Are You a Chess Player or a Gambler
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[00:00:00] Hey, and welcome back to Next Level Chess podcast. I'm grandmaster Noël Studer, and I am specifically excited for today's episode because I got very positive feedback from this newsletter that I've sent out, and it's really something very close to my heart and kind of honest and straightforward. So without further ado, let's jump right into it. Are you a chess player or are you just a gambler?

Let me be very honest. I don't really care if you gain 200 rating points this year. I've stopped caring about pure rating gains, both for me and my students long ago, and most people think I'm crazy for saying this as a coach. But after years as a [00:01:00] professional and now as a coach, I've realized that a number on a screen is meaningless if you haven't grown as a person along the way.

If you're curious about more on this topic, there is episode 55 is titled "You Are Not Your Rating". There's also a blog post with the same name about this. You can check them out. This is what I truly care about instead. It's helping others grow as humans. Luckily, for me and you, improving your chess is one of the most effective ways to build character skills.

I'm talking about the meta skills that help you excel at chess, but also learn any other skill and be a better human. I mainly think about these four. Maybe if you're listening to this, some others come to mind for you. Resilience, the ability to bounce back quickly after a tough loss. Learning how to lose, replaying your mistakes with curiosity rather than shame.

And actually looking through your loss games [00:02:00] in the first place. Performing under pressure, taking a decision when the clock is ticking and you aren't a hundred percent sure. And last but not least, doing hard things. Pushing your limits and training until discomfort becomes natural.

Let me share a quick lesson I learned from the poker table, or I learned about myself by playing poker. Most readers know I started playing some poker about four years ago, but I actually stopped playing almost six months ago because of a realization about character. After a bad streak of results, I found myself playing in the hope of getting lucky rather than focusing on making the best decisions possible.

No matter if I won or lost, I knew deep down I wasn't building corrective skill. I was just hoping to get lucky. To be very honest with you was a terrible feeling. And that faulty mindset slowly started influencing others, other areas of my life. That's when I had to pull the plug. That means no more poker for me until [00:03:00] I'm fully ready to sit down to do the right thing and be okay when results aren't great.

I see the exact same thing in chess. If you win because of a lucky blunder or cheap trick, you get the rating points, but you didn't grow. You didn't earn the win through a better process. This leads to what I call hollow progress, fueled by common traps that prioritize short term results over long term character.

This hollow progress is often fueled by asking the wrong question: how can I win more games easily now? Or how can I avoid losing? The latter might be even worse and more common for adult improvers that very often are scared of mistakes and losses. Both questions push you towards quick hacks and not what you need to do to build character and improve long term.

They push you towards memorizing opening lines. Does it help you win? Maybe sometimes in the short [00:04:00] term. But does it build character? Nope. It's just mindless repetition. And by the way, mostly when you use these move trainers, you just get to the platform every single day so they can spam you with their marketing and sell you some more opening courses.

Playing unfocused or tilted, does it help you win? Only if you get lucky. Does it build character? Hell no. It reinforces impulsive bad habits that you'll have to unlearn later. And playing for cheap tricks. Does it help you win? Well, sometimes yes, it happens. You make a move you know is bad, but your opponent falls for it.

But does it build character skills? Definitely not. You are avoiding the real fight and relying on your opponent to make mistakes and fail. When they stop making these mistakes, well, you're pretty much screwed.

If you want to build a very strong character that will help you in chess and outside of chess, you need to do the boring, difficult stuff that [00:05:00] actually works. Solving difficult positions, does it help you win? Yes. But only in the long term. Does it build character? Absolutely. It teaches you to sit alone with your thoughts and push your mental limits.

And actually, by the way, it also helps just for your attention span in general, when you can sit 10 minutes at a board and just think about chess. That's actually already extremely rare in today's world. Analyzing your losses, does it help you win? Yes. Does it help build character? Hell yeah. It requires you to look reality in the eye and admit you were wrong.

Arguably, one of the hardest thing to do for nearly everybody trying to improve anything. And then, mastering fundamentals instead of fancy things. Does it help you win long term? Yes. It feels less fancy than if you played a brilliant move once in a hundred games. But actually developing your pieces every single time will win you so many [00:06:00] games, even if you don't fully realize it was just because you actually played with all of your pieces.

And does it build character? Yeah, it's the less but better philosophy and it's just a humbling experience where instead of trying to be super smart and doing some extravagant training, you just stick to what's needed the most, the absolute than basics.

Here's the most beautiful thing about this all. Because there is a byproduct of building your character. So even if you only care about the damn rating, and I mean if you do, I might not be the right person to listen to. The best way in the long run to get that rating is to stop obsessing over the short term results.

When you focus on your skills, on how much you can improve about your process, instead of short term results and quick hacks, the results eventually take care of themselves. You'll have learned so many good skills. You'll have built up [00:07:00] so much resilience. You'll be so strong under pressure that there is no way but to improve your chess.

And to be honest, this is what makes my work meaningful. Because if you're sending me an email that you won 200 points, I'm happy for you. But that's just a bonus. If I get emails from people that changed the way they think about life. They changed the way they perform under pressure. They changed the way they think about mistakes.

They enjoy pushing themselves, doing hard things. They enjoy the process. That's really what keeps me going. That's what I am proud of. To help people build those character skills that help eventually improve your chess. Much more importantly, just to be a better human and improve in any area of life.

So once and for all, stop searching for a magic pill. Don't look for the quick results. Don't ask [00:08:00] yourself, how can I win this game? Or even worse, how can I avoid making a mistake or losing this game? Instead, ask yourself, does this build my character skills? Or what I like to tell myself very often: is this the right thing to do?

Because if the answer is yes, it's very likely you are going in the right direction. You will eventually improve your chess by building your character skills.

Hey guys, just two quick things before you take off. If you enjoyed this episode and want more structured chess improvement tips from myself, check out my newsletter at nextlevelchess.com/newsletter. It's totally free. It'll always remain free, and it goes out every single Friday with the best, latest chess improvement tips that I have.

Most of the podcast episodes that I record are based on a [00:09:00] previous newsletter. So getting the newsletter, you'll get the advice earlier and you'll get it directly into your inbox every single Friday. It's totally free, as I mentioned, and you can unsubscribe any time. So go to nextlevelchess.com/newsletter to sign up.

And one last thing, if you enjoyed this episode and if it helped you, then please take a few seconds and review this podcast. This helps a ton. It helps other people see, oh yeah, many, many people profit from the advice given in this podcast. Let's give this podcast a try, and if you can, if you know anyone in the chess world that would profit from this episode or any other episode.

Make sure to share it with your friends, with your people online. That's super helpful. Podcast growth is really just working through mouth by mouth recommendations, so thank you. [00:10:00] Thank you so much for listening, and thank you for spreading the word about the Next Level Chess podcast. Now, that's all from me.

Thank you for listening and see you next time.