The Key to Chess Improvement....I think.

How does one get better at chess?  By now the answer should be clear.  After all there are more books written about chess than about all other games combined.  And yet, with hundreds of books coming out every year as well as an ever growing deluge of dvd,s training programs, forums as well as numerous titled players who will coach you for a fee, the gap between the typical club player and experts and masters (let alone professionals) remains huge.  We have more information than ever before and yet most of us are still wood pushers.  Why?

I believe that the reason is that we fall into the trap of focusing on getting new information all of the time instead of learning how to use what we already know effectively.  I will use myself as an example.  I have a chess library that, at its peak, numbered close to 800 volumes.  At the risk of sounding immodest I believe that my knowledge of chess history and culture is at a high level.  In addition I am well versed in most modern opening systems and have a solid knowledge of the classical players.  In spite of this, I have lost hundreds of games by making very large crude blunders. Often I have given away my queen for nothing.  Why does this happen?  I clearly know enough to realize that I can't win games by giving away my most powerful piece for free.  Why does this happen to me when I know so much about chess?

I think it happens because I don't effectively use the information that I have in game situations.  I need to improve my thought process in practical situations when the clock is ticking and the person on the other side of the board has bad intentions.  The key isn't learning new things all of the time but instead learning how to use what I already know effectively.

Now as much as I would like to take credit for this insight, alas, I cannot.  Grandmster Igor Smirnov of Ukraine is an experienced chess teacher who preaches the point of avoiding "useless knowledge" constantly. GM Smirnov has a series of both free and commercial products that I have found very helpful in actually improving my play. You can check out GM Smirnov's blog here.  His youtube page has a ton of free videos that you can see here.
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Next post we will get into the details of the thought process that I am trying to use and talk about my early results.  To close for now, here's a sample of GM Smirnov's  chess lessons: enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVqgKnv37m4

How To Master Anything. Part 2`

So, its been awhile since my last post.  To be honest I was spending a lot of time watching the candidates tournament to determine a challenger to World Chess Champion Vishy Anand.  Magnus Carlsen won the event.  We will talk about that later but first...

When last we left you we had reviewed ideas about how to be excellent.  How to learn new things and achieve at a high level.  If you need a refresher you can read about it here.  If you recall, the main problem is that while you can master anything, conventional, wisdom tells us that it takes a long time.  10,000 hours or approximately ten years.  Now I'm guessing that you're sitting there thinking:

 "Well, Bill this is nice and all but I don't have ten years to master something.  Hell, I'm lucky if I get an hour or two to my self most nights and maybe a free day on the weekend.  I guess if I didn't start when I was twelve, I'm just out of luck."

What if I told you that you could master something to a high level, not in ten years, not in 10,000 hours but in six months?  Would that interest you?

New York Times best selling author Tim Ferriss's latest book "The Four Hour Chef" teaches you the secrets to rapid learning.  Tim has mastered languages in months, competed at a world championship level in Tango dancing shortly after taking it up, started multiple businesses and written best selling books at breakneck speed. If you go to his blog, he will teach you how to learn to speed read in under an hour, how to enhance your memory and even, how to lose weight, all at the speed of light.  What's the trick?

DiSSS.

Deconstruct: Break a task down to the smallest building blocks that you can work with.

Select:  Chose the 20% of critical information that gets you 80% of the results

Sequence: Learn the material in an order that generates early success. Build momentum by setting yourself up for early success that leads into the more challenging material.

Stakes: As much as we like to focus on rewards, the stick is often more powerful than the carrot.  Create a cost for failure.  An example could be, If you fail to reach your goal, then you have to donate money to a cause that you don't support.

You know what?  I think that its time to let Tim explain this to us himself:

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