Are you preparing for the New Year’s Eve celebrations? I definitely am!

As a control freak, I allocate a decent amount of time to planning what my goals and tasks will be for the foreseeable future. Here is a summary of how I keep track of everything:

·       I used to have a document where I wrote down my key long-term goals, answering the question, “Where are you going to be in five years?”. However, it didn’t work out particularly well for me. Maybe I lack focus, or perhaps my life is too diverse. Also, the pace of life tends to speed up, and there are all sorts of black swans flying around. For instance, imagine many of your plans getting shattered by COVID? Anyway, I try to foresee the future, but my focus is on what will happen over the next year. 

·       Yearly planning. Every year, I create a document covering the main areas of my life. Namely, “Health and beauty”, “Personal relationships”, “Career”, “Finances”, “Literature”, “Chess”, “Reading and movies”, “Household affairs”. Within each category, I write down the most important projects. If possible, I also mention the next step and the deadline for it. 

·       Monthly planning. For this, I have a nice-looking whiteboard. I use a marker to jot down 3-5 main goals for the current month. When working at my home office, I see this whiteboard all the time, and it reminds me of my priorities (“Come on, you are supposed to finish writing a fantasy book, so close that YouTube tab already!”)

·       Weekly planning. I prefer using an old-fashioned yearbook, writing down the key tasks for each day. I guess we have all heard stories about mega-productive guys like Elon Musk, who allegedly use every minute of their time efficiently. This doesn’t seem to work for me, though, because I tend to get burnt out and frustrated if I am under too much stress. Hence once I am done with my main objectives for the day, I either assign myself more tasks or relax whatever way I like. Why not do the planning on a laptop/smartphone? The truth is, I spend most of my time staring at screens anyway. Also, I love writing something with my hand. It gives a great, magical feel. 

·       Daily planning. Since some tasks are not associated with specific days and can be done more or less anytime you want, I write them out on a special sheet or post-it notes. My gamer background is handy because I am used to grinding dailies that can sometimes be quite tedious to complete. A way to make the process more entertaining is to put the post-it notes in a sack and draw two or three of them per day. This way, you will make sure that these pending tasks don’t get postponed over and over again as it often happens. 

This was a long introduction! Now let’s get to chess. As you can see, it plays a prominent role in my life and hence deserves a separate category on the yearly plan. It could be the same for you, or you could place it in the “Hobbies” tab. However, what is more important is WHAT you write inside the tab. 

When making chess New Year resolutions, try to follow the right training practices instead of goals. Here is a typical example of a widespread and dubious resolution:

“I want to be rated 1500/2000/2300/2500/2700/etc. by the end of the year.”

Why is it no good? After all, it probably (although not always!) meets the SMART criteria: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-related. However, the problem is that such a goal doesn’t specify how to work towards it and makes the person worry about not reaching the result on time. If you limit yourself to such a resolution, there are plenty of reasons why you could get disappointed since you have limited control over the outcome. What if you hit a plateau this very year? As you may remember, chess strength does not grow linearly but comes in leaps. What if you happen to play only underrated kids, not allowing you to progress at the rate you were expecting? What if you exceed the goal, reaching it too early? Will you get complacent after that and stop trying? I could go on and on. 

Another widespread and, in my opinion, quite unfortunate goal to set is to plan how you are going to perform in certain events. This approach is particularly popular with some parents. To get a sense of achievement and fulfillment, they urge their kids to earn medals at tournaments. Sometimes, there is also financial motivation, such as winning a prize or getting a scholarship. Still, I believe you should be thinking long-term instead of trying to reap the benefits here and now, putting extra pressure on yourself. 

For example, when working with Grandmaster Natalia Pogonina, we have never set concrete goals for any tournament. The idea is to prepare well, bring your best form, and then see what place it will be good enough for. As a result, she has a large cupboard full of all sorts of trophies: runner-up of the Women’s World Chess Championship, three Olympic gold medals, two golds at the Russian Women’s Superfinal, etc. But I would like to re-emphasize that we have never pondered in advance what place she was supposed to take in each of these events. 

Instead of setting rating/performance goals, please focus on your tournament schedule and training process. The latter things you can control quite well. If you play and train hard and smart, the results will inevitably follow sooner or later.  

In case my message sounds too vague, let’s look at some items that could be put down on the list:

·       Find a chess coach and/or training partner that you are comfortable working with

·       Lose weight (down to X kgs) to endure the tournament pressure better

·       Fix your sleep schedule (with specific points what should be done to improve it) – it is instrumental for performing well in chess

·       Play X classical tournaments next year, Y rapid events, Z blitz

·       Make a list of tools you need to purchase to train efficiently - apps, books, databases, engines, digital chess clock, etc.

·       Come up with a training plan. Ideally, you should have some chess training every day, even if you can afford to allocate only half an hour. 

The journey itself is much more important than the milestones along the way. 

P.S. There is a proverb: “There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.” I do not claim that I am preaching the ultimate truth here. Instead, I am sharing an approach that has worked well for many of my chess friends and me. Feel free to try it out, and if you discover that you perform better under pressure and need specific competitive goals to enjoy the game, disregard everything you have just read!

If you are wondering how to make the most of your chess training, we got you covered! Check out the apps created by World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and his star-studded chess team and get ready for the year 2022! Make sure to use the promo code HAPPY2022 for an exclusive 50% discount on the Play Magnus Plus membership. 

What are you planning to achieve in chess in 2022? 

What are Your New Year’s Chess Resolutions?

You have probably heard about the popular 10,000 hours rule that Malcolm Gladwell popularized. It states that it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials, such as playing the violin or becoming a proficient IT developer. As a result, many chess fans tend to oversimplify things, leaving all the other factors out of the equation. That is, they believe that their mastery in chess, typically measured in online or over-the-board ratings, should linearly increase over time as long as they put in enough effort. If, after doing some studies, they don’t see immediate gratification, such as a rating boost, they start lamenting.

While this situation is quite typical of chess players, the answer to why this might happen is highly individual. Let’s consider the most typical cases.

First of all, there is the explanation that negative-minded and unsuccessful coaches like to offer. While bad doctors tell their elderly patients not to expect much from the treatment since the latter are “too old to be fully healthy”, some chess coaches follow the same pattern and tell their students that the latter have probably hit their ceiling. Most of the time, this is false, and in those cases when it is true, like a top player losing his strength due to an illness or aging, it is usually self-obvious and requires no expert analysis.

The second case is more complicated. Sometimes in both physical training and chess, one gets stuck on a plateau for a certain period. Progress in chess is not linear. It usually takes at least a year of dedicated studies to notice an increase in tournament performances. Don’t expect to gain points at a steady rate. As you build up your new chess habits, it is quite normal to fluctuate at more or less the same level for some time or even sink a bit only to soar up later.

Thirdly, sometimes one’s study plan is not efficient enough. If, after one or two years of hard work, there is no progress at all, the chances are that you are doing it wrong. For example, maybe you are studying too much and hardly playing chess. Or, the reverse scenario, all you do is play blitz without even analyzing your games and thus learn close to nothing. Or maybe you spend all your time cramming up openings even though it is by far not the best way to master chess, particularly for untitled players. The list could go on and on. In this situation, it is advisable to reconsider your training routine and to consult an experienced coach for the sake of getting some advice.

Fourthly, make sure you are not deluding yourself when you say that you “study chess hard.” How hard is hard? Even if you believe in the controversial 10,000 hours rule, it is better to keep a training diary and track how much time you allocate to studies. Otherwise, people often end up training inconsistently and overestimating the number of hours they put in. More on that later.

Fifthly, I will never cease to repeat that chess requires comprehensive training. A common mistake is to study too hard or to neglect physical/psychological training for the sake of working on the game exclusively all day long. If you gain proficiency in one component but degrade in the others, your overall result is not likely to improve. For instance, if you become better at chess, but your physical shape becomes so bad that you can’t focus well enough during the game, your results may suffer. Or, no matter how fit and good at the game you are, it is hard to play well when your mind is obsessed with some external issues: problems at work, a divorce settlement, a close relative’s death, etc. What is the solution? Balance, balance, balance. Think of yourself as a character in a computer RPG and realize that you are as strong as your weakest link.

Do these points sound a bit vague? Let’s wrap up the post with two concrete examples:

Adam, 42, works a regular job in the office and has a wife and two kids. Being serious about chess improvement, he decided to sacrifice some Netflix time every evening for the sake of practicing chess for an hour. Three days of the week are reserved for practice, such as the Play Magnus or playing chess online, while four days are dedicated to studying all the most important aspects of chess in Magnus Trainer. Based on analyzing his games, Adam knows what areas he should prioritize most in order to become a more well-rounded player. He realizes that things take time and is focused more on the process of creating an efficient and entertaining training routine than on immediate results, such as increasing his Chess24.com rating. Overall, Adam spends about 7 hours per week on chess training and modestly calls himself an “ambitious amateur.” Last but not least, he maintains an adequate life-work balance, sleeps well, follows a healthy diet, and allocates some time to hitting the gym three times a week and doing daily yoga exercises, thus remaining in good physical shape.

The other guy’s name is Steve. He is 21 and goes to university. However, deep in his heart, he believes that he is a future professional chess player. He does have an ardent passion for the game but has no clue what to channel his energy towards. Let’s see what his “chess training” looks like. Steve enjoys hanging out with his chess pals and drinking booze, taking inspiration from the “Queen’s Gambit” series. He cherishes the good company and hopes to become a better player by rubbing something off his peers. Also, the young lad loves reading biographies of top Grandmasters and imagining how cool it would be to become the next Fischer, Kasparov, or Carlsen. Steve has no training schedule and prefers to dedicate all his free time to what he loves doing most of all. In his case, it is playing blitz online and watching chess videos while simultaneously reading something on his smartphone. Sometimes he can pull off 10 hours of blitz per day only to give up on chess for the next week due to burnout. Still, unlike Adam, who puts in 7 hours per week, Steve invests at least 10 hours. And if you ask him about the number, he will mentally add up all the aforementioned activities and some more and come up with an absurd statement, claiming that, apart from his university classes, he is basically a full-time chess pro. His sleep schedule is as inconsistent as his chess training, and his diet mainly consists of junk food that he can easily order online. How about working out? Steve shrugs and says that this is for simpletons!

I won’t be asking you who is more likely to improve his chess level: Adam or Steve. These characters are a bit caricature-like, especially Steve, but the points still stand and will hopefully give you much-needed food for thought when it comes to your training routine.

Want to get access to all of our chess learning apps? Right now you can save 30% on our Play Magnus Plus membership. Good luck on your training!

Do you feel like you are not improving as fast as you expect? Let’s discuss what could be the reasons for that!

I Study Chess Very Hard. Where is My Progress?

"I've always done things a little differently. That is what inspired me. Chess has always been fun, but this takes learning and training chess to a new level. Knight Runner is chess training for everyone!"
— Magnus Carlsen

Please welcome our new addition to the proud family of Play Magnus chess apps – Knight Runner!

Knight Runner is a free-to-play and ad-free platform game based on chess mechanics. You take the role of a chess knight and merrily jump in L-shape across exotic locations presented as game levels. For example, in India, the story's starting point, you get to witness such iconic venues as the Taj Mahal, Harmandir Sahib, Mahabodhi, and many more. Your goal is to visit all the featured locations via special time portals and rescue all the fellow pieces held captive by villains. Get hyped to travel through India, the USA, Iceland, Norway…and even the Future! The starting number of levels is 50. Naturally, you can expect new worlds and levels to be added in the upcoming updates.

While on your quest, don't forget to admire the scenery around you and collect treasures. Stay alert, though, and make sure not to fall prey to the hostile black pieces that will be doing their best to hinder your progress by capturing you and forcing you to restart the level! Also, make sure to learn how to use exclusive tools to your advantage, such as:
• KNIGHT VISION – See all dangers with this unique ability.
• BOMBS – Explode all surrounding pieces.
• TELEPORTS – Jump between squares instantly.
• PAUSE SQUARES – Stop time and calculate your path.

The gameplay looks deceptively simple at first sight. Nevertheless, mastering Knight Runner requires tactical planning, namely, calculating what path to pursue, and a swift reaction. For newcomers to chess, this game offers a great way to familiarize oneself with the basic rules of chess. And if you are an advanced player, the thrill will probably be in keeping up the pace and navigating the landscape well enough, even if you have to restart the level sometimes to do better.

As you will see in our upcoming promotional video, the reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen has had quite rough moments while attempting to beat the game. Hence please don't underestimate the complexity of the journey and prepare for a wild and exciting ride! Once you finally complete the run successfully, you can always restart and aim for a better game score.

Good luck beating Knight Runner, and may other players' jaws drop when they get to see what high scores you were able to achieve!

"Knight Runner is chess training for everyone!" - Magnus Carlsen.

Photo by Even Emberland, Norway Chess, 2014

Do you know how to study openings efficiently? From my experience, most club players face many difficulties along the way and end up shooting themselves in the foot.

John heard from a friend that the Najdorf Sicilian is a fascinating weapon for Black, leading to sharp positions. As someone who takes chess seriously, he bought a 500-page book on this opening and promised himself that he would study it from cover to cover. He also praised himself on the purchase: so much value for its price!

At first, he was very enthusiastic, but when he realized that processing 500 pages of sophisticated analysis primarily generated by chess engines is killing all his joy and love for chess, he gave up on the book on page 50. Well, at least he still has the book in his library, and it gives him a warm, fuzzy feeling when he looks at it and dreams that one day he will somehow know all of its contents! This anecdote is similar to the story about people buying gym passes and giving up on their workout routine after just a few sessions.

Let’s give John a helping hand and develop tips on how he could do better next time.

First of all, John probably took on a book that is beyond his current playing strength. Chances are, his main weakness is not that he doesn’t remember 20+ moves of cutting-edge theory in the lines he plays, but something more prosaic, such as not knowing what to aim for in the opening, overlooking tactical shots, or not being familiar with basic endgame positions. The opening encyclopedia could come in handy later, especially if John is not well-versed in working with chess databases. Still, it is counterproductive to delve into it at the early stages of learning a new opening at the club level.

Secondly, to familiarize yourself with an opening, you typically start by looking at a few model games illustrating the key ideas of the opening, followed up by choosing your role model for this particular opening.

Let’s talk in more detail about what makes a good chess role model:
• He should be a proficient player who plays the opening a lot and knows the ins and outs, including standard plans, tricky move orders, and even has his trademark ideas and novelties in it.
• Pay attention to the performance. Does the potential role model score well in this opening? If he plays it a lot only to suffer there, it is probably not a good idea to follow in his footsteps! Also, if he keeps landing in terrible positions out of the opening and then gets away with it due to middlegame and endgame prowess, he is a questionable candidate for the role model spot.
• If we are talking about the initial stages of mastering an opening, there is nothing wrong about learning from the legends of the past. For example, Anatoly Karpov’s style was largely influenced by reading a book with Jose Raul Capablanca’s best games in his childhood. Similarly, Vladimir Kramnik diligently studied Karpov’s games as a kid. One of Magnus Carlsen’s favorite books was a collection of Vladimir Kramnik’s selected games. It is no coincidence that all of them are known as exceptional masters of positional play.

That being said, if you include a certain opening into your repertoire, you will have to keep updating your files and enhancing them. For this reason, it is much better to choose a contemporary player who is still working on his openings.

You may point out that the tips mentioned above look good on paper, but how does one know, for instance, who is a good role model for someone who wants to master the London System? Or any other opening, for that matter? There are many ways, including the following:
• You may check out your chess database, perform an opening search there, review the stats and choose a top player who meets the criteria mentioned above.
• If you don’t enjoy working with chess databases or have no such experience yet, you may ask your chess coach. However, if you have a great coach already, he will probably teach you all this before you stumble upon this blog post.
• You can search online who the experts in a particular line are, but product reviews can be biased, purchased, or written by people who are not qualified to judge.

An efficient solution to this issue is picking the reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen as your role model.
He:
• Is exceptionally strong and has been rated #1 in the world for over ten years.
• Works a lot on theory and has a team of Grandmaster seconds who analyze chess openings on powerful servers.
• Is a contemporary player, so you can expect him to keep polishing his openings, thus saving you time and energy, as you can use his findings as food for thought.
• Is very versatile even as compared to the other top pros. If you look at Carlsen’s games, you will realize that he plays pretty much everything as White and has faced pretty much everything as Black.

And here comes the concluding part where we get to shamelessly praise our beloved chess apps! 😊

We do practice what we preach though and believe that standing on the shoulder of giants is a great idea.

If you are thrilled about learning from the World Chess Champion and adopting his opening repertoire that has been specifically tailored towards club players’ needs, you may want to check out Magnus Trainer. In the app, you will find explanations of the key ideas, plans, setups, traps, refutations of common mistakes, and, importantly, numerous interactive training exercises! If you want to become a strong player, it is essential to learn by doing instead of merely digesting what others have written.

Finally, everything looks easy before you try it yourself. Once you complete the theory lessons and the practical exercises, you should start playing training games in the opening, putting your newly acquired knowledge to good use. By analyzing your games, you will enhance your understanding of the lines and have a chance to update your opening files accordingly. You can challenge your friends, compete in tournaments, take on Magnus Carlsen and other top Grandmasters in the Play Magnus app, or check out one of the chess servers, such as Chess24.com! The choice you end up making is just a matter of personal taste.

There are so many fantastic openings waiting for you to meet them! Now go ahead and give them a hug! 🤗

You can sharpen your chess puzzle-solving skills by downloading our Tactics Frenzy app.

On his way to the top, Magnus Carlsen’s style was strongly influenced by studying Vladimir Kramnik’s games. 

Chess Openings: Who are Your Role Models?

Starting February 14th, you will be able to challenge Henrik Carlsen in the Play Magnus app. His spot on the Hall of Fame is as deserved as can be since without Henrik Magnus would have neither existed as a chess player, nor even as a person!

Henrik is an enigmatic character who doesn't give too many interviews. Also, when he does talk to the media, the reporters usually keep approaching him with the same questions about his son Magnus Carlsen over and over again.

To help you prepare for your upcoming matches with Henrik and to shed some light on his personality, we decided to ask him a few tricky questions related to chess:

How would you describe your chess style? Did you have any chess role models growing up? What are your key strengths and weaknesses as a player?

Although I don’t play chess in coffee houses very often, I think I am a typical coffee house player! Always looking for tactics and swindles. Magnus has sometimes been slightly impressed by my tactics, as well as amazed at what he calls a complete lack of positional understanding and concern for king safety.

Did you ever consider playing chess professionally, or was it always more of a hobby/part of cultural education for you?

When I started playing in the local Asker Chess club at 15, I was trounced by some younger players (Agdestein brothers and B. Oestenstad) and professional chess was never in my thoughts. It was a hobby I was quite passionate about until work and family took priority.

Do you have a favorite chess game? Also, please share with us one of your own best games, which is characteristic of your playing style.

I usually watch Magnus playing in tournaments and sometimes his choices make even the analysis.sesse computer confused. I find those moments very fascinating. I cannot claim any memorable games myself, although I did in fact win the beauty prize in a Norwegian 5-round classic chess weekend tournament back in 2001. At the time Magnus was already much better than me, but I had a great event and ended far ahead of him (for the last time 🙂).

Previously the Play Magnus app used to revolve around challenging Magnus at different ages. According to one of the databases, you defeated 9-year old Magnus in Arnold Grand Prix in 2000, while he came back for vengeance at 16, beating you in the Arctic Chess Challenge in 2007. Do you have any “secret” memorable games against your son that we can present to our readers?

When we traveled Europe by car in the autumn of 2003 we played quite a lot of Blitz during our stay in Crete. Magnus had 1 or 1.5 minutes against my 9 or 8.5. Still he managed to win nearly all our games. I was quite proud in the Arctic Chess Challenge in 2007 though, just for meeting the top-rated player (Magnus) as late as round 6!

You compete in classical, rapid and blitz FIDE-rated tournaments from time to time. Do you also play online and, if “yes”, what site do you prefer?

In fact I mainly play online. I joined chess24 already back in 2013 or 2014 and have played too many games (as bukkerogtakker) ever since 🙂

Editor's note: "bukker og takker" literally means "bows and thanks" in Norwegian, i.e., it is a self-ironic way of saying "thank you for the applause" after a game.

Do you talk chess as a game with Magnus nowadays? Are there situations when you ask him for advice? Or, vice versa, maybe he loses a tough match and you, as a father and a passionate chess player, can’t abstain from recommending him something?

One of the things I learned early was fortunately to stop giving Magnus bad advice, and I tried to shield him from most of the advice from others as well. While we talk about his games sometimes, typically sometimes when I have had access to a computer, I don’t offer advice. When I played tournaments more frequently in the past I sometimes benefited from Magnus’ advice as well as from my opponents fear of Magnus preparation!

Is there anything else you would like to share with the users of the Play Magnus app? Any special tips on chess or life in general?

For many of us, chess improvement is mainly about not dropping pieces and pawns left and right. One winter several years ago I did some 15,000 tactics (at chess24) and that reversed my otherwise negative trend and rating loss for subsequent years.

Download Play Magnus and challenge Henrik:
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Starting February 14th, you will be able to challenge Henrik Carlsen in the Play Magnus app. His spot on the Hall of Fame is as deserved »

Somewhat surprisingly, of all the combinations of minor pieces two knights do the best job of fighting off the queen. Let's see how these fierce battles usually proceed!

📱💻
Get “Queen vs. Two Knights” and 473 other lessons in Magnus Trainer now!

🗓️!
Twice a week, the Play Magnus team works to bring you a fresh, new lesson designed to help improve your chess skills. Lessons help you learn everything, from strategy and tactics to openings and endgames.

Keep an eye out for these new lessons, coming to Magnus Trainer every Monday and Thursday

Somewhat surprisingly, of all the combinations of minor pieces two knights do the best job of fighting off the queen. Let's see how these fierce battles usually proceed! 

♟️🧰 New Lesson // Queen vs. Two Knights

A game from which we learn that the Pseudo-Trompowsky can lead to problems for White.

📱💻
Get “Queen Pawn Openings - The Pseudo-Trompowsky - Guess the Move” and 472 other lessons in Magnus Trainer now!

🗓️🔁!
During Opening Week, the Play Magnus team works to bring you fresh, new lessons designed to help improve your chess skills - every day for a week!
These lessons will help you understand the main ideas of the opening, and test your aquired skills

A game from which we learn that the Pseudo-Trompowsky can lead to problems for White. 

💎 Openings Week // Queen Pawn Openings - The Pseudo-Trompowsky - Guess the Move

This is a clumsy name for an opening variation, but it is one that has stuck. Let's take a look at this poorer cousin of the Trompowsky itself.

📱💻
Get “Queen Pawn Openings - The Pseudo-Trompowsky” and 471 other lessons in Magnus Trainer now!

This is a clumsy name for an opening variation, but it is one that has stuck. Let's take a look at this poorer cousin of the Trompowsky itself. 

💎 Openings Week // Queen Pawn Openings - The Pseudo-Trompowsky

Today we will try to guess Magnus' moves in his crushing attack in the Trompowsky.

📱💻
Get “Queen Pawn Openings - Magnus Plays the Trompowsky - Guess the Move” and 469 other lessons in Magnus Trainer now!