Why Real Chess Improvement Looks Like Cheating
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[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome back to Next Level Chess podcast. As always, I'm grandmaster Noël Studer, your host. And today I want to talk about a topic that is so important to me. It's the belief that we can do so much more than what we think we can. But it's always tricky to talk about this because once you talk about big improvements and so on, you get into an area where many people think, oh, this could be a scam, or this could be cheating, or whatever.

So I truly believe in improving one's chess a lot, but what I don't believe in is that it can be easy. And that it will be quick. This is super, super important [00:01:00] and I hope that this newsletter I wrote and which will be the podcast episode for today, is really bringing home my take on this situation because this is so important that it doesn't get misunderstood too much.

I always fear that when I share that, oh yeah, you can do so many things that people start understanding, like oh well, I can do anything, like, everybody can become a GM. No, that's not my message at all. There is a difference between believing in yourself and pushing yourself to achieve extraordinary results and just living in a completely different universe and leaving your job at 45 when you started playing chess because you think your destiny means that you should become a GM. So there's a thin line, but I hope it'll make sense after hearing this podcast episode. Let's jump right in.

So if you go on Reddit today and share a story about gaining 400 rating points in a year, [00:02:00] what do you think is happening?

Well, I've seen it happen quite a few times. Probably you will get accused of cheating and not only from one person. I've seen it happen in the past with my own students that they put in months of grueling, boring, focused work. They finally break through a massive plateau, share their success, and what they get is like, "oh, that's impossible. Send me your profile. I bet there is something fishy going on."

And just to make it clear, obviously there are some cheating cases. I'm not saying cheating does not exist, but often it gets misunderstood.

So why is the world so cynical? Why is incredible improvement immediately labeled as cheating?

In my opinion, it comes down to the quick and easy disease.

' cause in the war of attention that we live in, insane promises are the new normal. Everywhere you look, you see click bait. For example, on YouTube, but also with courses. [00:03:00] And the lie's basically the same. It has many facets, but it's basically the same lie over and over. Incredible improvements were made quickly and easily.

With "300 points in 30 days" or "Skyrocket your chess" are just two slogans I saw from very, very famous YouTubers. You can figure out yourself who they are. Here's the irony. Everybody talks about wanting to reach next level, but nearly nobody is ready to do the work.

And I believe that actually one of the biggest click baiters on YouTube, GothamChess. And by the way, this is not an insult. This is something that he says himself, that he's click baiting, crazy, right? It's not like, I'm the one saying that. He is saying that himself, that he click baits a lot. He's a great example.

Because he has this journey to become a grandmaster. And he constantly talks about it and he makes a lot of videos about it. And it really is a great storyline and it gets him a lot of views, makes him a lot of money.

But the question is, is he actually putting in the three [00:04:00] plus hours of daily difficult undistracted chess study needed to bridge the gap from IM, and an IM that is not even rated 2400 to grandmaster?

Or is he instead spending time making clickbait videos about wanting to become a grandmaster without really putting in the work? If you follow the chess world, I think you know the answer.

And then after a few bad tournaments, he quits. And with that hope, at some point he comes back usually. And I think there is an underlying hope that it somehow will be easier this time it will work out.

But the thing, is to GM will never be easy. Can Levy become a grandmaster? I'm absolutely certain he could. But the thing is that he doesn't seem ready to do the boring, hard work for a long period of time. It's not about pushing a little bit and scheduling a few tournaments and hoping that it'll all work out.

I've talked about this in the past. I've been a professional chess [00:05:00] player for roughly two years to bridge that gap from like IM with 2420 maybe to becoming a GM. That was six plus hours a day. Very difficult work. I didn't do anything else.

And so, what Levy does, he's choosing the YouTube millions over this deep work, this deep hard work to try to push for a GM title.

And from a business perspective, maybe even from a personal perspective, like who can blame him? It's fine. You can say, well, I can just upload videos and I make so much money. I'm super famous. I can write books. I can do whatever I want. Why should I put in that time?

What annoys me a little bit, I have to be honest, is this constant like talking about it without putting in the work? 'cause I think that sets a bad precedent and is giving off a bad image. If you talk about wanting to become a GM, then put in the hard work, you can do it.

And when people constantly consume this quick and easy content, the perception of improvement gets warped. And if these [00:06:00] same people buy courses, memorize a few engine lines without understanding anything, avoiding the hard work, and they fail to improve, now something happens. It creates a toxic psychological trap. When the magic pill that they got sold because they hoped that it would be easy, doesn't work for them, they need to protect their ego somehow.

And so they conclude, well, if I bought the secret sauce and it didn't help, then nobody can improve that much. Therefore, anyone who shares a big success story must be cheating. It's just protection of one's own ego.

And here is the key point I want to talk about. People misunderstand what makes a success story fake. Often I see people thinking that just generally big results, big numbers, like 400 points in a year. Oh my god, big number, 400 points must be cheating.

Big results are not automatically scammy. The red flag is the method [00:07:00] used to get to improvement. More specifically, the red flag should be the quick and easy. That is always the biggest red flag. Massive improvement is possible. Then it depends on what your definition of massive improvement is. Again, I'm not saying everybody can be a grandmaster. Don't misquote me on that. But what I'm saying is big improvements that many people think is not possible is actually possible, but they are not going to be quick and easy.

So here's what I want you to remember. Really burn this in your brain. Big results, plus quick and easy, it's likely a scam or cheating. It's not always the case, but it's likely. So if somebody promises you this, stay away. Hide your world far away from this kind of promise.

And if you hear someone say, "well, I don't know, last five days I trained hard, I won 500 points. When I watched this YouTube video, I immediately won 300 points the next day." That's [00:08:00] dangerous.

But here is what real chess improvement is. It's big results, long time and hard work. So if you hear someone that says, I worked my butt off for the last year, every day I took two hours where I fully focused, studied chess, and I won a lot of rating points in that year, then that's very likely to be a real success story by a normal human who just was ready to do the boring, difficult things for an extended period of time.

Because in our time, in our fast moving world, one year is already a super long period of time. I work with chess improvers every single day, and it's incredible already to see someone actually stick to a proper plan for a month.

That's already quite a feat, and that's just motivated people. So if you manage to really stick to a plan for a year, doesn't need to be that every single time that you train, [00:09:00] everything is perfect. But in the big picture, you stuck to it. And it was not just five minutes a day. You really put in focus, you slept well. You didn't just consume something. No, you are really trained. You solve difficult positions. You review your painful losses. Oh my God, you can improve a lot. Obviously!

Nobody else is doing it. So because nobody is willing to do that the results, if you're doing it, are, well, feeling unbelievable to others. And again, this is a psychological effect because they, it's hard to say, "oh my God, yeah, I wasn't just ready to do the work." It's way easier to say, "well, I'm a poor guy. This doesn't work, and you have to be cheating because that's just impossible."

This is just protection of the ego. So let me be loud and clear, and I think I was loud and clear in that podcast episode. Incredible improvements are actually possible, but you need to be ready to put in the work and wait for a long enough period.

[00:10:00] Don't expect it after a week, even if you put in hard work, like what is a week? No, no, no. Do it for months. Do it for years. Then you'll see what happens. My longest plateau was two and a half years. I was a professional player. Things are not just getting automated and everything falls from the heaven and it's beautiful.

You need to push through these hard periods, but then, yes, incredible improvements are possible. Obviously they are. Obviously Levy can become a grandmaster. But does he want to spend three years sitting his spot down every single day, spending three plus hours on chess, trying to calculate and improve his way of working chess, not think working. It's work, it's training, it's difficult. If he does, I believe he will be a GM.

And if you're ready to do the hard work, then just know that, yeah, there are cynics out there. There are a lot of people, I would argue 90% of people, are not ready to put in the work and they wanna protect themselves. So if you share your success with [00:11:00] them, it's very likely that something negative is coming back.

So search a safer space. Maybe a space from people that everybody is agreeing, Hey, we do the hard work. Share your good results with those people. That will be nice. That will push you. They will be like, oh my God, I'm so proud of you. You're inspiring me. I work even a little bit harder now. That's the people that you want to surround yourself with.

And just one last thing, if you wanna find the right people, I don't know if the internet is right place. Definitely not social media. So get off these things. Just find real friends. Touch some grass. Go out. Sun is out to where I'm recording today. So get some sun. Talk to a loved one. That's way cooler.

See you next time!

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