How Brutal Self-Honesty Will Boost Your Chess Elo

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For the record, once I noticed the recurring issues in my games, I trained calculation by solving puzzles from the book "Perfect Your Chess" by Volokitin and Grabinsky.

[@masonparkman5567]

Great video. I suffer from overlooking forcing moves for myself and the opponent. I want to treat all positions in an abstract way, and suffer when the board requires a forcing solution. I'm now constantly working on this and forcing myself into positions where I have no choice but to be concrete. Great insights, keep the videos coming man!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks for the input Mason! Indeed, you seem to have similar tendencies to me :) Let's work on those together!

[@DanielDollinger1959]

The brutal self-honesty part is painful. I hate looking at my failures. Of course, it is critically important to my development. Thanks for the reminder.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Indeed, human psychology kicks in in those moments. But keep on trusting the process. Chess is a very honest game and your honest reflections will eventually pay off.

[@eschiedler]

Very good explanation. It did take me about 8 minutes to double-check the three forced lines after the bishop move solution. So often time is always a factor while learning and training. Edit add: Yes I also did see that Rook to b1 is punishing.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks for the feedback! It is not very easy to calculate all the lines, but that forcing move should have been checked in such a sharp position! I believe I had around 9 minutes left at this point.

[@RayRay-mt6vb]

When you present a board position and say "what is the best move?", its much easier to find it, BECAUSE I know there is something clever or tricky to look for. What makes it difficult to spot in a live game is the 15 moves before and 15 moves after when there is nothing tricky or clever to look for. You say "the position was calling for violence" as a indication to look for "forcing moves", I guess you are right, it does look like something could be forced, but there are still so many line variations. Engine evals can be misleading when they dont show you how many lines there are to maintain that eval. It might be 0-0 but there could be only one really obscure line to hold it even compared to an eval of 0-0 with 5 or 6 obvious lines where it could stay 0-0.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks for the comment! Absolutely, it is a crucial skill to develop a feeling for the critical moment. That is why it is easier once it is presented as a puzzle. That is also true, and it connects to my final point in this video. Thanks again for your observations!

[@eschiedler]

I did see pawn b4 early as the first option but very hard to calculate the queen sac and pawn promote push. Well done.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you for your observations!

[@EliDollinger]

Excellent video. I agree completely. While watching, here is a question that came to mind. I was able to find the solutions to the various problems you presented in the video. However, I probably would not have been able to find the solutions if the problems were presented to me in an actual game. Why is there a discrepancy between my problem-solving ability during a game and my independent problem-solving? How do I address that discrepancy?

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks for this very important observation! It is indeed a crucial skill to identify the critical moment in a game and slow down to properly calculate in those moments. No-one is telling you in an actual game that there is a solution. I would say practical experience with slow time controls and deep analysis of your own games will make it easier for you to spot those moments and reduce this discrepancy.

[@eschiedler]

In the second example, I was able to find Nxf7 followed by pusing the pawn, it took ruling out other options, so about 3 or 4 minutes. Edit: add, funny enough, the engine saves pieces by sacrificing two pawns, still says black is way ahead.

[@briandwi2504]

Excellent as always, thanks!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Pierre_16_16]

Dear Can, cristal clear advices, for beginner like me, it's often difficult to find the balance between sticking to chess principles (improve piece activities) and taking action. Hope I will improve this by playing rapid/long game intead of playing blitz games and learn from my mistakes! I'll let you know! Thank you again

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks for the feedback Pierre! It is indeed a difficult skill to identify the critical moment in chess. Slow games definitely help with it though, good luck!

[@lancetehira]

Gah!! I saw the move but couldn't find any of the checkmates !!! Or winning takes grrr maybe I just need more time for chess study???🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Don't get discouraged! You did better than me as you have considered that forcing move in the position. It needed proper time to verify all the key lines. Keep on solving calculation exercises and give yourself maximum of 15 minutes to properly solve it.