The boring truth about reaching 1500
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Speaker: [00:00:00] and welcome back to Next Level Chess Podcast. As always, I am Grandmaster Noël, your, your host. And today, I wanna talk about a not so nice sentiment that you can hear in grandmaster circles, which is, how can somebody be training chess and be below 1500? And very quickly, some grandmasters might even use the word stupid

Now today I wanna talk about why not reaching 1500 has not really a lot to do with your intellect and why, you know, those grandmasters are wrong and also why sometimes or quite often, , the more smart [00:01:00] intellectual people can have troubles reaching 1500. So instead of, well, you're stupid if you don't reach 1500, well, if you are very smart, you might have a little bit a harder time reaching 1500 because you make it harder than it should be

So I really can't stress enough that chess is all about the basics. Like, even when I was a grandmaster, I very often had to remind myself, okay, focus on the basics. You know, like play solid moves, uh, look for opponent threats. Like, the kind of basic ideas never change, just the way of executing it changes.

And now, that definitely applies for reaching 1500

Because if you manage to consistently spot opponents one or two-move threats, spot your own immediate tactical ideas, and just play a lot of good enough moves, non-losing moves, moves that don't give the opponent an opportunity [00:02:00] that they shouldn't have, you will be able to cross 1500. It's not anything fancy, and it might not sound as inspiring or interesting, but this is just how chess works.

Now, when you look at this from a grandmaster's perspective, that can look so simple and easy, right? As a grandmaster, just spotting the very immediate quick threats is not something difficult. And so from a grandmaster's mind, if you don't apply any empathy and have no coaching experience to players below 1500, well, some grandmasters might then arrive at the statement that I shared at the beginning of this episode

Now here is how for grandmasters doing these things, right, that you need to reach 1500 is becoming basically automatic and, you know, we do that in a few seconds, sometimes maybe split seconds. And this is how we get here, through repeated [00:03:00] practice of the same basics

So these one or two move tactics come so natural to us because we've solved it thousands of times. When I think back when I was a kid and starting out in chess, I solved so many tactical puzzles, not just because I loved it, but for example, also in Switzerland, you know, there weren't, you know, these huge coaching academies or whatever.

So in the chess club I went to, um, often we had a coach that was just a little bit better than us and basically volunteered to teach us. And so what they did is, they gave a step method book to everybody in the junior training, and they said, "Hey, solve this, and if you have a solution, call me and I will say you if you got it right or wrong."

And that's how Friday after Friday and later on even twice a week, I was just solving position after position after position after position

And as a kid, usually we care more about finding these little tactics than some [00:04:00] positional nuance, right? , As a kid, you wanna win. Uh, you realize, oh, uh, just grabbing all the pieces makes me win more often than not, so let me grab some pieces and do some tactics and stop hanging pieces because losing was hurtful, and I don't wanna do that again

And very often the only time that I would really think about strategy or, you know, go a little bit deeper into, into the game, would be when I would play a game and there was no immediate big oversight. And then the coach that looked at me, with me at the game would tell me, "Hey, here, you know, in this pawn structure, you usually develop this way."

So I got a little nugget of, of strategy, but a lot, you know, if you, if you would kind of, um make a, diagram of it, maybe 95% of my brain activity in chess was, grabbing pieces and doing tactics, and then 5% was a bit of strategy

So now that you know that this is how you reach especially these 1500, right? Here is [00:05:00] why being smart holds you back. Because what I see often with smart adult improvers is that you want to find a better way of training. So you hear this, right? You hear me say all of these basics, and your, your brain goes like, "Okay, I understand Noël saying that," but that is just a general advice.

And how I have learned as a smart person, having it easy in school, excelling in my career, um, the standard way was always too easy and too boring for me. I could always easily chump a few things, cut a few corners, because I can just quickly understand the stuff because I get it already, right? Okay, focus on the basics.

I get that, you know. So what is the extra? What is the, the thing that I can additionally do? What is... What can I do smarter? And the problem is in chess that really gets you in trouble, because if you don't focus on those basics, you, just by understanding the basics, you will not be able to execute it. Okay?

So [00:06:00] this is not anymore about understanding. So I remember a time, , in high school where I was quite an annoying kid in high school, in math especially, because I would just pick up, everything immediately. I, I didn't really like math, but it came very, very easy to me. So I would understand it and then kind of , annoy the whole class because they had that much longer time to actually understand the new concept, until my, teachers would send me home and tell me, "Well, for half a year, don't come to math anymore.

You're, you're too annoying," basically. Now, this works in math because just the understanding of a formula helped me basically get the test right, right? I would just come in, do the, the exam, you know, get the best grade, go back home again. But in chess, that's not like that, right? Even if you understand, well, I, I should capture the hanging pieces, I should do a fork, I should do a pin, right?

Executing that is way less like math or academics, and it's much more, or it is actually just as a sport

No [00:07:00] matter how well you understand how you have to execute a certain movement, you still need to repetitively do it in order to be able to execute it well You can think of it like building muscles. It is great if you are able to understand all the science behind muscle growth, that you deeply understand why rest is crucial, why training to the point of failure helps, and so on and so forth.

But if you don't end up going to the gym and putting in the reps, nothing will help. Your understanding is just potential power. It's nothing yet

And as an intelligent person, you are much more prone to overthinking, to going into the nuance, to understanding maybe the science of learning, for example, right? Kind of, um, I have some, you know, very smart, adult improvers that are sending me, like, articles or studies about, "Oh, maybe you have to apply this to your chess," and so on.

Which, I mean, it can be useful, right? To get the last [00:08:00] 0.2% out of it, right? Let's make it even a little bit better to training. But the main thing that decides your chess improvement, especially to 1500, is, you know, if we stick to the gym building analogy, are you going to the gym three times a week? Yes or no

So in chess, it's really are you doing those, you know, basic, repetitive, trying to solve a tactical exercise, trying to spot your opponent's threats, continuously ca- counting the, , material that is on the board to make a more informed decision. Like, those basic things that seem too easy for you, that seem too logical, well, you need to repetitively do them, have good chess habits, have good chess execution to reach 1500

And only part of the problem is that you're not going to the gym, if we stick with the analogy. Another part of the problem is that you're trying to advance things because those are the things that are intellectually stimulating to you, right? Going back to academics, you could cut a few corners because you would just, you know, [00:09:00] think about, "Okay, what is actually something that I don't fully understand?

Oh, that's interesting. That's stimulating. I wanna, I wanna study that," right? And then when you started to understand it, you were like, "Oh my God," and th- this actually it, it brought you, it made your career advance, it made your studies, you know, go quicker, gave you good results in exams

But here you're going too far in chess because even if, let's say, I would explain to you a certain position, right? It's like a difficult strategical concept, and listening to me talk about it, you're like, "Oh my God, that is so interesting. That's beautiful. That's amazing. I now understand that concept." You go back to playing chess, and you hang a piece left and right, right?

That's the experience that smart adult improvers have because you can intellectually understand when I talk about something that is too advanced, but you're not even close to executing it in your game. And so that can open up a gap of you wanting to do too advanced things while you already can't do the basics [00:10:00] consistently, and that just makes the problem worse.

That makes the frustration even worse

And I once had a student that, uh, I was talking with him about this, and he kind of... When he got it, he was saying, "Oh, okay, so I understand. So basically nailing the basics, right, is allowing me to finally be able to go deeper into chess and to be able, you know, to, to go after these more interesting things and being able to apply them in my games."

And that's really how you can think about this, right? There is a part that is maybe a little bit more boring, right, that is maybe a little bit more repetitive. That is not, oh my God, I have to solve the pin for the 35th time. It's not like, wow, that was now so stimulating. But it's just part of the game, okay?

It's part of any sport, I would say, that you have to kind of warm up with the basics, do the basics over and over. And just when you get the basics right, you are then allowed to go deeper and to, you know, do the things that are more interesting, and you will [00:11:00] have them in your games. Because let me tell you, if you stop hanging pieces left and right, right, you might get games where you lose and you're just saying, "Oh my God, my opponent had this super interesting idea, and I learned something from that game."

That is way more interesting than, well, I lost this game because I hung my piece. Well, I lost this game because I, you know, s- didn't spot the tactic. Well, I didn't win this game because there was mate in three, but I didn't see it, right? That can be a bit frustrating. To get there, you need to focus on the basics

So I made this whole episode and let's talk about solutions, right? If you are smart, you probably also won't like that, and you might guess it already or basically implicitly already said it because it's very simple, but it's really all I can tell you as a coach If you are smart, you are probably going to be overthinking things and trying to do too much, trying to do it you know, better than the basics that coaches like me tell you over and over.

You need to be aware [00:12:00] of that tendency and find a way, if you wanna improve, to get yourself to do the basics consistently

And one such way is Real Chess Training. I have launched it last week. Now, when you hear this episode, , the launch is already over. If you wanna be informed as quickly as possible over, you know, future launches, make sure that you are subscribed to my newsletter. There is a link in the description. , You can also directly sign up for a waitlist for Real Chess Training Intermediate.

That is a weekly test of six positions, uh, for players between 1,000 and 1,500. And you will need to apply the basics. You will need to count the material, then check for opponent threats, look at your own tactical ideas. . If there is none, think about good enough moves. And last but not least, you have to do a safety check.

And when you do these five things consistently, you will realize that there is also a lot of depth to what is the basics, right? Because you might look at an [00:13:00] opponent threat, but you might not be able to calculate fully that it's actually not working. And so ideally, you don't even stop that threat.

You're saying, "Oh, you know, oh, I didn't see your threat." And then boom, you can, , capture something or, uh, you saw a little bit further than your opponent

So especially, you know, reaching 1500, , which is often, you know, kind of a goal for chess players. Obviously 2000 is kind of the bigger one, right? Is from one to two seems a bigger change if you have a two in front of your number. Um, but for that 1500 specifically, like it's really about the basics, and it's about applying them well.

And, uh, one student also really told me of like, "Well, once I focused on these things, I had so much more interesting games because I stop losing games because of obvious reasons," right? And so that's the prize or that's the, the reward that you are getting, for doing maybe a little bit more boring and repetitive work

So if you're interested in doing that consistently, there is [00:14:00] a link, in the description below. Maybe you, you listen that, you know, two months after the episode is out and the, you know, Real Chess Training Intermediate is already open up again. Go check it out and, yeah, just no matter how you do it, get yourself to focus on the basics.

Realize that you might have a tendency to overthink and overcomplicate things, and get yourself back to, "Okay, am I executing the basics well enough?" If that's not the case in your games, well, let's focus more on the basics, and then you get that reward of, oh, chess is so much more than that if I do the basics well.

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