Honestly, I don't know how to train or what to even focus on. At the end of the day, I've moved to completely chess enjoyer, with no illusions of improvement. Improvement feels like way too much work.
Nice and helpful article. Enjoyment is subjective though. I find analyzing my won or lost blitz games to be quite fun usually.
I think for ones who want to focus on improving, it's important to dedicate time on things that will yield long term improvement. But it is also possible to have fun doing them. Just a little change in perspective is all we need to have fun :)
I think for ones who want to focus on improving, it's important to dedicate time on things that will yield long term improvement. But it is also possible to have fun doing them. Just a little change in perspective is all we need to have fun :)
There's nothing to enjoy, this game is just the equivalent of a horrible cocaine addiction that needs to be broken, and broken hard. The greatest waste of my time ever...if only I could stop myself
Those who enjoy learning and improving over playing are blessed and I count myself among them. However, I'm not immune to burnout and I, too, don't particularly enjoy puzzles. I do love to analyze games or sit down and learn slowly through a physical book.
I really like everything said in the post. Something that I would like to add to the discussion is consistency. Whenever I have played chess in the past I would only last a few months at most before I got sick of it and had to have a break. These breaks could last well over a year, and these breaks were usually because I put such an expectation on myself to improve and spend an unrealistic amount of time improving that I would eventually burn out. Now I have matured and realised that I need to take it easy on improvement to avoid burn out. I have been playing for over a year now, and this is unprecedented for me.
Basically, the hard work I put in would be lost due to burn out. But now I am doing less for improvement, but am seeing greater improvements because of the consistency. As GMNoelStuder said in the post, its about small improvements, can't do it all at once. I hope I can step up the training later, but no worries if I can't/don't.
Basically, the hard work I put in would be lost due to burn out. But now I am doing less for improvement, but am seeing greater improvements because of the consistency. As GMNoelStuder said in the post, its about small improvements, can't do it all at once. I hope I can step up the training later, but no worries if I can't/don't.
Interesting article - I think it's also useful for those who want to improve to know what it is they enjoy about improving, if anything. Because if an activity is ultimately not enjoyable in any way, chances are it's not going to get done consistently.
It can also be a delayed payoff in enjoyment, such as when you realize you don't make a certain mistake as often anymore as you used to, but I believe there should be something positive about the training experience, otherwise it won't stick (and honestly, shouldn't). Even if it's just telling yourself 'well done' after a training session.
It can also be a delayed payoff in enjoyment, such as when you realize you don't make a certain mistake as often anymore as you used to, but I believe there should be something positive about the training experience, otherwise it won't stick (and honestly, shouldn't). Even if it's just telling yourself 'well done' after a training session.
The article boils down to:
“But what should this ratio look like?”
"The answer is as so often: it depends."
Looks like a click-bait to me..
“But what should this ratio look like?”
"The answer is as so often: it depends."
Looks like a click-bait to me..
The question you should ask yourself is why you want to do something that is not fun. If training isn't fun and the only goal is to improve your playing strength, I don't think it's worth it. If you want to improve out of intrinsic motivation then training will inevitably be fun. If not, then you should look for a new hobby or leave it at just consuming.
@DeepHuman_95 said in #9:
> The question you should ask yourself is why you want to do something that is not fun. If training isn't fun and the only goal is to improve your playing strength, I don't think it's worth it. If you want to improve out of intrinsic motivation then training will inevitably be fun. If not, then you should look for a new hobby or leave it at just consuming.
Perhaps it might be helpful in this context to distinguish 'global training motivation' from 'local training motivation'?
I agree that if the overall reason for doing chess training ('global motivation') doesn't involve fun to some extent or even a large one, something is probably 'off' and doing it just not worth it.
But for any given training exercise the practise may not be fun and there can still be good reasons for doing it regardless ('local motivation') and in these cases recalling the intrinsic global motivation for training could be very helpful for overcoming the discomfort (as well as recalling that 'locally' it's not primarily meant to be fun, but to help with getting better / appreciating the game more).
> The question you should ask yourself is why you want to do something that is not fun. If training isn't fun and the only goal is to improve your playing strength, I don't think it's worth it. If you want to improve out of intrinsic motivation then training will inevitably be fun. If not, then you should look for a new hobby or leave it at just consuming.
Perhaps it might be helpful in this context to distinguish 'global training motivation' from 'local training motivation'?
I agree that if the overall reason for doing chess training ('global motivation') doesn't involve fun to some extent or even a large one, something is probably 'off' and doing it just not worth it.
But for any given training exercise the practise may not be fun and there can still be good reasons for doing it regardless ('local motivation') and in these cases recalling the intrinsic global motivation for training could be very helpful for overcoming the discomfort (as well as recalling that 'locally' it's not primarily meant to be fun, but to help with getting better / appreciating the game more).