6 lessons from 6 weeks Real Chess Training
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[00:00:00] Hey, and welcome back to Next Level Chess podcast. I'm grandmaster Noël Studer and I'm here to help you improve your chess in a simple way, in a realistic way, in an honest way. And today I want to talk about six lessons that I learned from launching my very own membership Real Chess Training. Now for everybody that has heard of Real Chess Training.

It's opened up again. You will find a link in the description, but you will also be able for everybody, even if you haven't heard, to try it out. So there is a test training also linked in the podcast description where you can try it out and see if it is a good fit for you. Now let's talk about the six [00:01:00] lessons that I learned from launching this membership.

Lesson number one: hard training can be fun. And this is an important one because with all of the quick and easy messaging out there, doing something difficult and hard becomes less attractive. And my messaging is mostly, well, you just have to do something. You have to train hard. Even if it sometimes sucks, but it actually works.

Instead, if we go for the easy and quick stuff, probably it will not work. But a nice thing is to see that people can actually enjoy the hard training. So this is actually great. You're doing the right thing, and you're also getting enjoyment from it.

So there was a comment below one of the videos of Real Chess Training that I was very happy with, and I'll share it right here. So this is a quote. " I'm very happy. I joined right from the start this first round, and the preview met and exceeded my expectations. I wish you great success with this project and look forward to years of [00:02:00] training with you like this. Finally, something to look forward to on Mondays." End of quote.

And the important message here really is that it really matters how we perceive difficulties and mistakes, because if you are seeing difficulties, weaknesses, making a blunder in training or not coming up with the right solution as a weakness, as a character flaw, as an attack to yourself, as failure.

Then whenever you do something hard, it will feel annoying. It will feel dangerous, and probably you will end up not doing it at least after some while. And when you change into a growth mindset, you can now see these same weaknesses, mistakes, things that you learn, as an opportunity to grow.

And this applies not only to doing something like Real Chess Training and really difficult test, but it applies to every single game you play.

Instead of thinking, [00:03:00] "I need to perform well, otherwise it is a disgrace", or, "I suck, I'm stupid." Start thinking "This difficult test will strengthen my understanding skills and decision making. I'm not yet a great player and I'll learn more."

Lesson number two: progress, not perfection. If you stick to a growth mindset, you realize that real improvement is found in tiny progress and not perfection. What do I mean by this? It's not like people that started in week one and had maybe one out of six correct solutions on the first test, now find everything on every single test. It's not such a big difference.

Maybe even, and when I read comments, this is definitely true for some students. They still get the same amount of positions correct. What changes over time is the quality of the mistakes, and then slowly the amount of positions you get correct. When you start applying the [00:04:00] correct thought process, you start catching yourself getting lazy.

You start maybe getting the wrong answer just for a small little detail. Like you understood everything, but there was one small calculation error you did and you ended up being wrong. And what happened in the first test is: you weren't even close. Your thought process was completely wrong. You just decided for something.

That's it. Now, if you have the wrong mindset, a fixed mindset, that's still failure. You go from wrong to wrong. Failure. But with a growth mindset, that's actually something to be proud of. And this is super, super important to hammer that home because whenever you want to improve a skill, there will be moments where, if you just look at the results, there will be no improvement.

But in the process, in the actual quality of your mistakes, there will be huge progress. And if you stop before seeing this progress turn into results, then you might quit just before you would've seen something change. So this is super, super important.

And I also got a quote from a student [00:05:00] right here. Let me read it out. " I still don't get most positions fully correct, but over the last five weeks, as an early adopter, simply by failing to spot everything and then comparing my thought process to the solution videos, the way I look at positions and try to understand what is happening has noticeably shifted. Most positions I still get wrong or only half right. But I can already see significantly more than I could a month ago." End of quote.

So this is so important and for those of you who have listened to last week's podcast episode, that's basically my main message back there. It's how can we see the small progress? How can we be proud of it? How we can we see it as something positive, instead of just looking at the result? "Well, it still sucks. Well, I'm bad. Let's quit."

Lesson three: opponent's resources are hard to see. There's one test that Real Chess Training members struggled with most. And I [00:06:00] predicted it. I expected it. Because the test was designed to have positions with tempting moves for yourself, but hidden opponent resources that one should see. Just like it happens in a game.

And the comment section was full of the same type of message. And this is very simple message. It was something like that. This is a direct quote. "Brutal. I think I got one right. Hard lesson, but a good one." End of quote.

So why is it that is so hard for us to spot opponent's resources? It's very simple: because we never trained to do it. Every time you have a puzzle, you know there is a solution for you. Every time you play a game, you look at the board from your own perspective. Checking for opponent's resources is a skill that you can train.

This is so important. It's not just you're good at it or not, it's something you can train by solving tests like these where somebody, well, tries to trick you a little bit like I did in that test. And this test was a bad result for many, but I'm sure that they learned from it. And the next tests, they [00:07:00] go at it with a different perspective.

They're like, oh no, I'm not just getting tempted into my good move, but actually I learned to shortly look for my opponent's resource. That will make them better at future tests, but also in future games.

And so it's so important that you start creating a habit for looking for opponents resources. And I also talk about this, by the way. If you just do tactics training as well, always start by looking at a position and thinking about what is the threat. Even if you know there is a tactic for yourself, this habit is so important and you just can build it up.

Not only by, well, in training, I never do it, but during the game, I wanna do it. That's not working. You do it every single time. You look at a new chess position, your first thought is, what is the opponent's resource? What is the opponent's idea here? What is the threat? And then you get better at it. And like this, it becomes a habit. And slowly you start doing it every single time when you play a game. And you will avoid many mistakes this way.

Lesson number four: the right [00:08:00] solution doesn't mean everything went well. This is so, so, so important, and I think very overlooked. So I was very, very happy when I saw a comment for students realizing this, because the temptation is very big.

When you solve a test, you get six out of six positions right. Or maybe even five out of six positions. It's a nice ego boost. You thinking, oh, everything is great. Maybe this is even too easy for me. Why would I care? I don't need to do that work anymore. But what I care in Real Chess Training and just in general when you try solving stuff, is more the right process rather than the right solution.

And often you have to see a few things to get really to the correct process and solution. And sometimes people just have good intuition, are like, okay, this is the move. Let's go for it, but they missed quite a few important details. And this is very dangerous. Because when you apply the right process, it's likely that during a game you can apply the right process, you get the right end result.

But if [00:09:00] you only have the right end results, but the process was lacking, then at some point you won't get as lucky as you got in this test and get six out of six right. But actually, just during a game with a little bit more pressure, oops. You suddenly don't get lucky. Your bad process leads to a bad result and the bad outcome is there.

Here is a quote from a student that I was very, very happy about. Quote. " It's interesting that if I just focus on the moves, I would have made the correct move in all six positions, but in at least three of them, I didn't see the full truth of the position. It really helps to see what the correct process is for approaching these positions, and not just the answer. In a puzzle trainer, I'd have six out of six and think everything was fine. Now I know what to work on." End of quote.

Lesson number five, and this is very similar to the previous one, but it's so important. I wanna dig deeper into this. Your thought process matters more than the answer. So, sometimes, I [00:10:00] prefer that you get the position wrong. So the outcome is wrong, but the right thought process is applied.

Let's compare two scenarios.

Imagine a position where there's a threat you should see. Then a tempting sacrifice, and that sacrifice doesn't fully work. So you need to play a safe move that prevents the threat in the first place.

Let's look at right solution, wrong process. You don't even spot the threat. You don't see the potential sacrifice, but you just play a move that somehow stops the threat, and it turns out this is the right move. This is very dangerous. This is really getting lucky. You missed not only one, but two key elements in the position.

Now, let's compare that wrong solution, right process. You spot the threat, you see the sacrifice, you calculate it deeply, but will miss one little defensive resource for your opponent, so you go for that sacrifice.

You get the wrong answer, but you really did [00:11:00] everything right except for a small calculation detail. And you are much closer to the real improvement, to the real answer that you can replicate in your own games. Because the calculation error is just a skill gap that you know you can work on. Gets better with those tests, gets better with doing tactics. The blindness to threats and candidate moves for yourself is a much bigger problem and something that takes much more work to actually change it.

So last but not least, lesson number six: time management is a skill you can improve. One of the key features of Real Chess Training is the limited 45 minutes members have for a six position test.

So, six positions, 45 minutes. They need to decide how much time they spend on each single position. And by the way, if you are in Real Chess Training, just a short clarification here. The idea is that you're looking at position number one first, then position number 2, 3, 4, [00:12:00] 5, 6, because in a real game, you can't look at all of the positions you will still have right in your game and decide, okay, where can I spend my time?

You need to solve one position. Decide how much time you want to, from your limited time, how much time you want to invest. Solve the next one, solve the next one, solve the next one. So this way you really get forced into doing it as similar to a game as possible. And sometimes I do it on purpose. That position number one is very complex.

And if you burn 20 minutes on position number one, even if you get it right, you set yourself up for failure later on. 'cause you just spend half the time on one sixth of the positions. It's not good. That's the same as in a real game. You might get the right solution, but it might not be decisive, and so you just get more positions and at some point you'll get into time trouble, probably make big mistakes.

And so in a game, for example, again, you have Move 15, you look at a position. You don't know if there is a solution, and you need to decide, well, how much time am I actually going to spend? And [00:13:00] especially if you realize there's not going to be a very clear solution, you just need to invest some time, find a good enough move, execute. You can't just waste all of your time.

That is really the point of this restricted time in Real Chess Training. It's to force you to calculate as in a game, but also to get to a point where you say, okay, I know I haven't seen everything. I know I'm not a thousand percent sure I have the right solution. But I gotta make a decision right now.

And then we can compare, okay, how was that decision? Because if that decision, even if it's not the, quote unquote, correct solution, right? The objectively perfect way of playing in that position. That doesn't matter. If it's good enough, if it was a decent move, we are happy. We are happy with that process, right?

And so that way of training, well, you can train to get better at using your time. So time management really has so many other things that we're training with Real Chess Training. It's a skill that just in normal chess training, basically never gets [00:14:00] trained unless you play games. There is pressure, there's everything. So we wanna do that more in training and that's how we do it.

And just for those wondering, or if you haven't heard of Real Chess Training already, so this is, as I mentioned, at test. Six positions. I send it out every single Monday. You get 45 minutes, you write down your solutions, you get a link to a video where I walk through every single position and I explain what was the right thought process, which moves are decent or tempting, but don't work. Which is the right move. How should you get there? What is the right process?

And it's designed for players between 1500 and 2000 chess.com, rapid or FIDE rating. If you are on Lichess, that's roughly 1700 to 2200. So if you are in that range, you can try out the free sample test that is in the link of the podcast, or you'll also find the direct link to just sign up.

And if you would like to train this way, but you're outside of this [00:15:00] rating range, just send me an email or a comment somewhere on the podcast platform, where you share which rating you have and that you would be interested, because I'm thinking about doing the same for a lower or higher rating range as well.

Here is to more difficult training that improves your skill, and finally will at some point improve your results as well.

See you next week!

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