Hey there everyone. I am not new to chess, I have played chess on and off during my childhood and teens. When I was younger I have always found the game complicated and scary. Long story short, due to my autism I ended up with no career and ended up staying at home indefinitely. The last 5 years of my life were a struggle to get something going. With all doors closed there was only thing left for me and that was chess. I felt like an old man knowing people start this sort of thing out when they are like 5.
My family says that I have a problem, when I start anything I take it to the extreme and never for casual fun. I have started studying chess hardcore and taking every game seriously. Chess is no longer the scary complicated game I remember from my childhood. I believe I might have a chance to be a national master at the very least one day. I got the rest of my life with 19 hours per day; so I am excited to see where it brings me. With no children, no life and no career I have all the time in the world to work on my chess.
I wish I could of started chess when I was in my young childhood; which was impossible due to my severe autism and my struggle to barely function in day to day activities. Sadly I believe only now do I have the ability to learn chess and play it properly. Every morning I get up at 4 in the morning and end my learning at around 10-11 at night. The odds might be against me getting a title but I am going to die trying since I got nothing else to lose.
What do you all think?
Nice trolling try, with autism and everything. One cannot learn effectively more than a couple of hours a day.
Troll try with autism? I am not understanding. I live at home on social security. I have a whole briefcase with psychiatrists and medical doctors notes and IEP meetings from when I was still at school. I would of loved to go to college but to be successful I need a person to shadow me to keep me on track and to make sure I don't fall behind and that is not free. (I can send copies of these papers with my name and ID if that is what it takes to prove my disability.)
Why can one cannot effectively learn more than a couple of hours per day? I learn lots of new things every day about chess. I have gone from 1120 to 1365 on this site in less then a month.
Chess is obviously infinitely deep and has massive room for improvement so it seems you have found a good thing to focus on. My advice would be to do a variety of different types of things to improve. Watching Masters play, playing Blitz Games, playing longer games, maybe even getting a private coach, openings middle games endgames , tactics. Good luck
Thanks Juxt! I love watching grand master videos, I learn a lot from those especially when someone qualified explains whats going on. I love just how many variations there can be in certain openings and all the possible things that can happen in those variations. I mostly play classical games that are at least 15 minutes long; I am just not that good at rapid or blitz.
I am planing on playing OTB in USCF soon and hopefully I can learn more things from that. A coach would be awesome to have one day; maybe when I get more advanced. I have heard coaches aren't really that useful to a player until they get a higher rating (I could of misunderstood.). I am not going to lie the analysis engine has helped me a ton; that is why I love this site so much. I work on my tactics with chess puzzles as well.
Again thanks for the replies!
I agree with @Sarg0n . The mind can only take so much when it comes to studying. Any longer than a coupleof hours a day will do you more harm than good.
I believe a post like this would be more helpful on r/chess, where there are better experts to help you focus on the stuff you need to become better. Do consider making a reddit account and posting your question there. Best of luck on your new career path ... I'm here to provide support if you need anyone to talk to, even though I'm no pro myself. Enjoy!
This is the worst way to appraoch chess. And it is not the most optimal. Trust me, playing and studying a lot does not necessarily = progression.
Just play for fun and learn naturally and then when you are higher rated come back with the serious Q, should I push towards X or Y? Don't burn yourself out before you have started....
Good luck man. I hope you can achieve your goal. Sometimes some of us in life only have our passions
Of course one can study chess for more than 8 hours a day: that is what professional players do. They play, they analyse their games, they analyse all of their opponents games, they travel, they follow a program for physical fitness.
For a weaker player it is pointless to analyse games of fellow weak players and it is next to useless to analyse games won against fellow weak players. So play, analyse own losses, analyse grandmaster games and study endgames.
Especially chess endings are important: buy Dvoretzky's Endgame Manual and work through it slowly.
Besides classical chess, also ICCF correspondence chess may be good if you have a lot of time: that is what retired people and prison inmates do.
Another question is if chess is worth it. As an autist you probably are talented for programming of computers or smart phones. Maybe it is more useful and emotionallty more rewarding to take up programming.
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