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Correct Attitude to Learning chess (making it rewarding and enjoyable)
What is the Correct Attitude to Learning chess from a coach’s perspective?
Here are tips for us all – whether we are chess coaches or parents of chess players or merely chess aficionados.
1 Try not to involve your EGO.
My chess lessons and methods are evolving every day.
I tell my chess students to play with a Correct Attitude to Learning chess, one that is devoid of ego.
There are Zen lessons to be applied here.
2. Focus on chess learning as a fun experience than a chore.
Our aim as chess learners should be to have a correct Attitude to Learning chess – To treat a game as a test of understanding of chess, not an anxiety exercise in keeping up the ball-park of performance at a high level.
3. To search for truth in every position.
Every move is theoretically a test of our decision-making abilities, some more important than others, and whoever is more composed, will make the sound decisions and win the game.
During chess learning for beginners, questions like –
- Should I exchange my Bishop with my opponent’s knight at f6 or not?
- Should I play the obvious looking move or do a forcing calculation before choosing the right line?
- Should I convert into an endgame or keep the pieces on board for favorable times?
will arise and confuse the chess kids, and for me, this is an enjoyable experience, irrespective of the result.
4. Every loss is a lesson. Learn from it.
When results are going south, I look at which moves and decisions were right and wrong, and how they can be used for future scenarios by my students.
The next time when they face a similar situation on the chessboard, the chess lessons that they have learned previously will provide the right guidance.
This is a very pleasurable and fulfilling experience for both me as a chess coach and my chess kids!
Never worry about chess ratings. I tell my students to not look at them. Those are just numbers – like shadows, they too will always follow our consistent performance’s upward graph.
5. Never blame anyone for your losses
As long as we continue blaming external reasons (or other people) not to learn eg: boring teachers, complicated textbooks, faulty assessment methods, school infrastructure is bad, etc., learning will always elude us.
What we need to have is a Correct Attitude to Learning chess – a small paradigm-shift, reduce the importance to our egos, and then the learning will be fun.
Lessons I learned
I am enjoying giving online chess lessons much more when I am devoid of any ego while playing with my students.
Developing an attitude of meditation throughout the game has made me what I am – a learner.
Hopefully providing lifelong satisfaction in this game. These are perhaps the biggest lessons learned by me.
About the Author
Hey, I’m Kish Kumar.
Over the last two decades, I’ve trained more than 500 students in chess, from India and abroad through online chess classes.
My experience helps me to identify the weak spots in the student’s chess armor, and that is where I provide help in making them reach their personal Milestones in chess with the Correct Attitude to Learning chess.
Many of these students went on to become school champions, district champions, state champions and went on to participate in national and international level chess events having achieved a decent FIDE rating up to 1900-2000 and an online rating of 2300 to 2500.
If you are interested in learning chess, do drop me a mail at kishchess at Gmail dot com or WhatsApp (+91 98410 70891)
To know more about my chess lessons, click here.
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