Chess Archives
Chess: My understanding of my favourite game.
🏝 Adapt with the brain, not with the heart.
A backwards, sideways, diagonals and forwards flowed game. The pieces but the pawns is like a breathing
ecosystem that goes backwards and forwards. It’s played more like an insightful conversation.
For each move played, we first visualise it for foresight before actually placing the piece just
to ensure that we’re doing something responsible.
We approach it with a perceptive mindset. The puzzles trained are more found in games from creating
these opportunities to try lure the friend into placing the piece into certain squares. The puzzles
would play it out as though the responses are guaranteed but our friends are a lot smarter
than that. 99% of the time, they’re able to recognise your intentions so the goal is to try and
create enough challenges that forces our friend to consistently think defensively that leads to
blunders. Most have an offensive mindset when chess is played so allowing them to think defensively
too long would be uncomfortable in theory. Emotional Intelligence is also beneficial because they’re
likely to create challenges for you to analyse as well and it’s sometimes about keeping those
threats in mind as you cautiously move forward conceptually but both backwards and forwards in execution.
IQ in the game is somewhat fixed. Pattern recognition and memory is genetic but what maximises
our fixed state’s the EQ. Even if we don’t get to fully comprehend what’s presented, a clear mind with good
self-regulation will allow us to maximise the number of variables that we can see.
As we improve, an element of poker comes to play where we’d be able to hide and bluff our intentions as well.
We’d be able to mask planning by placing pieces in squares that has 2 or more truths.
If our friend choose to believe that we’re going for one truth, that’s when we choose the other path that either improves our position or gain material.
Simply, when tactical patterns aren’t seen, we improve positionally. We control the centre (capturing inwards in general), activate our pieces, ensure that our pieces are coherent: tactically and positionally protected.
Sometimes position is more important than material. It’s also a game of trades. When our friend asks for
a trade with equal value, it’s worth noting why one might think that trade benefits the individual. Perhaps
we can instead find a compromise and trade in a way that benefits us more. If there’s a disagreement
in the trade and both parties choose to keep the tension, that’s when we use our memory, keeping it in mind with those pieces left ‘on duty’ to ensure we’re not irresponsible with moving those pieces. Perhaps part of their plan’s to pin that certain chess piece to allow movement in other areas of the board.
My personal favourite openings are English (white) and Sicilian (black). These two are not symmetrical
which makes it look visually beautiful for me. It’s like jazz, it’s awkward, unorthodox, off beat in both tempo and order, the notes are seemingly cluttered but if we just pull ourselves upwards to see it from a bird’s eye view, it’s somehow coherent and it works. I love that.
It’s a bonus that many of my friends find it uncomfortable to see as it breaks the beginner’s traditional advise
to start with the centre squares while English starts with C4 and Sicilian with C5. The only real downside for me are D4 players. I’m a fan of the London System, Catalan (thanks to Magnus Carlsen) and other D4 openings but
it simply doesn’t allow the Sicilian Defense.
Most of my wins right now seem to be won through having better stamina for it. My triathlon training
probably helped the mind with my conversational perspective of the game. This resilience became
the difference because even if they don’t bite any of the growing threats thrown, eventually they always do.
Whether it’s right from the opening, the middle game or the end game. This is more prominent than ever,
specially how I’ve noticed that say they get the better of me early, my chess friends would get too eager
for the finish that leads to my wins in the end game.
Rapid games (10 + 5 / 10 + 10) is my favourite time control too.
At first, I thought you had to play slower games a lot because that’s what
Gotham Chess advised. Luckily, I found Chess Brah, GM Aman Hambleton, who advised
that 10 minutes is fine because what truly matters’ the fun of the game more than
the sacrifice of playing one game for an hour. I found it amusing too that he called it a “boomer mindset” in chess
to believe in slow chess for improvement and I love that.
It also feels more productive and healthy for me to have this knowledge base than having a useless
one in my brain of all Manny Pacquiao fights, I can name every knockdown from each weight class, down
to the lbs agreed for it with accuracy for both weigh in and fight night, rounds and punch in his prime. Strange..
At least chess makes me feel safe and closer to a support person for the people who matter to me.
So my goal’s 1700 ELO. That's sort of realistic. I started a bit late in life for 2000.
Life happens. If I’m lucky, I can get a title in FIDE.
We’ll see how we go. Ultimately, I enjoy the mental benefits of chess in the real world.
I think so much better with it and learnt how to be a stronger perceptive individual.
After all, I do my best to base my whole personality around being organised down to the detail like a
lego builder and being as emotionally intelligent as possible.
My favourite “Chess book”? Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ by Daniel Goleman.
It’s the greatest book of all time. Truly life changing.
Love.
P.S. The best way I found with dealing with a loss was to first congratulate the friend and
appreciate the beauty of their intellect. I then tend to ask the friend "What do you think I could've done better?"
At the end of the day, it's just a board game that emulates conversations.
We will always get something wrong or miss perspectives.
Even Magnus Carlsen isn't undefeated and he's the GOAT.
He's been defeated by way less quality players right?
Internal voice shoutout to Garry Kasparov and Judith Polgar.
Latest Update/Patch:
FIDE ELO: Arena Candidate Master (AFM) - 1100
Lichess ELO: 1300+
FIDE players just delivered a humble pie after another to my direction. In my own pool, I was so accustomed to dictating the pace and setting up the tactical and strategical positions that I didn't realise the bad habits I had. FIDE players are strong counter players, it's incredible how efficient they are with punish and setting up traps.
From here, I need to adjust how I organise my thinking pattern. I need to trust my intuition a little more for first moves and then check the threats before deploying that move. From there, I calculate the tactical ideas they have to offer in an attempt to "Counter the Counter". I can't get away with my usual forward style anymore. If my adjustment and theory's correct, I should get the Arena FIDE Master title this year.
Me vs Cael.
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