You already know more than enough
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[00:00:00] Welcome back to Next Level Chess Podcast. I'm Grandmaster Noël Studer. And after last week's podcast episode, where I was talking about how to use strategy in a real game, I promise that today I wanna dive deeper into why having too much knowledge and strategical ideas sometimes can be a waste and a weight. And to get there, I wanna take some time to introduce an analogy that hopefully works and just explain the difference between skill and knowledge and why it matters so much.

So if stocking up on knowledge would mean immediate improvement, then everybody watching chess content would be [00:01:00] grandmasters. So there is obviously a gap. Let's talk about it.

So think about going on a serious hike. There are two things that decide how this hike will go. There is your body, and there is the gear that you're bringing.

Your body is skill. You can't buy it. You build it slowly through reps and hard work. And it's impossible to have too much of it. So even on an easy stroll, it's better to be well-trained than untrained. And then there is the gear. The gear is your knowledge. It's the compass, it's the shoes, it's the pickaxe, it's the food, it's the drinks, everything you bring with you. You can buy it everywhere pretty quickly usually. You see it everywhere. And here is what almost everyone misses.

If you have a pickaxe in [00:02:00] untrained hands, this isn't a tool. It's just three kilograms of steel that you're carrying up a mountain. You own it, but you can't use it.

So in chess, I see this daily. Students will tell me, "Hey, I don't know what to do in this position. But then when I ask a simple question, suddenly that confusion is not there anymore. What am I asking? What's a decent developing move here? Most students can name one immediately. So the knowledge that should have been applied was already there. The problem is because there was so much more other knowledge, the student thought, "Well, I need to do something more sophisticated in that position." It is a problem of having too much knowledge and too little skill. Your body wasn't ready to use the tools [00:03:00] that you bought.

Now compare that to your skills. Some of the most important ones are basic calculation, thought process, decision-making, time usage. Just like your body can't be too well-trained, you can never be too good at any of them. Every move rewards a precise, short calculation. Every move is a decision. Every time control rewards using your clock well. There is no position where these stop applying, and no level where they stop paying off. So better skills help you in every position, in every game.

While more knowledge can help, but it can also backfire, especially if you have this too much knowledge, too little skill combination that so many of you guys listening have.

Or have you ever heard someone complain [00:04:00] that they calculate too well for their current level? Nope. Me neither.

And so I wanna leave you with that analogy and let it sit for this week. And next week, I wanna talk about why gear has weight, why stocking up on so much knowledge is actually slowing you down.

And I'll compare you with one of the laziest chess improvers I ever met, which is my dad. Love you, Dad. And how he has so little knowledge that he can move way quicker than you.

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 will always [00:05:00] 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 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.

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That's super helpful. Podcast growth is really just working through mouth-by-mouth recommendations. So thank you, 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.