Listen, since you here, I could really use your help. If you’ve seen this more than once that means that you’re hopefully getting something useful out of this blog. I pay all of the costs for hosting, and put a lot of effort into creating the content. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter.
If you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project.
So I’m trying to retool my training in a way that will be relatively small, but will hopefully have big results.
Up to this point I’ve been the classic example of “a little of this, a little of that” style training. Meaning that in the course of the same block of let’s say two hours on any given day I might play through a game or two from a games collection, then go through a few lines in an opening book, then solve some tactics before reading a little bit of an endgame book. Basically the ADD version of chess training.
So the change is this…
Starting as of a few days ago I’m going to focus on ONE area of improvement at a time, with some slight allowances for other things.
So now a day of training will look more like this:
I tend to start every day when I wake up with some Chessable. I spend maybe 30 minutes there, mostly working on some tactics courses there. I also pop in for a few minutes here and there. For example, if I arrive at work 15 minutes early I might sit in my car solving puzzles for 10 minutes before heading in. This should be all of the training I need for simple tactics.
The change comes in the form of what I’ll be doing for the bulk of my time. I now plan on focusing on one thing at a time, for at least a month. Want to work on the endgame? Then it needs to be for at least a month. Want to work on calculation? Then it needs to be for at least a month. Want to learn a new opening? Then it needs to be for at least a month.
I’ll still flip between materials a bit here and there, but within the same subject. So, for instance, if I work on calculation I may flip between a book on endgame studies, and a book like GM RAM or Perfect Your Chess, but I will stay with the subject.
What are some things that YOU have done? What impact did they have on your chess? I’d love to hear some stories.
Til Next Time,
Chris Wainscott