WEBVTT 00:01.610 --> 00:02.330 Hi there. 00:03.110 --> 00:08.140 In this lecture, I'm going to tell you one of the best ways of improving in chess. 00:09.440 --> 00:18.950 Basically, it's practice, but with analysis of your games, especially those ones that you lose. 00:20.640 --> 00:24.460 So don't just throw them away or take them out memory. 00:25.020 --> 00:26.070 Have a look for them. 00:26.520 --> 00:27.930 Analyze those games. 00:29.310 --> 00:37.920 With maybe a computer, if it's an over the board game, then maybe the opponents in what's called post-mortem 00:37.920 --> 00:38.550 analysis. 00:40.740 --> 00:49.320 Or if you record the game, which ideally is very, very useful, you can go over it at another point 00:49.320 --> 00:51.370 in time with a stronger player. 00:52.260 --> 00:57.420 So when you lose, it's really an opportunity to improve. 00:58.920 --> 01:04.080 So Capablanca, one of the world chess champion, said, you know, basically you learn a lot more from 01:04.080 --> 01:06.160 your losses than your wins. 01:06.990 --> 01:13.380 For me personally, the more painful the loss, in fact, the more serious the game was. 01:13.380 --> 01:18.030 Quite often, like, the longer the time control, the higher the stakes, the more time investment 01:18.030 --> 01:18.600 you played in it. 01:18.600 --> 01:24.750 Not not so very, very quick game online, but say a club game, the more painful it is, the more I 01:24.750 --> 01:28.710 can be motivated eventually to try and learn lessons from it. 01:30.090 --> 01:38.520 So even if you lose a game, you're going to try and take it as a kind of scientific experiment, essentially. 01:40.960 --> 01:47.320 So trying to analyze that with the opponent afterwards, if it's over the board, so it's hard to do 01:47.320 --> 01:55.990 because you might feel upset in chess, you do need a fake skin to basically you need to put yourself 01:55.990 --> 01:58.270 beyond the feet in that immediate game. 01:58.270 --> 02:03.460 Got to treat it as a long term voyage of discovery. 02:05.290 --> 02:10.510 So having a thick skin is really, really, really, really important because essentially everyone's 02:10.510 --> 02:11.900 going to lose when they first die. 02:11.920 --> 02:13.210 It's how you lose. 02:13.210 --> 02:15.810 It's how you learn the lessons for the next game. 02:16.510 --> 02:21.390 So you use the opportunity given by the loss to get a deeper insight into chess. 02:21.400 --> 02:29.530 Generally, your internal quality is your understanding of chess, the external policies, your rating. 02:29.710 --> 02:37.180 They can come later or as a side effect, but you want to build on the foundations given in this course, 02:37.180 --> 02:40.150 in your opening little game and game and other areas. 02:40.510 --> 02:47.590 But especially psychologically, you will have to take sustained efforts to get these lessons in the 02:47.590 --> 02:48.870 skies, essentially. 02:50.350 --> 02:56.020 And even if you think you know, the opponent, you know, didn't offer anything, maybe they were lucky. 02:56.020 --> 03:01.360 You still got to sort of see, well, what caused the lunk was like in a vacuum. 03:01.600 --> 03:04.360 Maybe they had active pieces, maybe they had a lot of counterplay. 03:04.630 --> 03:09.340 Even if you were, like, material up, how did they get such counterplay? 03:09.340 --> 03:11.290 You've got to be good at locking down. 03:11.290 --> 03:17.620 Sometimes the opponents can't play the skill areas, believe it or not, to work on. 03:17.620 --> 03:22.390 You can't attribute things to like chess is not a game of luck. 03:22.390 --> 03:23.950 It's not with a dice. 03:23.950 --> 03:27.550 For example, to a large extent you can't control the outcomes. 03:28.210 --> 03:30.610 And if you feel well, you played all these moves. 03:30.610 --> 03:36.190 But if the acrobat moves, made positions for you much more difficult to play, then maybe you need 03:36.190 --> 03:42.160 to think about that a little bit more, maybe say, well, maybe I shouldn't have gone for that piece. 03:42.160 --> 03:47.110 I should have been more modest than just gone for a pawn instead or something even smaller where I've 03:47.110 --> 03:49.330 still got a grip on the opponents. 03:49.330 --> 03:50.290 Can't find the position. 03:50.290 --> 03:52.200 Still kind of easy to play. 03:53.110 --> 03:57.550 So, yes, each game you lose especially is a lesson. 03:57.700 --> 04:03.370 And for me, yeah, the more painful, the longer the time limits, the more I've I've done searching 04:03.370 --> 04:06.910 for a greater truth and also greater knowledge. 04:07.180 --> 04:12.730 You can also just enhance at least, you know, maybe your opening knowledge, but your mental game 04:13.030 --> 04:19.390 motivations as well, your tactical strength, your positional strength and also your end game. 04:19.390 --> 04:27.580 So each of the kind of essential areas that this course covers, each game is kind of evidence, feedback 04:27.580 --> 04:28.210 mechanism. 04:28.390 --> 04:30.880 How strong are you actually in that area? 04:30.880 --> 04:36.310 Do you need to revisit that area of chess or all areas of chess? 04:36.760 --> 04:44.320 It's that knowledge of your particular strengths and weaknesses as applied to the foundational concentric 04:44.320 --> 04:46.360 circles knowledge that we have in this course. 04:46.750 --> 04:53.500 So I wanted to build you, you know, basic a basic foundation in this course of open little game and 04:53.500 --> 04:53.830 game. 04:54.250 --> 04:59.020 But it's actually your particular strengths and weaknesses which are highlighted by your particular 04:59.020 --> 04:59.680 losses. 05:00.310 --> 05:07.600 So hopefully you get more and more insight into where exactly you might be weak and might need to improve. 05:09.310 --> 05:16.720 So if you lose in a certain way, try and recognize the patterns, especially if you can see the patterns 05:16.720 --> 05:21.850 of loss, then that's even better that there might be some remedy. 05:21.850 --> 05:26.980 And that's a whole type of weakness that you might have and you can try and address. 05:28.540 --> 05:30.580 They might be the wrong conclusions. 05:31.300 --> 05:31.930 But you know what? 05:31.930 --> 05:34.000 You can test that with further practice. 05:35.050 --> 05:42.370 So it's like you create a hypothesis and you go into the next game with that working hypothesis and 05:42.370 --> 05:48.490 you test it and maybe eventually you see well in certain types of positions, OK, this style of play 05:48.490 --> 05:52.410 might work and in this style of play might work. 05:52.750 --> 06:01.300 So the process of improvements is a process of evidence gathering from your game and trying to use a 06:01.300 --> 06:03.370 process of learning an abstraction. 06:03.760 --> 06:09.820 By abstraction, I mean looking at the core kind of patterns, the more abstract patterns that you see 06:10.240 --> 06:13.780 and you try and address and improve those patterns. 06:14.470 --> 06:17.020 So each game is essentially an example. 06:17.200 --> 06:20.470 It's like your training, your own, your network in the brain. 06:22.210 --> 06:25.810 So you need to try and improve fundamentally with each game as far as possible. 06:27.730 --> 06:31.900 So not just the particular insight into that variation. 06:31.900 --> 06:35.500 Hopefully it's not just about accumulating open variation. 06:35.500 --> 06:39.580 You got to try and get as much fundamental leverage. 06:40.170 --> 06:46.910 From that particular game example to improve your game as fundamentally as possible, essentially, 06:48.270 --> 06:54.360 so essentially in a nutshell, you want to try and get absolutely maximum benefit from any experience 06:54.570 --> 06:55.350 that you get. 06:56.130 --> 07:02.100 So the faster you want to improve, basically the evidence is there in the games you play. 07:02.130 --> 07:02.890 Have a look at them. 07:03.000 --> 07:05.130 If they're online, then they're already recorded. 07:05.140 --> 07:05.790 That's convenient. 07:06.150 --> 07:08.720 So look at what the computer says, but take that with a pinch of salt. 07:09.480 --> 07:12.330 Sometimes you might want to get a strong appliance go over you. 07:12.660 --> 07:15.630 There are lots of coaches online now. 07:15.820 --> 07:24.270 It's very, very easy to get a coach on various sites and you might want to go over some losses with 07:24.270 --> 07:26.490 them as part of the training. 07:27.780 --> 07:34.110 So, you know, chess is about the accumulation, ideally, of getting your fundamentals right. 07:34.110 --> 07:37.920 First, not just an endless series of memrise variations. 07:38.250 --> 07:44.220 You want to go to the extreme, the other extreme, get your fundamentals in place in the opening game, 07:44.220 --> 07:44.680 end game. 07:44.910 --> 07:49.770 Hopefully this course, if you master all the material in this course, that's a really, really good 07:49.770 --> 07:50.370 start. 07:51.630 --> 07:58.500 But as you play and practice, you also need a super thick skin and you need to put in on the scientific 07:58.500 --> 07:58.800 hat. 07:59.250 --> 08:01.590 It's not just a sporting event to be upset about. 08:02.280 --> 08:05.540 This is a recorded example. 08:05.820 --> 08:11.370 So if you analyze, draw conclusions, get abstractions, it's like heart in the paperchase. 08:11.880 --> 08:16.740 When he was looking, all the cases he tries to abstract from each case. 08:16.770 --> 08:18.820 What are the fundamental points you use? 08:18.820 --> 08:24.780 The process of questioning, answering the Socratic method to reach the more fundamental truths of each 08:24.780 --> 08:25.160 game. 08:26.100 --> 08:31.530 For me, for example, when I went to Gibraltar, it was a very long time control, massive influence. 08:31.650 --> 08:33.480 I had some of my more painful losses. 08:33.810 --> 08:38.820 Eventually I had whole theory hypothesized about positional exchange sacrifices. 08:39.090 --> 08:40.200 I use that theory. 08:40.230 --> 08:46.650 I won so many games in league games after with positional exchange sacrifices, I wanted to push my 08:46.650 --> 08:48.300 game into a more dynamic level. 08:48.540 --> 08:50.670 I realized I was missing a lot. 08:51.120 --> 08:55.910 So this this process of creating a hypothesis and you can test it in the next game. 08:55.920 --> 08:57.060 That's the beauty of chess. 08:58.570 --> 09:06.070 Practice, but also in a sort of controlled manner, try and play on reasonable time limits, so it's 09:06.070 --> 09:08.590 not just about winning on time, but winning on position. 09:08.980 --> 09:15.850 So don't just playing speed chess, you know, try and try and get the time limit up maybe 10 minutes 09:15.850 --> 09:19.630 with three second increments, sometimes online. 09:19.660 --> 09:24.640 I know there's a there's other risks online, but hopefully, you know, like playing against computer 09:24.640 --> 09:24.910 chips. 09:24.910 --> 09:29.530 Hopefully some of your opponents look at their ratings and their track record. 09:29.530 --> 09:30.930 Hopefully they have lost a few games. 09:30.930 --> 09:31.990 They're not just invincible. 09:32.290 --> 09:35.320 So you do get a decent time control. 09:35.320 --> 09:36.310 We have time to think. 09:37.570 --> 09:39.780 And so it's not just all about time pressure. 09:40.090 --> 09:42.610 So look at the games after draw the conclusions. 09:44.530 --> 09:48.640 It is a kind of scientific process, a treadmill. 09:49.900 --> 09:53.290 He's just going to have a thick skin look at the games after. 09:54.310 --> 10:01.420 Draw the conclusions, draw hypotheses for next time, use the hypothesis, draw new conclusions after 10:01.420 --> 10:03.570 that next game, the process continues. 10:06.380 --> 10:13.790 For me, my historical evolution, I had an initial hypothesis about chess, it's all about using the 10:13.790 --> 10:15.950 best resources around the opponent's king. 10:16.430 --> 10:21.500 I won that national writing in 1999, but junior in 1989. 10:22.490 --> 10:24.790 But it wasn't it was only the start of the story. 10:24.800 --> 10:28.760 Then I looked at ideas of management, the mental game elements. 10:30.020 --> 10:34.600 Nowadays, I just think, you know, chess is about finding the downsides of the opponent's position. 10:34.850 --> 10:41.480 I certainly have had this kind of evolution of my thinking in chess over many, many years. 10:42.020 --> 10:47.240 It's almost feels like sometimes going around in circles, but you don't have to endlessly go around 10:47.240 --> 10:47.930 in circles. 10:47.940 --> 10:50.780 We can minimize that by courses like this. 10:50.780 --> 10:51.860 One of the courses. 10:53.810 --> 10:54.860 That's a good start. 10:55.130 --> 11:03.620 OK, I hope you have great fun on the journey of discovery to get these amazing insights of chess. 11:03.620 --> 11:11.720 Chess is actually a supervised game, so treat it as one big learning experience and definitely have 11:11.720 --> 11:13.940 a thick skin for when you lose. 11:13.940 --> 11:16.970 Those are golden opportunities in disguise for improving. 11:17.750 --> 11:19.130 OK, that's so much.