Making time to train

Lucena

Hi all!

I was wondering how people manage to make time (maybe block off time would be more accurate) for chess training. My problem isn't so much that work takes up too much time, as I'm generally home by six in the evening.

My problem (from a chess point of view) is that I'm in a relationship (no kids) where I live with the person.

On the Kenilworthchess blog, they recommend cutting out TV and using that time for chess, but the difficulty is that with TV, you can be with other people and remain sociable, whereas proper chess study requires isolating oneself.

http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/kenilworthian/2007/02/to-adult-chessplayer-who-wants-to.html

Ideally I'd like to train for at least an hour (ideally two) most evenings, but it's very hard to isolate myself, and any time I've tried to do so by setting up the board in a different room and getting down to study, I'm constantly interrupted. I don't want to say "Look, go away and don't interrupt me for the next two hours" because that would be horrible, but at the same time, it's impossible to study with constant interruptions. I've more or less given up on the idea of training properly, and tend to do other chess activities, such as tactics training on Chesstempo or blitz games on the internet, as these are 'interruptable', and I can be on the laptop beside my OH while doing this.

It's kind of depressing because I still have goals I'd like to achieve, and if I had to give up on those, I think I'd lose interest in chess, but after years of being the same strength, I've realised I'll have to put some work in if I want to progress.

Is this a problem for anyone else? How do you deal with it? I know it sounds like I should be writing to an agony aunt with this, but any advice would be appreciated!

mikhail

This sounds like as much a relationship thing as a chess thing. I'd suggest having a chat with your significant other. Explain what you would need, and ask if there is a way to schedule it opposite something your SO likes to do regularly. For example, if she (I'll play the odds here) loves a particular soap, or goes for a jog regularly, or goes to a class, you could arrange that you train in another room while she's at that.

Sparks

I'm in the same situation (but with a toddler in the frame as well). If there's a nice answer, I've not found it yet

I keep chesstempo and chessendgames.com open on my work PC and use them the same way that other people use smoke or coffee breaks (it helps that I work in IT). I play on chess.com and use their blitz games to practice openings when I'm at home. Android tablets or iPads are very handy this way if you have one, or can spend a hundred quid to buy one, because you can bring one of those anywhere. And if you're a night owl but your partner isn't, there's always the time between your natural falling asleep times (or natural waking times, depending on which side of the divide you're on). Chess videos are also pretty useful - plug in the earphones when your partner's asleep and watch them away on the tablet.

But old-school fulltime study? I've pretty much given up on that idea myself. If it was for something like my PhD which could benefit the family as a whole with increased income, we'd make the time, but for a sport (or game or whatever word you like), it's not the same thing. You adjust your goals accordingly (though usually that means pushing target dates back rather than giving up on things). Your goals have to be realistically set given what you can budget for the effort (both in terms of time and money). Otherwise you'll never feel like you've achieved anything and it'll depress the poop out of you in short order.

Also, get coaching. Seriously, there is nothing that gives a higher rate of return on invested time or money than coaching. Nothing. So if you have limited time and money...

Lucena

mikhail wrote: »

This sounds like as much a relationship thing as a chess thing. I'd suggest having a chat with your significant other. Explain what you would need, and ask if there is a way to schedule it opposite something your SO likes to do regularly. For example, if she (I'll play the odds here) loves a particular soap, or goes for a jog regularly, or goes to a class, you could arrange that you train in another room while she's at that.

You play the odds well, my friend! Corrie is indeed my friend. Thing is I'll never know in advance how many episodes she'll watch, it depends on mood, if anything exciting's happening etc.

My best bet is waiting until she has late work meetings, I suppose. Very hard to plan ahead though, as she doesn't always know until quite late when the meetings are.

Lucena

Sparks wrote: »

Also, get coaching. Seriously, there is nothing that gives a higher rate of return on invested time or money than coaching. Nothing. So if you have limited time and money...

I have been getting coaching for the last two years, two hours every 2-3 weeks on average. I've gained 30 points over that time (from 1700 to 1730 roughly), which doesn't seem a lot, but I'm a lot more confident in my game, and feel that anyone under 2000 is beatable. Even when I lose to say a 1950, it's generally a hard-fought game where I understood what was happening a lot better than would have been the case before.

It also has the advantage of being time that is ‘blocked off’, as in my OH knows I’ve coaching from 7 to 9, and isn’t going to disturb me during that period.

checknraise

In my opinion 2 hours every 2 weeks for 2 years is a decent amount of time to spending on coaching and I would have been expecting greater improvement then 30 points over that time.

What type of coaching are you getting? Is it with a master(2300+) online,face to face or in a group?Do you also get exercises or aspects to work on before your next session?

I would consider getting a new coach.

There are a couple of ways that I have found extremely beneficial to improving at chess(2100+)

1. Play as much as possible - Never lose the same game twice!

2. Chessbase- there is no better tool when used properly. Every game you play save and analyse it not blindly based on computer evaluations. Find out at what stage of the game your play differed from a grandmaster.

3.Tactics - Spend 10 minutes every day on chess tempo to stay sharp

4. Work in a group. Find a similar rated player and organise to play a couple of rapid play matches on openings that you want to gain experience in.

You may not have that much time but if any chess player 1700 did that for a year I would expect them to be able to reach 2000. It is what worked for me and may not be for everybody.

Lucena

@checknraise

Coaching with a 2350 online. We work a lot on openings, some endgame stuff, middlegame themes that come up in the analysis of my games. Regarding your propositions:

1. I don't have a lot of time to play OTB, with work commitments certain weekends are off limits. Maybe 25 serious games a year. When you talk about playing, do you mean on-line, OTB or both?

2. The analysis of my games is 90% done with my coach. Ideally I'd spend some time pre-analysing the games before working with him, but I don't have (or take) the time to do this.

3. I try to get 30 minutes a day in on Chesstempo, but realistically I probably average 15-20 mins a day.

4. I don't do this at all. Maybe I should try to find someone who's motivated in my club.

Out of interest, how much training did you get, how much extra work did you do between each session, and from what rating to what rating did you go?

Valmont

My problem at the moment is getting games under my belt. I really struggled to maintain focus for the first few months of playing at the club and I was generally hanging pieces or making blunders around the twentieth move in every game I played. I'm frustrated at the moment because I feel my knowledge of theory vastly outstrips my playing ability in timed competitive games. I can see why a move is bad, but when it comes to developing a strategy I use too much time and pretty much have to rapid-play the second half of the game which means I lose a lot of endgames.

I too live with my OH with no kids and my technique of getting in real study time (I'm playing slowly through Chernev's Logical Chess: Move by Move) is to simply whip the board out whenever I get a chance. I study around a full time job but I still find four or five hours a week with my biggest window being weekend mornings by foregoing a lengthy lie on! My OH has learned the term 'chess widow' by now though.

checknraise

I started playing chess when I was young, learned the rules when I was 8 and joined a club started playing tournaments when I was aprox 13. I received less then 10 hours of individual coaching in total. It would have taken me about 5-6 years to reach 2000. The main practice or study I have done over the years is analysis of my games and ensuring I do not lose the same game twice!

My rating progress probably went like this.

First Rating - 1000
1 Year - 1200
2 Years - 1500
3 Years - 1700
4 Years - 1800
5 Years - 2000
6 Years - 2000
7 Years - 2050
8 Years - 2050
9 Years - 2100

I would have improved significantly each year although my rating might not have reflected that. I think at some point and I wouldn't be able to explain it everything kind of clicked and made sense. In my opinion the difference between a 1400 and 1800 player is smaller in comparison to your average 1800 - 2000 player. Even tho there are 200 points less in the difference. It does not make sense but the higher rating one achieve's the more difficult it becomes to increase it further. This is especially true due the small player pool in Ireland when the players regularly play against each other.

I do not do too much study too much anymore i.e buy a chess book which has certainly restricted my improvement. My study at the moment would mainly be focused on preparation i.e have a league game or tournament coming up and will search my opponents games in a database and try find their strengths and weaknesses and try obtain a position that I feel will be advantageous to me. For example I will decide to play a certain opening and look for sample games from grandmasters and try and understand the general themes and idea's in the position.

Another thing I forgot to mention above is never agree a draw in a position with play. My rating shot up when I stopped agreeing draws and I found out how to win certain positions especially endgames. I stopped being afraid to lose. I think this is the single biggest mistake that juniors make that slow down their development.

Lucena

My experience of learning to play chess is different.

I started playing when I was 10 or so by figuring out how to play from a book and playing occasional games against my brothers. Initially we didn't even have chess pieces, we used a board from a draughts board and little bits of cardboard with the name of the piece written on! Eventually one of my brothers 'made' new pieces by drawing the pieces on bits of cardboard. My parents knew what to get me for my birthday that year, and so I got a proper chess set.

There was no-one else in school who played, no chess club or competitions, and apart from the odd tactics book from the local library, I didn't do anything chesswise. A lot later, my OH got me a chess computer for my 25th birthday, and I played a lot on that.

My first serious chess activity began at the age of 27 (I'm now 40) when I joined a club. I quickly reached 1600-1700, and then plateaued.

I've been getting coaching for the last two years, and in the season just gone by, my average performance rating in the local individual championship and in interclub competition has been around 1850, my rating is just taking a while to catch up.

From what I've read online, it seems to be insanely difficult to improve as an adult, with few to no examples of adult beginners even making it to 2000. I can't imagine why, because even with all the usual reasons (work, family etc), one would imagine there'd be at least a few examples of someone being determined enough to work hard and progress.

checknraise

When someone is young the brain obviously develops in a certain way so you are able to learn new things allot easier. It definitely becomes much more difficult to improve at chess the older you have started

I do not agree that 2000 is unattainable for anybody probably because I know how bad most of us are! To get to grandmaster level is practically impossible if you have not played as a junior but I am certain there are a number of examples of strong(2000+) players in Ireland who never played chess as a kid.

cdeb

Valentin Kalinins is no junior, but has gone from 1700 to 2300 in the past two years. Don't know what his background before joining the ICU was. But it can be done I guess!

Lucena

I'd imagine Valentin Kalinins played a bit before, that seems like a huge improvement otherwise. If he was a beginner, then it's very impressive!!

Sparks

The Kenilworthian has a good article on this; and of course there's Micheal de la Maza's rather well-known article too...

cdeb

Lucena wrote: »

I'd imagine Valentin Kalinins played a bit before, that seems like a huge improvement otherwise. If he was a beginner, then it's very impressive!!

He wouldn't have been a beginner alright, but he did hover around 1700/1800 long enough to indicate that was a genuine strength.

Lucena

Does anyone here know the guy, or bump into him at tournaments? I'd be curious to hear his background and what he did to progress so quickly.

Valmont

I was thinking about skipping the club evening tonight but this thread has inspired me to go down and have a proper game!

Lucena

Well, I managed to get a bit of training in in the last two weeks, but now that the school holidays are over, it's going to be trickier, as my OH is back to work so we'll have less time in the evenings.

I'll probably have to make an effort to get up early on weekends if I want to do any serious training, although as I play a lot at weekends, maybe that's not always a good idea.:(

Ideally I'd like to keep a training log here (like on the athletics threads) to keep me motivated. Would this be possible mods?

cdeb

Lucena wrote: »

Ideally I'd like to keep a training log here (like on the athletics threads) to keep me motivated. Would this be possible mods?

Yup; go for it.

Only proviso is that you've got to come up with a witty and catchy title.

Sparks

I'd find that interesting to read...

Lucena

Hopefully it will be interesting to read, although the main goal is to put pressure on myself to train properly, within the limits of the free time I have.