Sunday, June 4, 2017

Intro part VII: Five Goals, Elaborated


Elaboration of the Five Goals


In the last post, I wrote five goals. Here they are again:


1.     Study a well-written and comprehensive chess course to completion.
2.     Actually, truly study and learn the material.
3.     Stick with one book until it is completed.
4.     Compile a master list of the various tactical themes and strategies that one should expect to learn en route to becoming a Master.
5.     Write about my experiences here.
                                                                                                                                                                                  

Now to elaborate:

1.     By studying a comprehensive course, I can test how thoroughly it achieves its goal, or what (if any) supplemental material needs to be studied. Yusupov, for example, does mention the need to do additional work in order to become a Master. My goal will be to determine what, specifically, needs to be added.
2.     It’s not enough to just go through the book and finish it. I need to absorb it. Understand it. Throw it in the over and bake it for two hours. Let it cool. Consume it. Sit and stew on it. Share it with others. Write about it. Make it mine. Own it. I want, at the end, to be able to verily say “I’ve learned everything there is to learn from this course.”
3.     Yeah, you know you do it. We all do. We buy dozens of chess books. We read some of them. Most of them we just read a chapter or two. We daydream in our heads about how great a player we’re going to be once we’ve completed books x, y, and z, and so on. But it’s merely wishful thinking. Even the books we complete (assuming you have ever completed even one!) we often have not thoroughly studied. I don’t want to get distracted. Are there other books I want to read? Hell yes. Am I likely to study all nine volumes without reading something else in between? I doubt it. But what I can do is take it one step at a time, one book at a time and remain loyal to that goal. Maybe after I finish volume one I’ll decided to read another book before continuing with volume two. That’s fine, as long as I study and read that book to completion also.
4.     I’ll be making a giant spreadsheet, to be posted sometime in the future, detailing all of the various skills that Yusupov covers in his course. Let’s say a theme is Mating Patterns (and I know it is, because it’s one of the chapters in the first volume). Then what I’ll do is create a heading called Mating Patterns, and beneath it, I’ll list which chapters are devoted to that theme. This way I can track the various skill sets, where to find them, and how much coverage is devoted to each, all at a glance. I hope others will also find this useful. Over time, I can do the same with other books, and thus make a meticulous comparison between the two, even being able—at some point—to use this info to make sound book recommendations to all of you. This will help us to understand which books have the best quality and value for the improving player, and which chess authors have done the best job at alchemically distilling the massive amount of chess information into the best, concise, and useful data sets for training.
5.     Writing about my experiences here is not only a proven way for me to better retain what I’ve learned, but it allows me to draw connections and access a high level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This increases the quality of my learning. It also allows me to better demonstrate what I have learned. Furthermore, I know there are others out there like me: hungry in your pursuit to improve, frustrated with knowing what to study, and wondering how it all comes together and makes sense. When you can’t see the forest for the trees, it’s time to step back and reevaluate things from a fresh perspective. I hope to achieve that. At the same time, I hope to meet like-minded individuals and hopefully, someday, celebrate each others’ success.




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