David's Chess Journey - Installment 39

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill

Thought Exercise

Over the course of my first two years into my chess journey, a thought experiment as come up from time to time. It goes something like this - if most grandmasters start playing at around 5 years old, then I'm only about 7 in chess years. That is, I started at 43 rather than 5 and am two years into the journey. So, the thought goes, how do 7 year olds spend their time with chess? There is likely, though I am certainly no expert, a high focus on just playing a ton, having fun, and doing a lot of tactics. So, I've tried to adopt that mindset and it is why I have put down studying for a while and am just playing lots of games and trying to have as much fun as possible.

My biggest takeaway from the thought experiment is to approach chess early in my journey like a kid. My tendency is to approach chess like an adult or like any other subject of study that I have taken on - work hard, study hard, learn everything I can, etc. The problem with applying that approach to chess is that creates the knowledge v. ability gap. There is a lot of talk about the reality that chess is not about what you know, but what you can do. That is one of the truest axioms that I've encountered on my chess journey to this point. It follows that knowledge comes from study, and the ability to do comes from playing (and I would say evaluating the play).

So, I will continue to keep playing and having fun, though I do admit I miss the study and will probably do more of that at some point. This is hopefully going to be a long journey with different seasons.

A Question for the Community - Lichess1510 League?

Would anyone be interested if Lichess started a Lichess1510 League? \For me, the 15+10 time control gives me enough time to think but doesn't take 2 hours per game like the longer controls. I really enjoyed participating in the Lichess 4545 league last season, but the games were a bit long for me and I was not able to find an opponent for the last two matches. Also, I had a really hard time navigating the significant time zone differences. I haven't been able to find a good group on Lichess that does Swiss tournaments using that control and would really enjoy it if there is any interested out there. Please let me know!

Blitz Adventures: Training Intuition

There is a lot of hate out there regarding beginners like me playing Blitz. But, I have to say that this week I have really been enjoying it. I play 5+4, which is the longest control that is within the Blitz category on Lichess and it has been a lot of fun. My rating is really low given that I haven't played a lot since I've made improvements (again, because of the shaming factor - on the ChessDojo tracker there is literally "Shame!" written by Blitz if you are brave enough to track time related to it:)

Here is a structure that I worked on developing with ChatGPT and it was a lot of fun:

Structure for a 5+4 Blitz Session

1. Game Set 1: Focused Blitz Play (30 minutes)
   • Play 3-5 consecutive Blitz games with full concentration, using your chosen opening repertoire (English, Caro-Kann, Nimzo-Indian).
   • Focus on playing your best and observing any patterns or challenges that arise.
2. Short Break (5 minutes)
   • Take a brief break to relax and reset your mind. This will help maintain focus and energy for the next set of games.
3. Game Set 2: Continued Blitz Play (30 minutes)
   • Play another set of 3-5 Blitz games. Continue to play your best, using the insights and awareness gained from the first set.
   • Pay attention to any recurring mistakes or critical moments during these games.
4. Analysis Session (10-15 minutes)
   • Review 2-3 key moments or mistakes from the games in both sets. Focus on significant errors, missed tactics, or strategic decisions.
   • Identify patterns or areas for improvement that you can work on in future sessions.
5. Game Set 3: Applying Lessons Learned (30 minutes)
   • Play a final set of 3-5 Blitz games, consciously applying the insights and lessons from your analysis session.
   • Aim to avoid previous mistakes and improve decision-making based on your review.

Again with keeping with the thought exercise outlined above, it seems like kids are probably playing a lot of Blitz, which I do think trains intuition. Long time controls trains the ability to think deeply, which is important, but short time controls gets in a lot of reps and forces me to use intuition, which is obviously lacking as a beginner. I understand both sides of the debate, but this week with Blitz has been a lot of fun.

Butting into the Limitations of AI & Looking Forward to the Future

Using LLMs in connection with my chess journey has been exhilarating and incredibly frustrating. The potential is amazing, but the journey of learning how to harness this incredible power is humbling. What I have realized is that the LLM is both brilliant and incredibly stupid at the same time. Given the fact that it is designed to simply guess the next word, you can only expect so much from it. Asking it to identify key positions from games that you load into the system is just too much to expect. What you will get is a series of hallucinations that will lead you to hours of frustration (yes, this is from personal experience).

It seems to me the real breakthrough will happen when (and this may have already been done?) the power of the latest Stockfish is coupled with the power of the most advanced Gen AI. Until that happens, I'm going to stop hitting my head against the wall for now. Too many hours of correcting and correcting and correcting and correcting. Deep sigh.

Another Week of Games

This week saw a lot of wins and a lot of losses, with swings of 50 points up and down. What a rollercoaster this game is! I had one very unpleasant exchange where the player caught me in a trap and said "Too easy!" and then left the game. I know there are all levels of maturity on the platform and that people have experienced MUCH worse than that, but I always find some exchanges discouraging and disappointing. On the other end of the spectrum I had a game where my opponent was complimentary throughout the game and it was a very encouraging experience. Here is to hoping that we have less of the former and more of the latter as this amazing community continues to grow.

With all that said, given my focus on Blitz towards the middle of the week, it would be too hard to parse out Rapid v. Blitz games, so I'm going to stop counting for a bit.

Chess Steps Method

My thought exercise has led me to finally take the plunge and start the Chess Steps method. I'm starting at Step 1 as I'm very cognizant that I am a beginner and trying to approach the game as a child beginner. We will see how far I get in the program (if you've been reading for a while, you know I bounce around quite a bit). Ben Johnson mentioned the program so many times on Perpetual Chess, but I was always doing something else and didn't want to switch. But, I just ordered the manual and workbook for Step 1 and will be able to report on some progress (hopefully depending on shipping dates) next installment!

First Draft Completed!

In the age of GenAI we can write the books that we want to read but that don't yet exist. This evening I spent a couple of hours working with ChatGPT to prepare the first draft of an adult who takes up chess and, against all odds, becomes a Grandmaster. Okay, I would really like to be Ethan Cole:)

Here is a link to the first draft for those who are interested in giving it a sneak peak. I'm going to read, refine and use my beginner prompt engineering skills to continue to improve and refine. Would love your thoughts!

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ivwkhmst3bdywm92c4s9e/Against-the-Board-v2-9.3.24.docx?rlkey=hm5ttxa8icejj603iaz6kd7gk&st=heo6d2r5&dl=0

Until the next installment!