This post really resonates with me. Definitely accepted and offered way too many draws in my youth.
I think it's also really hard when you're so young to have this perspective of long-term vs short-term gains (I think I've only just started to appreciate this in the last year or so) - especially without some sort of coach.
Absolutely with the long-term vs. short-term mindsets: it seems to apply to every area of chess.
In the last 2 years when I've tried to consciously work on my 'weaknesses' and be more disciplined with my training, I must admit subconsciously and obviously in a dangerous way, a part of me 'expected' to perform alright, because I've been working on areas I always neglected and spending more disciplined time 'working' on chess, but results have told the opposite.
We all have our way of growing in chess, often done in haphazard ways but one that over the years just works for us, perhaps just working on the areas we love without thinking much and because we're naturally concentrated in that state we grow over time, even with our weaknesses, and when we try to 'be disciplined' and bring in all these new things maybe there's more internal discord than what we might assume, we struggle to reconcile or combine our own chess we've always lived with with these new parts we 'think' we need to incorporate because they don't mesh easily.
In the end, we always have to be humble and expect the work we do now to perhaps help us in one or two years, but when we let ourselves think doing the work 'should' help us it's already too selfish—we tend to do best when we're playing or working on chess because it's just so fun and fulfilling, without any other expectations (especially results).
Nice post. It's a big thing, the psychological element. It's why I predict Nepo will have a very hard time if he loses two in a row. (I am a clinical psychologist by profession, not that this gives me any authority on predicting the outcome of world championship chess matches). Also, the Proust is noted. Everything goes to dust, indeed.
On the diagram front, admittedly I'm not super techie, but all I was able to do was embed a gif of a lichess study chapter. The other approaches failed. Granted, I devoted all of 5 minutes to this. Perhaps I can put the gif here?
The match has been exciting! I thought Nepo would be the favourite with the prior experience and Ding not being in his best form for a few years, and as of now Nepo does indeed have the advantage, but I wasn't expecting so many decisive games. Yesterday was definitely a big example of the psychological element...will Ding be able to bounce back once again?
Thanks for having a look, I tried embedding game viewers from several chess websites but to no avail. I think it might be possible to embed games played on lichess (I saw it on one Substack) but not studies.
This post really resonates with me. Definitely accepted and offered way too many draws in my youth.
I think it's also really hard when you're so young to have this perspective of long-term vs short-term gains (I think I've only just started to appreciate this in the last year or so) - especially without some sort of coach.
Absolutely with the long-term vs. short-term mindsets: it seems to apply to every area of chess.
In the last 2 years when I've tried to consciously work on my 'weaknesses' and be more disciplined with my training, I must admit subconsciously and obviously in a dangerous way, a part of me 'expected' to perform alright, because I've been working on areas I always neglected and spending more disciplined time 'working' on chess, but results have told the opposite.
We all have our way of growing in chess, often done in haphazard ways but one that over the years just works for us, perhaps just working on the areas we love without thinking much and because we're naturally concentrated in that state we grow over time, even with our weaknesses, and when we try to 'be disciplined' and bring in all these new things maybe there's more internal discord than what we might assume, we struggle to reconcile or combine our own chess we've always lived with with these new parts we 'think' we need to incorporate because they don't mesh easily.
In the end, we always have to be humble and expect the work we do now to perhaps help us in one or two years, but when we let ourselves think doing the work 'should' help us it's already too selfish—we tend to do best when we're playing or working on chess because it's just so fun and fulfilling, without any other expectations (especially results).
Nice post. It's a big thing, the psychological element. It's why I predict Nepo will have a very hard time if he loses two in a row. (I am a clinical psychologist by profession, not that this gives me any authority on predicting the outcome of world championship chess matches). Also, the Proust is noted. Everything goes to dust, indeed.
On the diagram front, admittedly I'm not super techie, but all I was able to do was embed a gif of a lichess study chapter. The other approaches failed. Granted, I devoted all of 5 minutes to this. Perhaps I can put the gif here?
https://lichess.org/study/pddtrB6v/DVF0hXKy.gif?theme=brown&piece=alpha
The match has been exciting! I thought Nepo would be the favourite with the prior experience and Ding not being in his best form for a few years, and as of now Nepo does indeed have the advantage, but I wasn't expecting so many decisive games. Yesterday was definitely a big example of the psychological element...will Ding be able to bounce back once again?
Thanks for having a look, I tried embedding game viewers from several chess websites but to no avail. I think it might be possible to embed games played on lichess (I saw it on one Substack) but not studies.
Yeah GIFs are what I've been using in some of my posts, but maybe there is some better option out there.
Nope. It worked in notes, though.