The 4 types of chess improvers

Last week, I wrote that your own games should be telling you what to train.

The loop went like this:

• Output: Play a serious game.
• Feedback: Analyse it without an engine first and find a lesson.
• Input: Identify the training that would help you do better next time, and do it.

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Many improvers are already doing a lot. They play over the board and online, review their games, solve puzzles, watch videos, read books and study courses.

But one part of the loop is often weak (we all have our likes and tendencies), and it’s worth noting that input isn’t really one step. It’s deciding what to train, and then actually training that thing rather than just sticking to whatever’s easy and fun, like blitz or Puzzle Rush. Both parts of it can run into trouble.

As Derek Sivers wrote in his book How to live: 27 Conflicting answers and one weird conclusion, you have to get an idea ‘out of your head and into reality.’ For chess players, that means an idea from a book or a course only becomes useful once it’s tested in a real game. By trying it out yourself and learning, you turn knowledge into skill.

Here are the four types:

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Type 1: The passive learner.

You watch videos, you read books, and you own way too many courses. You’ve got dozens of chess websites bookmarked, and you’d rather not admit how extensive your Chessable library and collection of Modern Chess databases are (shh, you’re not alone).

So you have input covered. But you don’t play enough serious games and you rarely analyse or solve anything hard. Your knowledge and skills never get tested, and your training is random.

The fix for passive learners is more output. Put serious games in your calendar. If OTB tournaments or classical aren’t possible, consider how you can make online rapid or regular training matches a part of your routine.

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Type 2: The grinder.

You play constantly. Bullet, blitz, rapid, online tournaments, variants. Output every single day.

But you neglect feedback, and a lot of your games are too fast to teach you anything. When you lose, even over the board, you immediately look at it with the engine, check the blunders and missed wins, and move on. You might learn some things from playing, but you keep repeating the same mistakes.

Playing more games isn’t the same as learning something useful from each one.

The fix for grinders is more feedback. Take a few serious games you lost, slow down and ask what keeps happening so you can identify the recurring lesson or weakness. Focus more on quality over quantity.

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Type 3: The self-critic.

You analyse every game and categorise every mistake. Your spreadsheet has 20 tabs and each one has 20 columns.

So there’s plenty of output and feedback, but none of it goes anywhere. Your to-do list is so long that you feel overwhelmed, and playing and reviewing start to feel like too much work.

The fix for self-critics is connecting feedback to input. Find a recurring issue in your games or a weakness that’s costing you and train that.

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Type 4: The scattered improver.

You do a bit of everything. Playing, analysing, solving, openings, studying. On paper it looks balanced, but nothing in your routine is connected. Your games don’t shape your training, your study is random, and what you train never gets tested in your games.

The fix for scattered improvers is connecting your output, feedback and input. That way, the hours you spend on chess point in the same direction. Have process-oriented goals in your games, find something you want to improve from each one, and train your strengths and weaknesses so you can keep learning from each game you play.

Which one are you?

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Some of you may have read all four and thought, “Hey, that’s a bit of me in each of them.”

Whatever type you are, I wrote a free workbook called The Chess Improvement Reset. It helps you look at how you’re actually working on your chess right now, what’s helping, what might need to change and where to focus next.

There are practical exercises inside to help you find what to train and why instead of just adding more things to do.

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So, what should you train and what should your training plan look like? Your chess already knows. Play serious games, review your losses using your own head, then work on what they point to. Then play again. Think about which part of the loop you should improve: your output, feedback or input.

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Even when a tournament approaches, I don’t change this cycle. I deliberately don’t change it because I don’t want to throw off my balance. That way I can build my rhythm and I can tell quickly when I’m in good or bad form, so I can keep going without forcing myself, consistently feeling that happiness level of 60%.
Daigo Umehara, The Will to Keep Winning

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