Whats happened since I started? (and some chess psychology)

Since my last post, I've scored several 2300+ performances which I am fairly pleased that all my research and hard work had finally paid off.


Here is one of my more decent wins OTB in the Sicilian Sveshnikov.



My opponent resigned realizing his knight will be pinned.

During my adventures and studying with chess, it became clear that most forms of chess education were inadequate, but there are too many dynamics in the element of chess improvement.

Author Michael de La Maza was onto something, when he sensed that he had realized that the standard classical methods of improvement lacked in efficacy, and that he created a system in order to become a better player without studying old masters, studying endgames, or opening theory.

The method he advocates (read it for free on google, should be called 400 points in 400 days), is based on an idea referred to as chunking, where it is possible access large volumes of information in short amount of time. But more interestingly, the development of a player as defined by Aagaard in his book Excelling at Chess Calculation, he elaborates the stages of development of a player as he progressively increases his pattern recognition.

However beyond superficial systems of just solving many chess problems, it is possible to engage in a process that is systematic, and simultaneously explain why the classical methods suggested by our chess predecessors do in fact contain elements that are important to success.

With methods expounded by popular authors, it is only possible to excel in tactics (which may or may not be sufficient for certain ELO ability.) In a book I read by former child talent Joshua Waitzkin, along with the articles I had discussed in my Visualization posts , it had given me inspiration to discover ideas that unify these ideas, (the reasons why the efforts of the Soviet school vs modern fast food methods) and which examines chess as a whole unit, and as well as how to look at chess in a general sense and how it relates to how we examine chess as human beings.

This is the core theme of the book called The Art of Learning by Joshua Waitzkin, where he links performance psychology with every facet of his life (he uses methods from Eastern Philosophy) which is brilliant book I think. There exist unearthed gems in the secrets performance psychology which yield the secrets to chess excellence, and excellence in other fields.