Many of my students are successful in their Careers, and most have improved at various hobbies, such as running, exercise, or their favorite team sports. Time and time again, I hear from them that Chess is the most difficult to wrap their head around.
And while there are many possible reasons for it (Chess is a very complex game after all!), in today’s newsletter I want to zoom in on one aspect: delayed gratification.
No idea if the plan is working
A very common feeling among Chess improvers is that you are putting in some time, but have a hard time figuring out if you are actually doing the right thing. If the time you spend, the resources you use, and the training you do, is actually paying off. This uncertainty leads to FOMO, lack of discipline, and a lot of frustration.
It can easily happen that you are doing all the right things, but for a month, you can’t feel any difference in your play and results. Before long, you think “Well, I’m definitely doing something wrong”, then you get off track and just leave the right track before it would have paid off.
On the other hand, especially early on in your improvement journey, you can do all the wrong things and still improve your game.
Delayed Gratification
The experience described above is a result of delayed gratification. It simply means that the work you put in on day x won’t be seen immediately (day x + 1). Instead, usually there is a pretty long time (delay) between your effort and the results (gratification).
An example is working on your thought process. If you have to change something, you will likely get confused, overwhelmed, and slower early on. That means you’ll also play worse and likely lose some rating.
Then, once you push through that period, your thought process becomes more second nature and will give you good results. Depending on how stuck you were in old patterns (the longer you are stuck, the longer it takes to change), this delay can last for 1 month, up to a full year.
I’ve written about my own plateau that lasted close to 2.5 years before I made a huge jump. I wasn’t training badly; I just changed so many things and faced so many challenges that it took a long time to break through that plateau.
Instant Gratification
If you compare this with, let’s say, exercise, you can quickly understand why Chess improvement can be so difficult, confusing, and painful.
When you follow a plan in the gym, sure, you won’t raise your weights every single week. But the general direction is pretty linear (unless you injure yourself because of overtraining…). Some ups, some plateaus, but as long as you stick to a simple plan, you’ll feel stronger if you train well. Every time you can raise the weight just a little for the same exercise, or manage one more rep, you get some sweet rewards that keep you going.
The dip – then big jump
Let me share the story of a student who kept going when it was hard and was rewarded with results.
We started working in October 2024. He had a long-standing problem with time trouble due to a faulty thought process and perfectionism. After the first 4 months of working together, he lost 30 OTB points (in total, he lost 100 points in 2024, and even more since his peak rating).
He put in a lot of time, got a Grandmaster Coach, and lost rating? That can be super infuriating. But, more often than not, this is the norm.
I’m so glad he had the right mindset and that we both set the right expectations from the get-go. Thanks to it, he managed to stay true to his training and see through this initial dip.
Now, 9 months into our work together, he has gained exactly 100 OTB points after having dropped points consistently for the past 4 years. He is very close to his all-time high, and I’m sure he’ll get there with more good training.
So, How Can You Stick To Your Training Long Enough?
There are two keys I try to incorporate with my private students and all Simplified Chess Improvement Students to help them stick to the process long enough to make use of delayed gratification.
- Expectation Management
- Focus on the process
Reduce Expectations – Expect Dips
Most content on the internet tries to lure you in with big promises of quick and easy results. This puts you into a vicious cycle where you hope for the next quick hack to solve your problems, but inevitably, these don’t work (for long enough).
The only way to exit this vicious cycle is to reduce your expectations, especially in the short term. I’m very confident my private students and SCIS students will see results if they apply what I teach. But I try to avoid short-term promises or statements that imply them.
On the contrary, I try to repeat often that results will take time and dips, especially early on, are totally normal. This makes less money, but helps students actually get results in the long run.
Occasionally, students will see insane progress after just a few weeks or a month, but that stays the outlier, not the norm.
Focus On The Process
Reduced expectations are nice, but if you have the wrong process or only obsess about results, you likely won’t get to the point where you break through your plateau.
Here is the thing. If you train the wrong way, you will see a dip, just like you would with the correct training. The problem is, you simply never get to the point where you see results, because your training is bad.
To avoid this, you need to make sure you follow the three Do’s I stress often in SCIS:
Do what matters Do it well Do it consistently
Once you follow that proper process, the only thing you try to review on a weekly or monthly basis is the following:
Am I sticking to the right process? Do I do what matters? Do I do it well? Do I do it consistently?
If the answer is yes, even if your results don’t show it yet, you are on the right track. There is no need to change much; you just need to keep going.
But if you can’t answer those 3 questions with yes, you need to change something ASAP.
Because maybe your results are still good, but that might just be the training you did 3, 6, or 9 months ago. If your training is bad or nonexistent right now, you will pay the price for it.
So instead of looking at your results and determining if you need to change something, you should always review your process.
That is what will determine your long-term chess improvement.
And if you are unsure which process is the right one, then the Simplified Chess Improvement System is for you.
I outline a holistic chess improvement approach that works for adult improvers.
You’ll learn what you should spend your time on, how to train chess properly, and much more. I’ve recently added modules on thought process, time management, and decision making to tackle even more practical areas of chess that often get forgotten.
Nope, this isn’t a quick hack. Yes, you’ll need to put in effort.
But also yes, it does work.
Students report feeling happier with their chess training, having less FOMO, and saving money by buying fewer books and courses.
And when they stick to the system long enough, they see impressive results.
If that sounds like something for you, make sure to check it out.
Keep improving,
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.
