I keep getting the same question from Real Chess Training students:
“The 6 positions in 45 minutes really push me. Can I adjust it a little bit to make it easier?”
My answer is, and always will be: no.
The difficulty is the whole point.
A World of Comfort
We’ve confused comfort with success. And discomfort with failure.
The message is everywhere: if something is hard, optimize it or delete it. That’s nonsense. Growth lives in discomfort. As long as you’re not drowning in something you have no chance of understanding, the struggle is the signal you’re doing the right thing.
The best feedback I get sounds like this: “I’m struggling, but this is so useful.” That’s RCT working. Your urge to make it easier is just the urge to escape, the same urge that keeps most players stuck.
Commit, Then Judge It By Your Chess
Don’t fight the discomfort. Commit to solving RCT properly for a fixed period. Give it everything. Don’t try to soften it.
Then look at your chess, not at how it felt. For most, the improvement is obvious. When it is, double down. And when RCT stops feeling hard, you’ve outgrown it. Move on to something harder.
Keep improving,
GM Noël
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.
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