Train For the Difficult

In this modern-day, many of us possess perfectionist tendencies, to some degree.

For many, this means we will try and train in environments which are “optimal”.

In the case of chess study, this would often mean a quiet place, with zero distractions.

Sounds sensible enough, right?

But, what if this was limiting us?

Inspiration

Since the age of 16, I developed a high-degree of interest in fitness, and challenging myself physically.

I also consumed lots of content around this newfound interest.

Eventually, what I realized is that most of the content is very similar and cookie-cutter, along with the content creators.

But one guy in particular captivated my attention: Kyriakos Grizzly.

Though to many, he might just have seemed like some guy going viral on the internet, doing ridiculous lifts, he had a deeper philosophy that I would like to share today:

“Train for the difficult”.

In the Art of Impossible, by Steven Kotler - a book on peak performance - Kotler promotes a similar philosophy of “performing at your best, when you're at your worst”.

Applying This to the Realm of Chess

Former WC Botvinnik was in fact a strong adherent of this philosophy, often training in smoky rooms, with the radio playing in the background.

This was no accident.

Botvinnik could have very well chosen a less smelly, quieter area, but went out of his way to make the training more difficult.

These days, modern chess players harness their chess skills by alternating rounds of playing chess and boxing (joking, sort of...).

For many of us, however, this may simply mean doing an hour of training at night, even though we are completely exhausted from a hard day of work.

Instead of thinking "I'm too tired to work on chess", think "If I can train hard when I'm tired, imagine what I could do if I was fully energized!".

Every time you show up, you add another brick to the castle.

Far too often, we underestimate what we are capable of doing in these subpar conditions, and also the potential benefits that can be reaped from doing so.

Doubt

Some may deem this type of training pointless, but it is crucial to understand that rarely will we be in perfect conditions when playing tournament games.

Maybe you couldn’t sleep the night before due to nervousness.

Or maybe you have a game starting in 10 minutes, just after brutally losing a 4 hour marathon game.

You never know what kind of challenges you are going to be faced with.

But, making the conscious choice to train in challenging conditions can certainly help prepare us for this.

Instead of thinking about how your training will suck because of how tired you are, or how you cannot focus because of the dog next door barking, think of this as an opportunity to make yourself a more tenacious competitor the next time you are playing at a tournament.

Reflection

This has also made me realize the merits of certain training methods such as solving puzzles blindfolded, or doing endgame studies (or god forbid, solving endgame studies blindfolded).

I used to believe that these methods of studying were simply unnecessary, and were too distant from the experience of a practical chess game.

However, I now believe that I better understand the benefits of such methods.

Namely, they go so above and beyond what is normally required in a practical game, that it will comparatively make the actual games feel much easier.

Personally, I have been trying to internalize this philosophy in my own way, and I hope that you guys too can find your own meaning in this philosophy

Until next time, train for the difficult ;)

- Sam