Chess and Speed Reading
Do you like reading? I bet you do. You are on Medium, huh.
Have you ever heard about speed reading?
If not — it is a set of techniques to read text as fast as possible. More information on Wikipedia.
First time I heard about speed reading in school. It was a teacher’s story about famous people. It sounded like a myth and I didn’t take it seriously.
As you know from my previous posts, I found that the quality of games is more profitable than the quantity of games. When you have free time — you should find how to spend this time. We are very hustling creatures. And I got a new hobby — reading. But not just reading. Speed reading.
If you are interested in speed reading, you can find a lot on Google. I recommend using apps for exercising and reading paper books.
Why Speed Reading?
I read two times faster now. Two times more information! You should give it a try!!!
And it’s not only about reading. It improves cognitive ability in general. I heard that it could prevent brain ageing.
How Speed Reading Affects Chess Playing?
Schulte table
There is an exercise in speed reading — Schulte table. It is a table with random numbers. You must look at the center of this table, don’t move your eyes, and find all numbers in order from minimum to maximum. This exercise improves your ability to use peripheral vision.
I think it also improves your vision of the situation at the chess board.
Concentration
The main idea of speed reading — it’s a concentration. Our brain works better with one task at a time. A lot of scientific research proved this fact. When you read, you train your concentration. It’s like exercising in the gym to improve in other sports.
If you want to improve in chess, you should stay concentrated as high as possible.
I Got 1800 on Chess.com
How did I do that?
Less quantity, more quality
You will enjoy playing chess when you play not so often. It automatically improves your concentration. It’s like watching an interesting action movie versus a boring documentary film.
Do less mistakes
Or better said — do only perceived moves. You must be confident. How can you do that? Don’t make risky moves, count possible events. If you worry about the result of your move, don’t do that.
Exercising
What do I mean? You should improve your cognitive ability in general.
It’s like training your muscles when you want to be a soccer player. You can accurately kick a ball but it’s not so useful when your opponents are faster than you. They will not let you touch a ball!
Chess is not only about debuts and endgames. Most of my games were lost or won in the middle of the game. New positions, new moves. You must count all possible moves. Clocks tick-tock. Can you do that better than your opponent? Do you have enough time?
What’s next?
I’m going to visit neighboring countries. Probably, I would play less and write even less this time. But no matter what, my next goal is 1900 points.
Play chess. Enjoy your game. Let’s become better together!
