I made a resolve to study chess everyday in the month of July and this is what I learned :
I have had great chess experiences this year, from winning a Gold medal in the Nigerian Universities Games, to winning some unrated local events.
These experiences made my love for the game increase and with more events coming up later in the year :
I decided to study chess!
Intensively.
I created a structured plan to study the game for atleast 4 hours everyday.
I divided the study into the different phases of the game :
#1 The opening
#2 The middlegame and
#3 The endgame
I changed majority of my opening repertoire while trying to learn more about the middlegame and endgame.
The first few days was fun I must confess; I enjoyed every moment of the training session.
But then, the excitement began to fisle out, it began to feel more like a chore.
That didn't stop me though. I persevered regardless. I was determined because I really wanted to improve.
I got a call from a chess coach. He notified me that he needed players for his team and there would be a trial to decide the players to represent his team at the National Sports Festival later on in the year.
This made me feel inspired to go through with the challenge.
Day after day I tried out different studies, I tired to solve as many puzzles as I could.
But I didn't feel any sort of improvement in my game. I was around 2200+ on Lichess at the time, I kept playing to see if my ratings would increase but it didn't.
Am I improving at all?
I kept asking myself. I was investing alot of hours into the game but I wasn't seeing any immediate development.
I started to doubt my system. I thought, perhaps I wasn't studying the right things.
But in truth, that wasn't the case.
I kept on with the task regardless, studying for about 4 hours everyday. Of course, some days I fell short, some days I didn't study at all. But I did my best to make up for it.
100 hours later
I had completed 100 hours of chess training.
I didn't necessarily feel any improvement in my chess. My online rating didn't improve significantly.
I settled with the thoughts that I was probably studying the wrong things
Maybe I studied too much opening
I thought.
Well, it was the beginning of August and there was a local tournament in my state. I was sort of financially down so I thought: "This might be a good means to make some cash"
I went for the tournament and I could tell my chess had definitely improved. I finished the tournament with a solid 5/7, +4-1=2 and placing 3rd place in a strong field.
I also noticed a significant improvement in my way to thinking. I was beginning to think more critically and creatively.
I even came up with some buisness ideas I'm working on till this day.
I learned :
Chess doesn't just help you improve over the 64 squares but also in the real world.
Chess teaches a very important life lesson and this is:
Improvement isn't a linear process
Whatever it is you're working on and not seeing immediate results, understand that good things take time.
Most of the success we see didn't arrive overnight. It sometimes takes even years to reap the benefits of your hard works.
Be Patient and trust the process.
Cheers,
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