I didn’t choose chess, chess chose me! As someone who has played chess for many years, I have had the great experience of victories, of fast progress, tournament victories, but also the other side: my level reaching a plateau, frustration at not improving, blundering, painful losses. This is normal for a chess player of any level.
But hitting a plateau is no fun. It is even worse when you feel you level going down. That’s where I found myself when I started this blog. It’s time for me to take serious action!
So, here are my thoughts:
- Chess is my passion. It’s not my job, I’m not a pro, but I’m a strong amateur.
- If my passion is worth anything at all, I have to put my back into it. Often the idea that it’s not my job deters me from putting in the necessary effort to improve. But if chess is worth playing, it’s worth playing well.
- I will try any and all approaches to improve. At my level, it is not easy to do this. But there are plenty of books, plenty of training materials online, I can work with a chess coach.
- The great thing about improving at chess, is that it is easy to measure. Chess ratings do not lie!
- Writing this blog is a part of my path to the next phase of my chess improvement.
My goal? To reach 2200 Elo by the end of the year 2016 and to reach 2300 Elo a year after that. It is ambitious. I am around 2000 Elo right now, but let’s see what happens!
Haran Rasalingam