The Art Of Learning Chess

Being a kid I remember being told quite a few times that this was the best instant of my life, and I never knew for sure what they meant, and probably would just nod away whoever was expressing their own bit of bitterness to a child. Looking back, being a chess player myself, I realize that perhaps they were somewhat right. Quite possibly our younger years (12-18) are extremely relevant to what a good part of our life is going to look like. In my case I stopped playing chess at 12 and tried out other sports, and now that I work within the chess industry, I have to catch up the time loss in which I didn’t study chess, so I could become a prolific chess enthusiast again.

I was a somewhat quiet and jovial kid, started coming regularly to the chess club of my hometown at an early age (so early there weren’t any tournaments available for me yet), and eventually went through the different stages of basic understanding of Chess. Once I knew how to move the pieces, I was able to remember certain openings and basically gain 100 rating points every year. I was 12 years old and one of the higher rated of my category in my country, but I stopped training, competing and improving in any meaningful way.

Our destiny isn’t predefined, or at least I like to think mine isn’t. So every effort put into a positive direction will come back at you, and brighten your life, at some point. On the other hand, laziness and not getting involved within our community might have a tremendous impact on the dynamic of your future. Now that I am an adult, I still believe I can start learning again and investigating the sport of chess again, while self-consciously noticing and realizing the different course of actions that my learning curve is taking.

For kids attending chess programs, we want them to realize that on their own. With time, patience, kindness and the right mindset we teach them the way of life while learning how to get chess. Once they get there, that’s when their mindset becomes of the utmost importance. You can show a group of kids an opening, or even a game, and hand them over more knowledge than 10 hours of private lessons could. It’s possible, everything kind of is.