Hi Ben, welcome to my little corner of the internet and many thanks for doing this Q&A. I am a big fan of the podcast and was floored by the quality of the book. You didn’t create a listicle, which would have been easy to do, but instead distilled themes and the essence of chess improvement - congratulations. How did you arrive at the current structure of the book?
Hey Benjamin, Thanks for the kind words. I am big fan of your work so I am happy to chat. I arrived at the structure of the book by asking myself, “what do we know for sure about chess improvement”. This led me to the four pillars of chess improvement- (tactics, serious games, game review, and community), and once I had those in place it was easier to find a framework for everything that wasn’t that.
I love the chapter on the community aspect. You discuss the Soviet Culture of chess, and nowadays we are witnessing the world elite being taken over by Indian chess players. Do you think the ‘Indian Chess School’ is the new ‘Soviet School’ and what are its defining characteristics?
It does look that way! I think the 2 primary factors have nothing to do with how chess is taught, and are based on rewards and incentives. They are 1) government support and 2) personal/financial incentive (and these two items are tied together). In both the Soviet era and modern India, chess is/was a way to elevate your lifestyle. For example, in addition to a better salary, authors like Genna Sosonko wrote about how in the Soviet era, being a chess professional was one of the only ways to get to see the world. Indians today are not dealing with such restricted freedoms, but from a socio-economic perspective chess in India offers a path to a comfortable and respected career. Unfortunately, as things stand in the West, if you pursue professional chess, you are signing up for a less certain life than you would achieve by going to university… unless you are confident you will be an elite player (top 10). By the way, India, is not alone, countries like Uzbekistan show a similar dynamic today. Of course, this answer is focused on players on a professional track, but in the book I am also arguing for the elevation of community at the amateur level.
‘Chess has no lone wolf’. The success of the ALTO tournaments is in part because adults want to socialise with like-minded individuals. Despite the internet and the learning communities, do you think people are starved from real-life contacts?
Yes, although I don’t think this is an issue unique to chess. Whether engaged in chess or other activities it is easy to get distracted by our devices and to convince ourselves that they are a substitute for real-life human interaction. I think ALTO tournaments are a great way to bring adult chess enthusiasts together and to make chess a much more rewarding hobby.
‘Openings provide a sense of identity and agency’ ‘chess players are affiliated to various opening ‘teams’. This is a very insightful way of explaining the phenomenon. I find that the best way to improve at openings is to play them in a tournament game and the know ‘by heart’ an example game. Do you think the learning of example games is an underused advice for opening?
As long as you can explain the moves and ideas, then yes, I like this idea!
Overall, there is no real consensus on what to study, but a consensus that studying must somehow be hard enough to provide a growth stimulus. The modulation of training intensity is well understood and studied in sports but is in its infancy for esports and chess. What are your thoughts on ‘intensity modulation’? Do you think people should do super intense studying sometimes, and some easier studying some other times? What are your thoughts on the subject?
As I discuss in the book, it always comes back to defining your goals, and ‘knowing your why” before doing anything else. If you are very serious about chess improvement, than modulating the intensity of your training makes some sense to me, but from a personal perspective, at this moment in my life, I just want to enjoy a bit of chess per day without trying to optimize every moment.
Attachment to ratings and despair at losing ratings is part and parcel of the game. In the UK, there used to be a ‘Grand Prix’ challenge in which you score points year-long for tournament play. If people only played for winning tournaments and not for rating, do you think they would be overall happier?
I think people might be happier if there were no ratings, but I fear its too late to put the genie back in the bottle. I do think that leagues and team play offer some scope for making OTB chess feel meaningful but without rating gain/loss necessarily attached. In an individual context I don’t think OTB chess would be as popular if it weren’t rated.
Knowing your ‘why’ is discussed several times in the book. It’s a subject I love and one of the rare topics equally relevant for casual club players and super GMs. What are your favorite questions/framework people can use to establish their purpose for playing chess?
I encourage people to really drill down on the aspects of chess that they enjoy most, and to do more of them, even if it means doing less of what might help you improve.
What is the question no-one ever asked about the book, but you wish someone had asked you?
“If you had the chance to start over and name the ‘adult improver series’ something else, would you?” Answer- yes! I wish I had gone with something like “Amateur spotlight” (or a catchier version of that), because I worry the term “improver” connotes results over process.
What will the next book be about?
I am still working to finish a Chessable course on Critical Moments in Chess within the next 2 months, and then I will decide if I have another book in me. :)
Where can people get the book, both in print and digitally?
For a physical copy, New in Chess in Europe, Amazon and Chess4less in the US. It is available digitally in Kindle, NIC reader, and Forward Chess. It is still coming in audiobook format on Audible, but the post-production has taken MUCH longer than I anticipated. I apologize to those who are waiting!
And of course they can get you at
https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/
and the newsletter
https://benjohnson.substack.com/
Many thanks Ben!
My pleasure!
Disclaimer: Ben kindly sent me a review copy of the book.