I was recently interviewed on the podcast ‘The Brand Called You’

Business genius and mass influencer, Ashutosh Garg, covered some of the following questions I hope you will find useful:

1) How do you prepare yourself before a big match both physically and mentally?

2) What goes into making a champion, and what goes into training a champion?

3) What are my three biggest success secrets, both on and off the board?

Here is the description of the video. The link to the video is found at the bottom of the post.

S3 E532 Jesse Cohen, National Master Chess Champion, USA 00:00– Introduction 00:34– About Jesse Cohen 00:44– What made you select chess as a sport? 01:49– How did you start playing chess? 02:27– Journey to become the National Master Chess Champion 04:13– How does this classification work? 05:37– How do you prepare yourself before a big match both physically and mentally? 07:18– What have you done that is right to have kept you at the top for such a long period? 09:13– What goes into making a champion, and what goes into training a champion? 15:03– What will it take to expand the love of chess n a much larger portion of the world? 18:26– What do movies like Queen’s Gambit do for the game of chess? 20:45– Three lessons Anyone who has played a chess game has felt the drive to win. The experience of sitting across the board from a fierce opponent as your clock ticks down and the game becomes more complex is as tense an experience as there is. Here is an episode with National Master Chess Champion, Jesse Cohen who talks all about chess. About Jesse Cohen – Jesse is a National Master Chess Champion in the USA. – He has won several top awards around the world. – He formed Summit School of Chess in 2012. – He teaches over 100 students weekly throughout the Greater Denver and the Front Range areas.

Introduction

The importance of Psychology in Chess and one’s ability to control their emotions cannot be understated enough.

What is Psychology in Chess?

• Psychology is the study of human and animal minds, with a focus on their functions and behavior.
• It has been said that psychology can be used in chess to help you play better.
• This statement is true, but it’s important to clarify that psychology isn’t the same as psychology in chess.

Psychology literally means “study of the mind” and is usually applied when talking about how people think, feel and behave (in other words: how they interact).

In contrast, “psychology” refers specifically to that branch of science which studies those things; i.e., it’s what we call “the scientific study of human beings.”

Distraction and Concentration

In order to become a better chess player, you must be able to focus on the game. The importance of concentration cannot be overstated, as it is directly related to your ability to see and respond correctly to events on the board. To help you maintain your focus, try the following:

• Avoid distractions by turning off cell phones and other devices that may distract you during a game.
• Avoid getting distracted by other people who may be commenting on or watching your games. This includes not only friends and family members but also opponents themselves! Use headphones if necessary so they don’t hear what’s going on in your head while playing chess—this will help keep them from being able to use any information they might get from hearing about how well (or poorly) things are going with regards to certain aspects of play within individual games for those involved in each side currently taking place around them.”

Boredom

How do you deal with boredom?

How can you avoid boredom?

What are some of the ways to avoid distractions and keep your focus on the game?

How can you prevent losing concentration or losing your temper, cool, composure etc. during a chess game.

Nerves in Chess

Nerves can be a very real distraction in chess, and it is important not to let them control your game. When facing an opponent who is playing better than you are, nerves can cause you to start playing too fast and make mistakes as a result. The best way to deal with this issue is by calming yourself down and concentrating on the board. If you allow nerves to get the better of you, then it will be hard for your mind to focus on thinking about what move is best at that moment instead of focusing on how nervous or excited they feel.

Keep calm even when things are going wrong! If one thing goes wrong in your game, there’s no need to panic: keep calm and try harder next time! If two things go wrong… well maybe just try harder at three things next time!

Learn how to manage your emotions and avoid emotional chess.

Learning how to manage your emotions and avoid emotional chess is a vitally important skill for any chess player. Emotional chess is when you allow your feelings to affect your decision-making process during a game, often resulting in making moves that are not optimal or even logical. This can happen because of a number of reasons:

• You may become frustrated with what’s happening in the game and make rash decisions out of anger or frustration
• You may be upset by something that happened earlier in the day, causing your emotions to get out of whack as you play
• You may have been told off by someone earlier that day and it’s still bothering you when it comes time to sit down at the board

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is essential that chess players mentally prepare themselves for battle by taking proactive steps to calm their nerves, focus their minds, and become emotionless objective players. Remember, emotions have no place in a game of chess!

Chess Master Secrets

Introduction

Chess is a lot like life. The rules are simple and easy to learn, but mastering them is another matter entirely! It takes time, effort, and perseverance to master the game of chess. You have to practice new ideas over and over again until they become second nature. You have to visualize where each individual piece may go so you can anticipate how a particular move will affect your overall strategy. You need focus in order to see patterns in the position on the board—and then break from those patterns when new opportunities present themselves so that you can create future opportunities for yourself!

Learn new ideas

Learning new ideas is one of the easiest things to do in chess. You can learn new ideas by reading books, watching videos, or playing games against stronger players. To get the most out of learning from other people’s ideas, ask them to explain their reasoning carefully so that you can understand the logic behind their thinking. You should also try to play against people who are better than you so that you have no choice but to improve your own game!

Practice the ideas

The more you practice the ideas, the better you’ll become. You’ll learn to play games with a plan and execute moves that help achieve your goal. And then you can use your knowledge in future games, which will lead to more wins, which leads to even better plays…and on it goes!

You can’t become good at chess without practice. In fact, there are probably people out there who think they’re good at chess because they’ve never had an opportunity to play against someone who knows what they’re doing—or worse yet, someone who has been playing for years and years (because let’s face it: those guys are usually pretty good). So if you want to be good at this game (and by “good” I mean “beat all comers in online chess tournaments while gaining worldwide recognition”), then there’s only one thing left for me to say: go practice some more!

Focus on patterns in the position

If you’re reading this, then it’s likely that you’ve already noticed some patterns in the chess positions. These patterns are easy to spot, but hard to remember. It’s a bit of a paradox: if you’re able to notice them, then they must be obvious enough for even me to see; but if I can see them, why can’t I remember them?

Fortunately, there is a simple solution: write down your observations and keep track of your mistakes! This will enable you to quickly review those positions again and make sure that they stick in your memory. Don’t worry about forgetting—there are lots of studies out there showing how consistently writing things down helps improve memory retention by as much as 500% compared with studying without writing anything down (source).

Try to see the big picture

You might not be able to see what the next move is, but you should be able to see how it fits into the overall picture. Or maybe you can’t see how all of these pieces will fit together at the end, but if you have a few minutes, think about what kinds of things could happen if they did.

Visualize where pieces may go

Visualizing the position is a powerful way to gain insight into your opponent’s plans. The more you visualize, the more you’ll know what they are doing and how they will react when you make a move. Visualize where pieces may go and why they might move there.

Visualize the opening. Visualize what your opponent could do in response to certain moves, then visualize how he or she might respond to your counter-moves and back again until you have a full picture of the opening sequence that could play out between you two.

Visualize the middle game . The middle game is when most games are won or lost, so this stage is worth paying special attention to! If you can successfully predict which tactical setups will arise from each possible development, it’ll give you an advantage when playing against strong opponents who rely on tactics themselves (and vice versa).

Take a risk and break from long-established plans and ideas to create opportunities for new ones.

When you find yourself in a situation where the game is going against you, take a risk and break from long-established plans and ideas to create opportunities for new ones. This doesn’t mean that you should abandon your strategy completely, but rather that if you have been playing defensively for a while, it is time to attack. If your opponent has been applying pressure on one side of the board and has neglected the other, then it’s time for them to pay for their negligence.

In chess there are few absolute rules except that which says: “Do not think outside of the box.” Being creative requires stepping outside of what’s familiar—and even more importantly—doing so purposefully. Don’t let yourself get stuck in one style over and over again; try something new every once in awhile!

Choose an opening that you enjoy playing and suits your style.

One of the most common mistakes in chess is to play an opening that’s too complicated. If you’re relatively new to the game, it’s best to start with an opening that’s easy for you to remember and understand.

• Choose a style that suits your playing style: Do you prefer aggressive or passive strategies? Do you like complex positions that require careful calculations and planning or would rather rely on intuition and quick reflexes? Your choice of openings should take into account which sort of player are you—and if possible, find one where both players will enjoy themselves!
• Choose an opening that suits your style: When choosing an opening, choose one that fits with how much time and effort (or lack thereof) it takes for someone who plays a certain way. If they’re very short games with little strategy involved but lots of tactics then maybe something like King’s Gambit wouldn’t suit them so well because even though it has been proven over centuries as being effective against weaker opposition because there isn’t much strategic thinking required there won’t be any room left for creativity at all–everything has been predetermined beforehand so no chance exists for improvisation from either player–but still this could work well against stronger opponents who don’t mind using time inefficiently

The ideas are easy to learn, but require lots of practice and visualization to master!

The ideas are easy to learn, but require lots of practice and visualization to master!

The goal of this book is to provide you with a set of basic principles that will allow you to improve your chess game. As we’ll see shortly, these principles are generally easier than the ones taught in other books on the topic. You’ll be able to implement them right away, giving your game an immediate boost. The challenge lies in taking what you’ve learned and making it part of your long-term habit set. This process takes time and effort—at least six months for most people—but if you stick with it, then I think that you’ll find yourself enjoying better results than ever before!

Conclusion

Hopefully, this blog post has given you a glimpse into the mindset of a chess master. If you’re interested in learning more about how to play chess, there are many resources available online that can help you get started! Happy chessing!

Just for fun, I wanted to try out the website InferKit – a website designed to generate text after being given keywords. The user begins to type about whatever they wish and then click Generate. From here the A.I. uses knowledge from the internet (?) to come up with mostly coherent text.

To test this out I started by typing the first sentence. The rest is completely generated. Let me know in the comments what you think!

“What does it take to become a chess master?

The first thing you need to know is that chess is a game of strategy. It’s not about how fast you can move your pieces. It’s about how you position your pieces to create a winning position.

The second thing you need to know is that chess is a game of patience. You can’t rush your opponent. You have to wait for your opponent to make a mistake.

The third thing you need to know is that chess is a game of memory. You have to remember all the moves your opponent has made. You have to remember how he moved his pieces. You have to remember how he played his chess moves.

The fourth thing you need to know is that chess is a game of strategy. You have to know how to use your strategy to win.”

Since 2012 I have dedicated my life to bringing chess to thousands of children across Colorado and the world. I’ve had time to reflect on what it means to be a great coach and I’ve made many improvements to my own technique.

Here’s what I’ve learned.

1. Be a fun/entertaining coach. Students learn best when they’re having fun. You could be the most knowledgeable person in your field and yet find that you’re an ineffective coach that can’t keep students. Why? The most likely answer is that your students aren’t smiling or laughing during the lessons. I make it point to make my students smile regularly. I make the learning fun for them. Being a chess coach has its advantages because we already play a game. We have a head start! However, many strong chess players haven’t spent time developing the necessary social skills and awareness to observe their clients aren’t having a great time. Many coaches are focused on the quality and effort that went into their lessons. They are pounding their students with knowledge in a dogmatic boring way. This is not the way to retain students or to be an effective coach.
   
   KEEP IT FUN!
2. Have structure – everyone thrives better in an environment that is predictable. When conducting lessons with my students they know we’re going to start off with tactics, followed by endgame training, move on to some important drills and finish off with finding the right plan just as a WARMUP before we play chess and review afterwards. We very well might spend a day just going over their lastest tournament games or driving home a really important concept, but for the most part I stick to this structure. It provides security/predictablity for the student which in turns provides a safe environment. From this safety the student feels the self comfort needed to grow.
3. Keep it simple – Many coaches I meet wonder why their students aren’t growing, understanding and retaining the information being taught. I’d like everyone to try your best and remember back to K-12 or college. We’ve ALL had a teacher that was absolutely brilliant but also spoke and tried to convey new complex ideas in a way that was extremely hard to follow. This is the teacher who unfortunately makes the mistake of teaching others the way they understand it themselves. We must put ourselves in the shoes of the novice. There are so many patterns, basic skills and foundation that are inherently lacking. We can’t teach Mate in 1 if our student is having trouble remember how the pieces move. When we do teach advanced concepts we need to break it down into basic language, relating to other real life examples, that drive home these points.
   
   

Huge congratulations to Colorado’s two newest chess masters: Griffin McConnell and Neil Bhavikatti!!

78 participants, 5 masters, $864 in prizes, luxurious Embassy Suites Hotel, 31 trophies.

Oh… and Chipotle 🙂

See you March 19th!

https://summitschoolofchess.com/tournaments/