I genuinely don’t get the point of winning with an opening trap.
Let’s put aside that it will stop working quicker than the clickbaiters like to admit.
When you repeat a memorized line you learned from a YouTube video, what reason do you have to be happy?
You did not learn anything.
You didn’t use any critical decision making skills.
Yes, you won the game. But who the fuck cares?
You don’t win prizes. Won’t ever make money from chess. This is just a hobby. Nobody cares about your rating. You are the same person with a 800, 1200 or 2500 rating.
Yet, 39% of my YouTube audience voted for exactly that option.
What makes it even worse
A lot of comments below the poll made this even worse.
Many seem to not be able to think that anyone might honestly prefer to lose the interesting game.
I believe that you guys reading this would be firmly in the “lose the interesting game” camp. At least you’ll know it rationally.
So why write this?
Because all of us have a part of that results oriented mindset inside.
Maybe because we still define our self-worth through our chess rating.
Or because losing a game feels like a personal insult, that we are stupid because we made a stupid mistake.
No matter how small or big this part is, living in a results-oriented environment will always push this part out.
Realizing it is about improvement, growth, learning, pushing yourself, having fun doing the hard thing, is only the start.
We need to continuously remind ourselves of that approach. This is such a reminder.
Accept that losses are part of the journey.
And that we are the weird ones.
If you need a stronger reminder, read Mindset by Carol Dweck.
Here is to many more interesting losses.
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 18,000+ chess improvers by signing up for Friday Grandmaster Insights here.
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