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Category: chess teachers

“Tilt”: A New Word in My Vocabulary

“Tilt”: A New Word in My Vocabulary

Published by Dawn on February 25, 2023

Until I began following chess Twitter and listening to chess podcasts, the word “tilt” only meant “on a slant” to me. From the contexts in which I was seeing it used now, I realized it had to do with losing, but the Urban dictionary said there was more to it: 

. . . an emotional state when doing the exact same activity over and over produces negative results. It’s an emotional breakdown and frustration of your hard work not resulting in the success that you crave so desperately. When you or someone is in a tilt state of mind, the best thing to do is take a break from that activity and try not to think about it as much.

I am there. I was within striking distance of an all-time-high rating of 600 (I know, not a big deal to most of you, but. . .) at the end of last month. Since then, I have engaged a new teacher—a true coach, this time. I used to wonder what the difference was between a chess teacher and a chess coach, and now I know. My new coach is working for me all the time. All. The. Time. I can send a What’s App message about any aspect of my chess and know I will receive a thoughtful answer shortly. He is very conversant with the chess literature and chess videos, which enabled him to create a study plan perfectly tailored to my needs. I should probably be messaging him instead of writing this (actually, before censoring it, my husband suggested I send the original draft of this piece to him and to my [non-chess] therapist.) But I don’t want to come off as horribly needy in our first few weeks of work. It will just seem like I am asking him to say that I can and will get better. No doubt I have already transmitted the need for that kind of reassurance anyway. The lifetime good student in me, who managed to attain three graduate degrees, just wants to get better, partly to please him, and does not want to require any hand holding.

As long as I am still enjoying it, the only reason I would ever quit chess is if I thought I could not improve and was still at such a low level that it was hard to find decent opponents. I’m 64, so I do think I should be on the lookout for that kind of plateau. But from here, I feel that if I could just get to say, 800, I would keep at it, even if my rating never increased beyond three digits. I say that because I have a lot of experience playing strangers on chess.com who rate between 400 and 600. Many of them attempt Scholar’s Mate or other early tricks and tend to resign when their trick fails and they have almost inevitably blundered their queen. Those games get old after a while. The proportion of such tricks seems to go down somewhat above the 500 rating level, leading me to hope that it will evaporate entirely as one ascends. (I should say that I have not met many such tricksters on lichess.com, but it is hard to get a slower time control there in the lowly ranges.)

And speaking of the lowly ranges, one thing that makes tilting harder is that I don’t see many chess improvers below 800 tweeting, blogging, or otherwise making their existence known. The wonderful people whose content I devour via chess Twitter and podcasts all appear to have high ratings. Yes, there are adult improver podcasts, but they have usually improved to a level that I can only dream of, and not much lip service is paid to their presumably brief stays in the sub-four-digit rating band. 

The Urban dictionary advice above notwithstanding, I do not intend to take a break from my pursuit of chess mediocrity. In addition, I should fully disclose that my coach has told me that all of the wonderful information he has been imparting to me in these early weeks may be causing my tilt. Yes, you read that right. In other words, I may be hyperfocusing on certain aspects of the game (and heaven knows, there are many) to the complete exclusion of others while I assimilate new knowledge. I can only hope that he is right.

 

[Image Credit: Captain Raju]

Much Ado about Openings

Much Ado about Openings

Published by Dawn on June 12, 2022

Soon after you dip your toe into the fascinating waters of chess, you begin hearing or reading about “openings.” It can feel like every other chess course for sale online and every other YouTube lesson is about one opening or another. They have fascinating names, like the Queen’s Gambit (the King has one as well), the Ruy Lopez, the Sicilian Defense, the Caro-Kann Defense, and on and on. Curiosity about these names is one way that chess begins to hook you. Fortunately, you can learn about their origins and more in two books by Nathan Rose. 

Wikipedia will tell you that the opening refers to the “initial stage of a chess game” and “usually consists of established theory.” Theory? That’s a bit scary-sounding for the beginner. Hopefully you will go from there to a sensible book or chess teacher. Either will set you straight on the subject of openings right away. A good teacher will say that despite the mountains of material on the subject out there, beginners should not spend much of their precious chess study time memorizing openings, which usually involve multiple “lines” (that is, if your opponent does X in response to an opening move, you should do Y, but if she does this, you should do that, ad infinitum).

My teacher, Amanda Ross, handles the issue of openings with her beginning students as follows, and it worked well for me. She teaches you the principles of opening, which are to activate your pieces (moving knights before bishops) with an eye toward controlling the center of the board; not to move any piece twice (unless there is a pressing need to do so); not to move the Queen out too far too early; and to get your king to safety. Following these principles often results in an opening called the Italian Game, or Giuoco Piano, but the important thing for beginners is that you approach it by learning the principles behind it rather than memorizing the abstract notation (e4 e5, Nf3 Nc6, Bc4). As a beginner, I was greatly relieved to be able to sit down at the board, know what my first few moves were and why, and be able to execute them rapidly. Alas, now I feel anxiety at the beginning of the middle game instead. That’s chess for you.

Amanda urged me to stick with this opening until she let me know that it was time for me to choose my own opening from a range suitable for beginners. My own opening! That sounded so grown-up and accomplished. Until this time I had watched with envy as one of my classmates opened games using something called “the London system.” As an American in the Midwest whose teacher and online classmates were (mostly) in London, accents and all, the “London” moniker made it seem fated, and that it was called a “system” gave it a certain mystique and the sound of chess mastery. Decision made. Little did I know, however, that playing the London system can subject one to annoying comments out in internet chess land. Some call it “boring.” But it’s perfect for beginners because it has a smaller body of theory than many other openings, and it can be played against any black defense. I’m not bored by it, and I will let my teacher decide when it is time to expand my opening repertoire.  

Get a Teacher!

Get a Teacher!

Published by Dawn on April 16, 2022

There are so many chess resources available online–the podcasts, the spaced repetition tactics ebooks, the YouTube videos, the analysis tools on the chess platforms, the “studies” in lichess–that it is tempting to think that you could teach yourself chess if you just applied yourself and took advantage of them in the right way. That will go a long way. But my experience has been that even while using a great tool, questions arise that only a human being can answer. For example, the analyzers are happy to tell you if you have made an inaccuracy, a mistake, or a blunder and what would have been the best move. But they don’t tell you why. And that is crucial. After I had accumulated more questions than I could tolerate, I decided to invest in private lessons. Yes, it’s an investment and you can enjoy and learn chess plenty without it. If you don’t feel you can make the investment now, there are still ways to get instruction. One is to seek out a local chess club. Most weren’t meeting during the pandemic, but they are starting up again. There you can use a time-honored way to learn the game that is largely ignored in the online world: asking your opponent to review the game with you after you play. Also there are people out there who will give low-cost or even free lessons if you ask. I’ve seen offers of the latter posted in the various Facebook groups dedicated to chess.


Actually, before I found my teacher, I found the marvelous group that she runs, the Casual Chess Cafe. Amanda Ross founded this as an in-person group in London in 2015. She moved it online when the pandemic hit, and that’s how I found it. In the online cafe, which is free and open to all, we chat on Zoom and play chess as a group for 90 minutes starting at 12:30 pm Eastern time on Fridays. Amanda creates a very relaxed and welcoming environment, complete with cat antics. From there I got to taking her wonderful women-only group classes. She records the classes on Zoom for you to watch if you can’t make it in real time, but it is much better to come to the classes live because at various points during the class you get to play online practice games, which she comments on. In addition, she also holds a separate practice session for the class on a different day, in which we play exclusively and get her feedback. Eventually I added private lessons with Amanda to my chess regime. She has been the perfect first coach for me and very gracefully weathered our first few lessons, when I besieged her with the zillion questions I had accumulated while struggling with chess on my own for a year or so.

Lauren Goodkind is a great example of a teacher that beginners can follow and learn from on YouTube. She frequently posts episodes that recap games between beginning players, to which she adds insightful commentary. There is a seemingly infinite amount of chess content on YouTube, of which I have barely scratched the surface. So far the series I have found most helpful is John Bartholomew’s Chess Fundamentals. Please leave a comment letting us know what chess videos you recommend.