Imagine going into school and on day 1, your teacher is telling you everything you will have to learn in the next 9 years.
Then, for each subject, the teacher picks the 30 main things you’ll have to learn, writes them each on a piece of paper, and lets you pick blindly what will be the first subject.
Sounds horrifying, doesn’t it?
This way, you’d learn algebra before even knowing what a “+” sign means. Obviously, that doesn’t work. Kids would feel super overwhelmed this way.
Why do I share this ridiculous example, then? Well, that’s basically how you get to learn chess in 2025.
The Randomness Of Chess Study
Since the big chess boom in Queens-Gambit and Covid times (over 5 years ago, What?!) a lot of new players came to the game, and our industry wasn’t ready for it. At all.
That’s why you feel so overwhelmed.
You go into an imaginary classroom (the internet) and depending on your YouTube algorithm, the content creators you follow, the games you watch, and people you met, got assigned different “must-know” things in a total random order.
Sadly, most of what you read/see on the internet is at best only a half-truth. But lets leave this aside for now. Even if you imagine you got the best advice out there, but in the wrong order, it is natural you feel overwhelmed.
If you learn “Alpha Zero pawn flank attacks” before you learn how to develop your pieces, you’ll run your pawns up the board feeling like a genius, before you get mated in the center of the board.
Suppose you learn how to look for positional subtleties before a simple Check/Capture/Threat ritual, you will occasionally find super deep moves way above your level, only to blunder horribly a move later.
Even Knowing You Will Have To Know Is Bad
The trap I sometimes fall into is mentioning something and then saying, “But this isn’t for now”.
This in itself is already causing difficulty and overwhelm. Let’s try this out right here. Just follow my instructions; this is super easy.
—> Don’t think of a pink elephant
Did it work? Hell no.
This paradox is called Ironic Process Theory, or more simply, the Pink Elephant Paradox.
It suggests that once a thought pops up, the more you try to avoid thinking of it, the more you’ll think of it. So when you tell someone:
“This is the main line, but you don’t need to know that yet.”
The student can’t help but think about it. Why is it the main line? What if my opponent knows it?
So the best is actually not knowing at all what you might have to learn in the future. This way, you can focus on the present without getting overwhelmed.
The Ideal Case: Not Knowing What Is Next
Compared with today, I had it easy 20 years ago when learning chess. First, my father taught me the moves, and we played a couple of games. Nobody else knew how to play the game, so I just learned from him.
Then, I signed up for a holiday chess camp with an experienced teacher rated around 1800. He did this camp for the 100th time and knew exactly what to teach, and what to leave out.
I liked it, seemed decent at it, and signed up for the club. From then on, I had my early chess mentor. Every Friday, I went to the club and followed the instructions of my coach.
Never did I think about researching what I should train next, or what opening I might play alternatively. Whatever the Coach said was executed.
And even if the coach changed from time to time, we still just had the simple Step Method Book to solve puzzles in. Once I wanted to study more than just the one time on Friday, my parents asked the Coach what book they should get me.
Thinking back, the first time I really thought what I should study and researched things on my own was when I was around 15 years old, had 7 years of chess experience, and was nearly a FIDE Master. By then, I had enough experience to understand what really mattered and what I can leave out.
If I, or my parents, had to make that choice just when I got into chess, I’m sure I wouldn’t have come even close to becoming a Grandmaster.
So, how can you, in 2025, re-create the same situation I had 20 years ago?
Back To Basics
If you want to have the simplicity of not having to see 15 steps ahead, cramming through 99% of the bullshit on the internet just to find the one right way to study, then go back to the basics.
Don’t overcomplicate things, don’t try to go for “The Best Opening”, “The ideal way to study”, “The optimal training plan for your age, your rating and your preferences”.
Dror, a good friend and fellow author (highly recommend checking his work out, especially if you are or aspire to be in a leadership role) recently shared a three step process to learning with me. I believe to remember it originated in Japan, but I couldn’t find too much on the Internet.
Step 1: Follow a System Step 2: Adjust the System Step 3: Build your own System
I love this approach and it is very close to what I do when I learn anything new (from Golfing, to Poker, language learning, running a half marathon…).
What I believe to be one of the key problem, is that many jump to Step 2 right away. The solution, is to find a System you can trust, then execute it for a while and then slowly ease into Step 2.
Different Systems You Can Trust
Depending on your time and financial investment, you have different ways to follow a system. The key really is to be able to give up control.
Just imagine you’d be a 7-year-old learning something for the first time. No way at this age you’d think about googling for hours about the best way to learn something.
Ideal: Find a Teacher
If you have the finances, get a good Coach you can fully trust. Someone who teaches players in your current situation already and has a clear system. Just like my first coach, who worked with thousands of kids before helping me get better in my early days.
Expect a good Coach to cost something. If you are just deciding based on price, you most likely don’t get someone who truly cares or knows what they are doing.
The key is that this coach helps you structure your training and recommend you how to spend time outside of the few lessons you’ll have with them.
(I’m currently full with a long waiting list, if you want to follow my system, below is the best way to do so).
Second Best: Follow a system outlined in a course/community
1:1 Coaching can be costly, so the second best option is to find someone you trust and see if they offer a course/community you can join and follow along for a while.
This is what I’m doing with both my courses, Beginner Chess Mastery specifically for players up to 1200 chesscom, and Simplified Chess Improvement System.
You can also find someone else. The key is that you are able to trust your source and let go of the constant thinking of “What should I do additionally?” or “How can I optimize this?”.
Important note: an opening course, or endgame course, or book on strategy is nice, but it doesn’t give you that compass to follow. That’s why a system is so important for you, especially if you feel that constant overwhelm or FOMO.
A super simple system I recommend inside my own course, SCIS, is the Step Method (I wrote a full article about the book series). I learned chess with those books and so have thousands of others. If you want a cost effective, high quality book series you can follow without obsessing about much else, check them out.
Third: Follow Free Material – Just from One Source
Some don’t want to spend much on a system, or don’t have the finances right now. It is possible to follow a system this way, the risk of going wrong is just a little higher.
Instead of just following a book/course of someone who offers a system, you can check out several coaches and content creators and their free material.
That’s what many do anyway.
The key I recommend is to, at some point cut out most creators and mostly follow one source. This way, you make sure you don’t mix different approaches, because that would already be Step 2 of the learning journey.
I don’t mean to say that you can never watch a stream from your favorite creator anymore. What I highly recommend is to clearly define who has the system you want to follow, and who you are watching for pleasure/learning more specific chess things.
If not, you’ll end up watching one video that tells you “Learn these 59 endgames” and the next you watch might be titled “Why you should only study these 10 endgames”.
And you are back to overwhelm, having to try and guess which approach is best and likely getting overwhelmed immediately.
Summary
You are overwhelmed because you are bombarded with different things you “must study” in a rather random order.
The solution to this is, at least as a first step, to follow a proper system. This way, you can give the weight of “what should I study next” away. Slowly, you will learn what is good for you, what you need, and what you enjoy.
After lots of execution, you will be able to adjust your plan to your needs. Still while following a general improvement philosophy, but maybe tweaking 1-2 things.
If you ever get to the point where you enter Step 3 and create your own improvement system, please let me know. I’ll be curious to hear what you came up with.
And I’m happy to wait a decade for this moment to arrive.
In a nutshell:
- Pick someone you trust.
- Follow their system.
- Keep it simple.
- Focus on execution.
You will feel lighter. Enjoy chess more. Struggle less with FOMO. And improve your game.
Keep improving,
GM Noël Studer
PS: This article was initially sent out to my Newsletter list. If you want to get chess improvement advice for free in your inbox, join 17,000+ chess improvers by signing up for Friday Grandmaster Insights here.
Whenever you’re ready, here is how I can help you:
- Want to know How to train chess well? Check out The Simplified Chess Improvement System. This course taught 800+ students the How of Chess Training. Create your high-quality chess plan and learn how to study each part of Chess, from tactics to openings & endgames. Click here to learn more.
- Rated below 1200 Chess.com? Need to refresh your fundamentals? Check out my course, Beginner Chess Mastery. You’ll learn all the fundamentals, from strategy to how to get the most out of your pieces, tactics, and endgames. You even get a full opening repertoire for free. Click here to learn more.
