Read here. And here.
"i have been thinking about the time u told me to dun put pressure on myself, to think wats d worse that could happen..u lose dats all, not a big prob..and it seems that u have elaborated alot on this topic"
Dear NJ
If we were sitting down having coffee, we would probably have a conversation something like this. I would be asking you what you think is the nature of chess? We would be talking about things like being in the moment. That chess is a game played moment to moment. We would be talking about resistance in the mind to learning. I would probably ask you what are the factors that relate to winning in chess, name them and we would discuss it's relative importance in different scenarios. Then we will discuss what are the thoughts that are useful and not useful. When we have a firmer grasp of the issues we will talk about the power of concentration ie how to focus on the thoughts that help and how to shield the mind against useless thoughts. If you were under coaching I would begin to prepare exercises to help you anchor that understanding.
From here you will begin to understand that almost all of the useless thoughts will come from the ego ie imagined fears. You see, you havent lost yet. And if you objectively evaluate that you are winning and you have confidence in yourself, you can continue. Now the danger at this point will be your self talk, the chatter, the excuses. That can cloud the mind, shut down the mind, limit your access to stored information in your mind. Remember this. You can understand a GM's game, analyse a GM's game with understanding. So now to increase your chances you have to keep your mind clear and still. Read here.
As clear as if you are at home drinking coffee. To remember that time at home when you won in your mind while reviewing a GM's game. To remember that time when you said to yourself, hey..I could have won that. That is the hard part.
But to have a chance to do that, you must first be able to diffentiate what useful and useless thoughts are. Know where the useless thoughts come from. Then you have to learn to draw that line to keep the useless thoughts out.
When you come to that understanding we will then proceed to the next part of our lesson which incidentally is also your next question.
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hello mr siew..i always read ur blog..but i have stopped playing chess 4 few years already..chess is interesting..im perakian..play 4 perak twice in mssm..just by luck..hurm..can i give some suggestion? i think mark should involve in sports too..a healthy body makes a healthy mind..many GMs involved in sports..such as swimming..basketball..they r quite well in sports too..what do u think? is it really related..road to gm..i play basketball 4 uni now..but i still read about chess..
ReplyDeleteall da best to u n mark..=)
I agree that sports is important for health reasons. However I think in todays world the mind may take precedence.
ReplyDeleteHi again
ReplyDeleteThank you for your good wishes. My apologies if I seemed abrupt above. I still carry a soft spot for Perak chess players and I wish so many hadnt given up. Chess is a wonderful game. If you can, go to KL to play. The culture there is better. In Perak, UTP and UPSI are better runned too. All my best in Uni.