Out with 2022, in with 2023! If last year was a poor one for your chess, you’ve got a fresh start, and 2023 can be a rousing success. To help make it so, it’s not enough to have a wish; vague hopes are pleasant to dream about but won’t happen of their accord. As philosopher and theologian Dallas Willard used to frame such things (in a different context [very short version here], but it’s generalizable), we need the VIM method: Vision-Intention-Means. The vision is the hope, the intention is the decision to pursue it, and the means is where most of us fall short in making our hopes and goals a reality: it’s the answer to the all-critical how question.
So, if you want to improve your chess (don’t we all!), let’s use this post as an opportunity to go from the “V” to the “I” and the “M”. As a way to help motivate yourself with this brand spanking new year, write in the comments where you’d like your chess to be come the last day of 2023, make your intention to get to that point plain, and if you’re feeling up for it say something concrete about how you plan to achieve that aim. Hopefully we can all encourage each other in these goals, and maybe offer some pointers as to what has and hasn’t worked for us when we’ve had similar aims. Let’s work together to make those dreams a reality!
Context: I'm a low rated player; I started a serious quest for improvement in the spring of 2022.
V: Move from the 400-600 rating band in the Chess Dojo training program (https://www.chessdojo.shop/training) to the 800-900 rating band.
I: Focus hard on the work needed to make that improvement, and diligently avoid chess activity that doesn't help.
M: Each week I will play a few classical (e.g. 90+30) and rapid (e.g. 15+10) games and analyze each game, study tactics (attack and defense, endgames, opening traps), and study master games. Any book or course I decide to start will be pursued to completion; no skipping around to the next new shiny thing. Finally, I plan on starting the year by establishing and growing a "natural" opening repertoire; playing principled moves and keeping those that work, discarding those that don't. If this doesn't work, then I may need to consult opening theory a little bit, or perhaps study chess principles more thoroughly, or study master games more thoroughly.
Like all my plans, this one is ambitious and, probably, I will fall short. But I learned a lot about studying chess in the past 9 months, mostly by going down unproductive paths; I think the above is close to the minimum required to improve quickly at my level, and doesn't include any low value activities.
In 2023 I will develop study habits that I didn’t have in 2022. I’ll focus mostly on tactics and game collections. I’ll be consistent. I’m confident results will follow.