Alan’s Ramblings

National Master Alan Casden, founder of CCL (formerly Columbus Chess Lessons, now Chess Community Learning), continues to inspire our community as emeritus CEO. Alan generously shares his experience and wisdom as a senior mentor, guiding both our young coaches and students on and off the chessboard.

An Interview with me by Kathy Lin from CCA

There is a description of how we got from the old CCL to CCL V.2, as well as my philosophy on chess playing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIYSHSKP2eY

 

My reaction to Ladecky’s graduation speech.

My main takeaway from Ledecky’s speech was to focus on the process, not the goals. The goals that we achieve are just snapshots in time; it is the processes that we follow that get us there. It is a paradox, but the more we focus on the process and the less we focus on our goals, the more likely we are to reach our goals. When we reach our defined goal, we can often feel empty in a short time, as it turns out that our true love is the process, not the goal itself.

Why do you want your children to play chess, to become a professional chess player? If that is the case, I might be the first person at the door trying to stop your child from getting through. A professional chess player has a hard life with limited rewards. If you can become a professional chess player, you can be almost anything you want.

It is in the chess world that we develop the skills that we need to be successful in other endeavors. These include learning the relationship between hard work and success, improving self-discipline, developing the ability to learn from both success and failure, and enhancing memory, critical thinking, focus, concentration, emotional control, long-term planning, self-concept, and other key skills. In other words, the chess world is a microcosm of the broader world, where we can develop the skills to face adulthood within a safe and controlled environment.

While athletics can improve you physically, chess builds your intellect. It’s one of the few games that makes you smarter, tougher, and more self-aware – if you take it seriously.

We should focus on the process rather than the goals, as the goals are merely a natural outcome of the process.

 

My thoughts on a suggested progression path in CCL chess instruction that starts with me as the coach.

 

I have given much thought to the optimized progression path. There will always be variance, but this is how it currently appears to me:

1) My students work primarily with me until they get about 1300 strength.

2) Then they start splitting time between me and a higher-end coach.

3) Once the student finds consistent value in the higher-end coach, we move to a mentorship (if a good relationship exists between the coach and student).

 

I need to define what I will do as a chess mentor, a new CCL service. A chess mentor is a well-known role in some top programs. I will meet with the student around 1-4 times per year, and the focus will, at least partially, be on aspects of chess that do not involve the movement of pieces. My history in behavioral science will be helpful.

 

Above is a directional statement, and nothing is set in stone.

 

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This stream is a copy of 3 posts I posted in the CCL WhatsApp Group, which all relate to how to approach a chess game.

Here are some thoughts on focus: Recently, I noticed that many kids are trying too hard in tournament games. Do not overlook that competitive chess significantly strains your body, even in young, active kids. So, the idea that you should consistently perform at your hardest throughout a tournament game seems ludicrous. These systems (e.g., attention span) break down at different times and replenish through rest. We do not have much time to rest in a game, but allowing some time is helpful. Focusing on something else is good when it is our opponent’s turn to move. I often close my eyes and meditate, which is probably old man stuff. Focus is an asset in chess and can be improved.

Why does trying to win lower our chances of winning?

In chess, as in life, there are things we can and cannot control. Winning is not something that we can control; many factors, such as our health, the play of our opponent, luck, etc., are out of our control. We have control of many things that increase our likelihood of winning, and by focusing on those, our likelihood of winning increases. Examples of these include our study and practice habits, our nutrition, our sleep, and our appropriate focus at the board (to be discussed in a later talk). Trying to do something out of our control produces a great deal of stress. When looking at the relationship between stress and performance, you will find a standard bell curve where increasing the stress level improves our performance until increasing stress lowers our performance. The nature of chess tournaments has most of us already at the peak of this curve, and additional stress only lowers our performance. Professional chess players usually work at a high energy level while lowering their stress level, which, on the surface, seems like conflicting goals. Winning happens when we let go of the need to win and instead focus on playing the game well.

Although with the best intentions, I have often seen well-meaning parents press their children to win, a technique that is only likely to produce more failure. I have never met a child who didn’t want to win, although I have met many children who do not want to do what is under their control to increase their chances of winning. The best is to shift from “I must win” to “I will perform at my best and let winning be a byproduct.”

This document is the third and last installment on approaching a chess game. I posted these notes in Alan’s Ramblings in the Community section of our website in case anyone wishes to refer to them later.

In sports, including chess, there is an ideal state of mind where we are fully absorbed in the game, and everything else seems to fade away. Time becomes obscure in this state of mind, and intuitive ideas come to us more easily. This mental state is often called a flow state or being ‘in the zone.’

Professional chess players use many techniques to maximize this flow state. Examining all of these techniques is beyond the scope of this small document. Instead, I will give my personal view on this subject.

When we reach this state, we become lost in our position, and the only thing in our thoughts is the position in front of us. All chess players have had this experience, but the challenge is maximizing its frequency. Our brain can only have one thought at a time; multitasking our thoughts is an illusion created by quickly changing from one thought to another. When we think about anything other than the position in front of us, we are moving out of the zone; common problem thoughts are those related to their ratings, results, and the opinions of others. We can challenge the rationality of these thoughts. Still, perhaps the easiest is to recognize that they interfere with our performance and calmly try to return to focusing on the position in front of us. I have often seen a player lose a game by a blunder. Instead of accepting their fallibility, they replay issues related to that failure during their next game, drawing their attention away from the position and often blundering again.

With this note, I will fade into the background, my preferred state of being.

 

 

No group will be complete without some elderly man rambling about his observations.

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