Chess School

The question comes up from time to time, "How did you become a chess expert?" My reply always ranges from the vague, "A lot of practice," to the more specific stages of the journey. When the more specific stages are discussed, the questioner's eyes typically glaze over and they hear nothing. Most of the time, the questioner already has an answer about what it takes to master the game of chess and they don't really want my thoughts at all, but instead want me to tell them that they are right. I refuse to do so. I have never met an amateur chess player who was on the right track to mastering chess.

1. Be a fearless optimist. Most people will tell you that mastering chess can not be done, or if it can be done, it is so difficult and time consuming as to be silly to attempt it. In order to master chess one has to rebel against that line of thought so violently each and every time it presents itself, that one becomes a specific type of personality. The type of personality required is a fearless optimist, even in the face of incomprehensible difficulty and complete and utter failure. Once that personality has been formed, it must enter into the playing style so that the player never gives up hope. Only then will a player be capable of beginning the road to mastery which is fraught with set backs of every variety - an emotional roller coaster of triumph and tragedy.

2. Gather resources. Once the student is emotionally prepared to begin a difficult task on par with summiting Everest, the task of gathering resources can begin. Nobody in their right mind would set out across the Ghobi without enough water, and nobody in their right mind should take on mastering chess without the correct resources to finish the task.

The following things are required:

- A place to practice. This can vary in location(s), but each location should have a few characteristics: It should have at least one member that can beat the student every time. The location(s) should be accessible every day. The internet offers several excellent places that fit these requirements on the days when live clubs are not meeting. Some places to play are free, some are not. As internet chess goes, one typically gets what one pays for. The Internet Chess Club, for a fee, will provide even an expert chess player with players that can squash him/her every single time.

- A journal to log games. If you intend to master chess, you must have a record of each game played. This is not necessary for blitz chess, but for any game longer than 30 minutes per side, the moves should be recorded for later study. A game not recorded is as good as a game not played. A person can only remember their own moves for so long, and then they are lost forever. In order to master chess, one must master themselves, which means knowing their own tendencies, flaws, strengths, and weaknesses.

- A mentor to guage your progress. This does not need to be a Grandmaster. Any high class amateur or expert can fulfill this role if they have a level head on their shoulders. The only requirement is that at least one game should be played between the mentor and student each week with analysis and feedback. The student who is avidly studying the game will not always notice their own improvements unless those improvements are very rapid. In my experience, improvement is especially unnoticeable when the player is rated lower than 1600 and FIDE will not yet track rating improvements.

- A place to perform. This is not the same as the practice arena. This should be a higher pressure atmosphere such as a tournament where money is risked or trophies are at stake. It should be in person, because the added stress of knowing that people are watching raises the performance adrenaline.

- Knowledge. This is the most difficult part to gather. There are thousands of books to choose from, and not many people can afford to buy, or read them all. The first thing to realize is that chess is a finite subject. It seems very large when first beginning, but eventually all that exists to be known can be discovered. The three parts of knowledge - the endgame, the middlegame, and the open:

The end of the game is concrete, you can learn this knowledge and it rarely if ever changes. Seek out a good book or computer program to teach endgame studies. Classifications of each type of ending already exists in chess manuals, such as "Muller and Lamprecht's endgame manual." Check off each type of ending as you learn to guage progress. It might take years to learn everything, but if the most common endings are learned first, notable improvement will come almost instantly.

The middle of the game has two parts, one is a finite set of geometrical shapes that sometimes combine to make patterns called, "tactics." Computer programs offer excellent training in this area. A program such as "Chess Tactics Art," or the tactical trainer in "Chess Base," are both sufficient. The second part of the middle game is - the features of each moment of a game frozen in time, which is called, "position." These two words, "tactics and position," are often abused when marketing books, so when seeking out this information do not be fooled by well titled books. A good method to accumulate this knowledge is to begin in history. For example, in the early 1900's with Alekhine's work and then onward through the decades, picking out only books with newer positional ideas. Choosing literature is another area for a mentor to shine.

The beginning of a chess game is in constant revision. Trying to learn how to open a chess game is like trying to catch a fox by the tail, even when you catch it for a while, eventually it turns and bites you. What a person learns today about opening will change tomorrow because there will be an improvement added, a trap found, a refutation committed to memory by some hot-shot player in a far off country that can't be beaten. It makes sense to study this part last, since if you study it first, by the time you finish the other two parts, everything you learned here will be obsolete.

The following three steps in the process are interchangeable. They are constantly in motion, and are not completed until the player has mastered the game.

3. Trace and erradicate personal flaws. There are several types of chessic mistakes. They can be organized into technical, emotional, and psychological categories. Occasionally, a mistake in one category will lead to a mistake in a different category, such as a psychological overconfidence leading to a simple techincal blunder. In most respects, chess is an extension of the player's personality. Human characteristics, such as fear and agression come out overly pronounced at a chess board and many mistakes can be traced back to these types of raw primal instincts. When a game is completed, a player should go back over the moves and note the mistakes and decide what thoughts caused those mistakes. For more complex technical mistakes, or if the player can not find any mistakes, a better player or a computer engine should be consulted. Consulting a better player or computer engine should be a last resort! Consultation has a tendency to become a crutch and slow the learning process from a fast walk to a hobble. Information given freely is not as memorable as a thought that is strenuously labored into existence.

4. Constantly and steadily learn. It is not necessary to study chess for eight hours each day to master the subject. It is a long distance race, and too much too fast will cause exhaustion and burnout. Find a pace that can be maintained long term. Set goals to finish the study materials that were gathered in step two and hold yourself to those goals. A common goal is to attempt to finish a chess book every other month. In five years, a player can read thirty chess books at that speed. It does not take thirty chess books of information to master chess (exclude all opening books from this number, those should be kept at arms length) if good information has been gathered. Some books, such as endgame manuals, should be read along with the book of the month since such manuals often takes years to complete.

5. Practice and perform. I can not give average numbers in hours as to what it takes to become a master of chess, because I do not think such numbers have ever been recorded. I can only tell you that it took me just over 7,000 hours of recorded games to become an expert. Some of those hours were in practice, and some were in competition, but all of them were well spent. I personally have not had a more rewarding challenge in my lifetime than to simply practice and perform.