Today I have received
an e-mail from one of my pupils. He asked me “Why children usually have better
progress in chess than adults?”
Different people asked me about it many times already. A lot of adult chess
players tries
to understand
why they can’t obtain a good progress
in chess for years, while children
achieve such
goals very
quickly.
It is important to understand
it, because it will help you
to be on the right way and to
improve your chess skills quickly.
I’ve had pupils from 6 to 65 years old. So I can easily compare
them and make up some conclusions.
1. Children are in
a more comfortable situation. They don’t have to earn money for living, they have
less work and responsibility etc. Thus young players can concentrate themselves on chess and get
better results.
However, it is not the main cause. An adult can focus on a chess study
as well, and he/she can work even
harder.
2. Children are more flexible.
In one of the previous
e-mails I wrote you how it is important
to be ready
for changes. Nevertheless, I’d like to repeat
it again, because
it is an extremely important aspect.
Here are the typical mistakes relating to
this item:
- A player
doesn’t want to change his
opening,
which he/she played
for some time (months, years)
before.
- A player
is not ready to change his playing
style.
- He\she doesn’t make changes
in a training.
- And so on…
Such players keep their style of playing and training. Therefore they keep their current results as well. Certainly
they will have the same results for many years and will have a very little progress.
Unfortunately it happens with some adult players, while children
are usually
ready to try something new.
3.Children trust in what a coach says.
As you know I developed
several
chess video courses. I receive
a lot of feedback from
the people,
who have studied these courses. For example,a
few minutes ago I received this e-mail:
=============================
“Hi, I’m glad to tell you that after studying
only the 1.1 of “The Grandmaster’s Secrets” and applying
the principles
on every move
I won first time against the personality John on Chessmaster! Best
Regards. Giulio Cremonese”
=============================
 |
| The GM Secrets |
Usually the students report about their
success. They got the results, which previously
seemed
impossible for them. Sometimes their results are so good, that it was unexpected
even for me! 
For instance
one customer wrote
me:
For instance
one customer wrote
me:
=============================
“After studying of the course “The Grandmaster’s Secrets”
till now I have not lost any game!
In the last
tournament I scored 9,5 from 12 and
got the 1st place.”
=============================
It is important to note that
he wrote me this
e-mail after 3 and a half months after the purchase of the course!! Also I know that
he played
in a few tournaments
and raised his rating very much.
Unfortunately there is a small group
of the customers, whose
progress are not that
great. Of course
I
ask these people
“how did they study the course” and “did they perform
the exercises
from the
practical part”.
The answers of such persons are very similar.
They answer
me something like this: “I have studied this
… and this … lessons. The lesson … seems not so important for me now, so I skipped
it. Yes, I made the
exercises from the practical part. I did it not as you said, but … because
I thought that it would
be
better.”
As you can see such persons make only a little part
of a training normally. They
ignore and modify many important tasks. Of course
it is hard to expect good results with this attitude.
Children trust in what a teacher says. They simply follow the teacher’s recommendations. That’s why they achieve good progress! Adults sometimes
prefer to focus on their own ideas.
You have to understand one thing:
–> If you want to become
a Grandmaster – you should
follow the Grandmaster’s recommendations.
–> If you want to be an amateur player –
you should follow
the amateur’s recommendations.
Now I have a question
for you: “If you are an amateur player and follow your own recommendation –
whom will you become?”
That’s why I want to intensify
this idea: you
should
trust in what a teacher says, even if you don’t
understand it (or think that it is not important, not necessary, not urgent etc).
“Just do it!” And you will achieve your goal!
Let’s make up a conclusion. Children
are often get better
progress
than adults. It happens
because of 1
objective reason (which is not so
important)
and 2 psychological
reasons (which
depends on You!).
Thus an adult also can get a huge and quick chess progress! (and I can tell you numerous examples!)
He/she only needs to have
a right approach and some concentration
on a chess
training.
