comments:
I once wrote a book called "Chess Improvement Guide: From Beginner to 2000+ Rating." The idea is that skill should form the most of your training at levels below 2000. I feel like a lot of players spend too many hours focused on a 10-hour+ opening course, theoretical endgames, etc. The truth is, a lot of players below 2000 on chesscom just blunder or fall for simple tactics. Anti-blunder training is actually a skill that you must train over the course of several months or even continually for that matter. When I just simplified my training down to reducing blunders, trying to read my opponents' intentions, working on tactics regularly, I made a climb to 2000. Was theory important? To a small extent actually. Most training should be "block before you punch." Take a look at Nakamura when he plays blitz (even when using horrible openings). He can almost instantly anticipate what his opponent is going to do. Many chess books do not teach this. That's what I advocate for. This is foundational. Everything else like the basic tenets of positional play, imbalances, pawn structure, etc., are strong supplements. Mastering dual thinking and learning how to develop skill, how to quickly spot undefended pieces, etc. When I tell people this, it sounds too simple. Like where's the trick? It challenges what they believe should lead to mastery like: "I need to read 100 chess books or watch 100 Gotham Chess videos or play 10 000 games of chess" The fact is, the old masters (from the 1600s, 1700s, and early 1800s) didn't know a lot about openings, positional play. They just made less obvious blunders. They could play with piece odds. And they trained themselves this way. I had someone disagree with me, so I made a video beating a 2200 with no mainstream opening or theory. Just common sense and avoiding blunders: https://youtu.be/LEJon-JUAgc?si=8_pG82rcYa6CDcrY This kind of training needs to be focused. It has to take months. It can be boring and monotonous, but it actually works. No need to spend hundreds of dollars on a coach wasting your time teaching you knight and bishop checkmate just to milk your money.