Chess Improvement as an Adult
It’s a question that plagues many of us – how do I improve as an adult chess player? The answer is probably just ‘hard work’ (and no, grinding bullet or blitz does not count as ‘hard work’!). But what, then, to focus your efforts on?
I’m writing this post under the title ‘Chess improvement as an Adult’ because I’ll be commenting on my experience with various chess improvement platforms or methods as an adult. Many young players are able to improve hundreds of rating points in a year with seemingly little work on their chess, but this is much rarer for most adult players. While I haven’t seen huge improvements in my rating since leaving junior chess, I have tried a number of training methods and improved in my understanding of the game, so I hope some of the following will be helpful to other adult players looking to improve.
COACHING
The most obvious method of improvement is to get coaching. Players of all levels can benefit from having a (good) coach, but coaching does have its drawbacks. A coach can be incredibly useful in identifying weak areas of your play, and coaches can also help with building an opening repertoire. The downside of a coaching is that it’s probably the most expensive method of improvement, and it can also be frustrating (and expensive) finding a coach whose coaching style is a good fit for you.
As a child, I didn’t have a private coach (until last year, I’d only ever had 10 hours of private coaching in my life), so it is difficult for me to know what sort of coach I prefer working with. For this reason, as well as time and financial constraints, I haven’t tried much private coaching. As a result, I can’t comment on personal success with this method, although I’ve found that employing a coach to help with building a repertoire has been useful for me in tournament practice.
One caveat about getting a coach is that a coach will likely be ineffective if you don’t work on your chess outside of coaching sessions – ideally a coach should be prescribing material or advising you what to work on between sessions. Also, the strongest players don’t always make the best coaches, so make sure you choose a coach wisely, and don’t judge coaching as a method of improvement based off of only one bad coach!
SELF-STUDY
This is probably the area where I’ve tried (and failed) the most. Here are some of the self-study methods I can think of, and my experience with them:
Chess.com lessons
When I first started doing these, the lessons were broadly grouped in categories but not organized as they are today in different “levels” with accompanying video content. I initially did one free lesson per day and when I found this helpful, I upgraded to a premium membership so I could do more lessons. I enjoyed being able to focus on specific areas of my play (I targeted endgames and strategy, two of my weaknesses), and the “gamified” and structured nature of the lessons meant it was one of the self-study methods I was most successful at sticking to.
That being said, having multiple attempts to solve lessons and with hints being readily available, I was lazier than I’ve been working through other material because it was possible to give up on a particular problem and just guess moves until I got the correct one whenever I was frustrated. I was also more tempted to ‘move now and think later’ than I’ve been when working through an actual book and writing down solutions to problems, where it isn’t possible to see the opponent’s response without looking at the solution.
Books
I’ve written before about my struggles in completing books, but books are an incredibly valuable resource for players looking to improve (and as an adult, hopefully studying will be easier for you than it might be for younger players). In order to successfully improve using books, you need to have the self-discipline to work properly through the material (to study and understand it, rather than just read it) and you also have to select good and relevant material. This can be a daunting task given the number of books out there, but if you are able to identify areas of your play that need improvement, you should be able to find well-recommended books on those areas that suit your study style. If you need some sort of accountability, a blog of your own or a study partner could provide this.
Videos
There are many educational videos available, both paid-for (on chess websites) and free (on YouTube), and I realized while writing this blog that this is a resource I have definitely underutilized. There are some great teachers and great content, and many players may find it easier to study and retain information in video format than from a book.
Once again, no method is perfect, so I imagine players using this method to improve should be wary of ‘just watching’ videos instead of pausing/rewatching to understand, solving all of the problems presented, and trying to implement the video lessons in their own games.
Other
Since the struggle to work on chess is not unique to a handful of players, there are a number of apps or platforms that have been developed to help with chess study. Chessable has been highly recommended, but I haven’t tried it myself and cannot comment on how helpful it is in making the learning process easier. I have tried Chess Position Trainer (CPT) to memorise new openings, and I’ve used its spaced repetition to recap positions arising from the openings. I did find CPT a useful tool, albeit somewhat limited in what it could be used for (it also requires you to have your own PGNs, which I imagine can be difficult to set up – I used those I got from my coach at the time).
Finally, I have also tried Forward Chess, which allows players to have both the text from a purchased book and an analysis board (with the relevant diagrams) on the same screen. This definitely sped up the process compared to setting up positions on a real or virtual board, but it still requires self-discipline to keep studying the material. These are just three of the many apps/programs available – I have no doubt that there are countless others, and please let me know in the comments if you know of any good ones that have helped you.
PLAYING
A number of players spend hours working on their chess with one or more of the previous materials/methods I’ve mentioned, and then wonder why they still keep losing games despite their hours of hard work. It’s incredibly important to try out things you learn from books/videos/coaches in real life games so you can make mistakes and check your understanding/implementation of the concepts. The longer the time control for the games, the more educational, in my opinion: in longer games, “cheap tricks” are less likely to occur from either side and it’s less likely that you’ll be making middle game decisions under severe time pressure. Here are some methods to get some longer time control games:
Chess Clubs
If you’re able to find a chess club in your area, that’s a great way to meet up with players of various levels and to have some good training games. Many clubs run internal tournaments over a number of weeks or take part in leagues which provide plenty of slow, OTB games. If you’re not able to find a club in your area, there are a number of clubs on Chess.com that you can join – just look for one that is active and has the sort of games you’re looking for.
Tournaments
Tournaments are probably the best practice to see how you’ve improved and to get insights into your weaknesses, since tournament games are (I would imagine) what a lot of players are looking to improve at. I prefer OTB tournaments because there’s less chance of cheating, I get less distracted, and everything is identical to how it is in major tournaments like the Olympiad (in terms of having to notate, no possibility of mouse slips, touch move, etc). If you don’t have local OTB tournaments (or if they are temporarily unavailable because of Covid-19 regulations), online tournaments can be found very easily and can be another method of getting some serious games.
Training partners
This is another method that I’ve used less frequently, since South African chess culture is not big on training partners, but anyone who’s watched the Queens Gambit knows how important others’ help can be (and I can confirm, I’ve found it valuable when I have had training partners). It’s very useful to have someone of a similar strength to train with – either by way of training games that you discuss afterwards or by training a specific endgame or opening. Bouncing ideas off another person or even just getting human responses from someone around your level (when playing out a winning endgame, for example) can definitely help with improvement for both players. If you are active in any sort of chess community (in-person or online), you are likely to find other players interested in working on their chess who are potential training partners.
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After all is said and done, no matter what method you use, you’ll still require hard work in order to truly improve as an adult chess player. Please let me know in the comments what method has been most helpful (or unhelpful) for you out of the ones I mentioned, and which methods or materials I missed!
