8 Takeaways from 80+ Episodes of Chess Journeys

Insights that helped a chess hobbyist

dUsed with permission by Dr. Kevin Scull, Host of Chess Journeys

Though I’m a chess fan and not an improver who plays in tournaments or cares about ratings, I’m always eager to catch the newest Chess Journeys episode. Over the past eight months, I’ve listened to the majority of the episodes several times and all of them at least once. Here are five things I noticed when I reviewed my notes.

1 . Most players don’t consider online games, especially anything below 30 minute time controls to be “real” chess.

I get it that tournament games are a completely different experience than playing online. To say that any other form is not “real” chess comes across as snobbish to many of us who will never have the opportunity to compete in tournaments, particularly for financial reasons. Online games are“real” chess for the players, even if they’re not reaching for higher ratings.

2. Expert and titled players disagree about improvement strategies and study tips, particularly engine use by lower-level players. When reviewing master games, some look at many in a shallow way to build intuition through volume. Others delve deeply into each game using a “guess the move” approach.

For newbies, the shallow approach is better than nothing. We have no idea what to think about the moves…