the tactic out or check the solution; one third should be focussed on the rest like openings, endgames, and strategy, but pick one resource at a time and work through it. Always include a rest day in your week.

The Future Looks Promising

The plan for 2026 is to get into a sustainable long-term training rhythm that includes playing more games. It looks like I may be retiring from my day job towards the end of the year and I want to reach a steady-state habit for my chess training before that.

I'm thinking of returning to OTB chess. I should have more time on my hands and the idea of a tournament game on Thursday night and rapid games on Sunday afternoon sounds appealing.

Finally, I think I'd like to blog more (I think I said that last year too). I don't know about what, but there's all sorts of interesting conversations going on and maybe I can add something to them. Maybe that turns into an official newsletter or maybe in some other medium. If I don’t do anything else, I'll keep you posted here on my journey.

What have you done to deal with or avoid burn out? If you have trouble playing, what do you do to get more games in? Do you have any interesting goals for 2026? Feel free to leave a comment.

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Photo by Arnau Soler on Unsplash