Practice with Purpose

Study with Purpose?

This brief article is on chess study, but it can apply to anything that you want to master. Focused, intentional study or practice with a specific goal or purpose is key.

Chess amateurs (most of us) see individual pieces and tactical threats. If we forget to check every piece and line, we risk a blunder. If we do check every piece and line, we risk losing on time. It’s a dilemma.?

Grandmasters ‘see’ the whole board at once, all the connections between the pieces, open lines, diagonals, and all the tactical patterns are instantly recognized in a 5 second glance.?

Studies have shown that an amateur, given 5 seconds to study a busy middlegame position and then attempt to replicate that position on a blank board, will only be able to get 3 or 4 pieces on the correct squares.?

A Grandmaster, given the same 5 second glance at the board, will be able to replicate the position perfectly almost every time.?

The Grandmaster sees not individual pieces but chunks of material in connected patterns. In his/her mind, a piece can only logically go on one square to maintain the whole 64 square connected pattern.?

In a similar way, if you are given a sentence to memorize, you don’t try and remember the string of individual letters. You memorize ‘chunks’ (words) of information and these only fit together in a certain sequence for the sentence to make sense.?

How does the Grandmaster achieve this?

Some wonder if the Grandmaster is born with this skill or if only certain genuses can acquire it. Neither is true. Anyone can learn this, but it does take time and effort. How?

Solving tactics puzzles from real games is one way, but not just a quick attempt and then check the answer. You must make a real purposeful effort to mentally ‘move’ the pieces in your head, trying out every line and checking every defensive resource. Really trying to understand the pattern or motif. This is what the Chessable “50 Day Tactics Challenge” course emphasizes. After making a real effort to solve (it is the genuine effort that counts), you can then drill on tactics you have previously solved doing something like the Woodpecker Method. Over time, patterns will begin to imprint and cement in your long term memory.

The Grandmaster has been studying this way many hours a day, every day, for years, so now it is automatic. What seems impossible at our level now is definitely achievable with work and a little time. Keep doing your tactics.?Keep practicing with purpose.

You can do this! ??

Link to a great site for high quality lessons and instruction by Grandmasters:

https://chessmood.com/?r=Russell