The Chess Experience
The Chess Experience
Adult Improver Pod: Nicholas Sloan - A 400+ Rating Rise in 2 Years (& Chasing the NM Title)
114 Leaping 400 rating points in classical, rated chess as an adult in just two years? That requires a huge effort and rare dedication. Two qualities that describe well this week’s guest, fellow adult club player, Nicholas Sloan. Specifically, in a relatively brief period, Nick went from 1400 USCF to 1849 USCF.
And it’s all part of his plan to earn the National Master title - something that he wants to prove is possible for us adults.
But exciting progress doesn’t come easy. Nick advocates consistency, discipline, and a willingness to face your chess weakness.
In this episode, we discuss:
- The top 3 reasons Nick was able to make such massive and fast progress in his USCF rating.
- Why he doesn’t believe “one size fits all” training programs are that effective.
- Why he has preferred self-guided learning to studying under a coach.
More From Nick:
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Hey, welcome to the chess experience On this show. It's all about helping adult improvers. I want to make learning chess easier for you to navigate, and I also want you to have a more fun experience along the way. I'm your host, daniel Lona, a fellow chess amateur. Let's get to it.
Daniel:This show is sponsored by chesscom, the world's largest chess community. One of chesscom's most popular features is called Game Review. This feature weaves together a lot of benefits. In one post-game analysis, for example, you can see how accurately you played, whether you made any moves that were deemed brilliant or great, which makes me feel a lot better about my chess when I get one of those. And Game Review also offers a virtual coach that gives insights on every move. It'll also show you alternate lines that would have been better for you to help you understand how you can improve your game. So go on chesscom, play a game and try out the Game Review. Welcome to this week's episode. I hope your chess journey is going fantastic.
Daniel:Before I introduce this week's guest, I have a small request for you. If you've listened to a few of my podcast episodes or more, and have enjoyed them, I'd be so grateful if you could rate or review the show on your Apple or Spotify app. Either one would help the show immensely. If you listen to the show on Apple, just open the show on your podcast app, scroll towards the bottom past the episode list and you'll see a chance to rate and review it there. If you listen on Spotify, open the show on the Spotify app and click the three dots near the top right and select rate the show. I can't tell you how much getting a positive rating helps this show and it's great for me to get some positive feedback, knowing that you're enjoying these episodes. So if you are digging this show and have heard a few episodes at least, I couldn't be more grateful if you left a rating or a review, and if you leave a review on Apple, I might even read it on one of the upcoming episodes.
Daniel:Okay, today's guest is an adult club player who seeks the national master title, nicholas Sloan. Few amateur adults are as committed and hardworking on their chess as Nick, which you'll hear throughout the interview. After deciding to recommit to his improvement a few years ago, nick achieved a 400 plus point rise in his USCF rating. He went from 1400 to 1849 in just a span of two years, and anyone who's competed in rated classical games knows just how hard that is to do.
Daniel:In this interview, we talk about Nick's chess journey, including what he believes are the top reasons for his rapid progress, how he balances his chess goals with work and family, and some of his favorite resources for improvement. In addition, nick is a chess content creator. His two main outlets are his YouTube channel and his newsletter slash blog through Substack. We talk about why he chose to create content on the subject of improvement in our chat and there are links in the show notes to Nick's channels and social media. If you want to connect with him or consume his awesome videos and newsletter, here's my interview with Nick. I hope you enjoy it. Hey, nick, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?
Nicholas:I am doing great. Thanks for having me on your podcast. I feel honored and privileged.
Daniel:Yeah, I'm excited. Is this chess podcast number two?
Nicholas:appearance for you. This would be number two. Yes, this chess podcast.
Daniel:Number two appearance for you, this would be number two. Yes, Fantastic, yeah, that's great. So before I dive into all the questions I have planned to ask you, I just thought I'd start by asking you what you're working on this week in your chess Like. Is there a book, a course, something along those lines that you're just you don't even have?
Nicholas:to like it, just something you're working on right now. Yeah, there are times when there is just that we're working on, that we don't like. That is right, isn't it? I am personally working through my study program, which consists of the De La Maza method, rapid chest improvement, which is otherwise known as the seven circles or the woodpecker to many, but he was the first to kind of coin that and I'm going through tactics time one and two together on chessable. Now I'm not following their particular spaced repetition, I'm doing my own space repetition and I just started Circle 4 today and I started back in November. So it's a total puzzle count of 2,002. And this morning I've already done my stuff for the day and that was 240 puzzles that I did today.
Daniel:Wow.
Nicholas:So, which is the start of Circle 4 for me, and then I also am doing a bunch of Puzzle Storm on lead chess, and then the book that I'm working through this year, which I think is going to take quite a long time, is Mastering Chess Strategy by Johan Halsten.
Daniel:Yeah, I'm familiar.
Nicholas:And that's like a massive tome, so I'm not giving myself any barriers as to how long it can take. But I have the book both in physical format and then I also have the Chessable course with his video analysis, so I can get the full immersion for it.
Daniel:Yeah, that book I've like from every coach and title player that I trust has just said nothing but good things about that book.
Nicholas:Yeah, I, I. I've heard the same and I've been told by a number of players in my local community that if I go through this front to back numerous times and understand the whole thing, that it's above master level play. So I figured I have a pretty good positional understanding of things. I've gone through other strategy books and this was the next big step.
Daniel:So yeah, that's fantastic. And those tactics time books are core slash courses that you're working on. I'm familiar with those as well. I've gotten the first one. It's really good, so yeah.
Nicholas:Yeah, they're fantastic. It's a great set of puzzles and don't get me wrong, some people would hear this and be like oh, you're this level and you're doing these easy tactics. I'll explain more, but I believe it's really a big fault of improvers that they're not doing enough easier tactics.
Daniel:Yeah Well an unplanned discussion, but let's go for it on that one. Totally with you on that. I've preached that a few times on this podcast over the years and I totally agree. I first encountered that concept that we should be doing easier tactics as well from national master dan heisman, and uh, yeah, I've he's one of my favorite.
Nicholas:Yeah, yeah, I know you recommend his uh, his book, the chess thinker. The improving chess thinker is one of the best that uh, every uh improver should be reading, I think totally agree.
Daniel:But yeah, the the easy tactics are critical. Um, I mean, we could probably talk about a number of reasons one I'm with and then you bounce off of that and tell me what you think is just that you need to be able to. It's not just about solving an easy tactic, which almost by definition you should be able to do because it's easy, but rather being able to do it at faster and faster speed. So that way it's just recognition rather than calculation. That's one critical advantage. I know about that, but curious to hear your thoughts.
Nicholas:I agree. That is, I think, the most important part of that. The ability to actually see it in a live game is where it comes into play. And not only see it in a live game, but see it quickly and be able to have your kind of spidey sense going off in the position to be like, oh there's tactics here, instead of just kind of mindlessly going through you know whatever rot, you know path you've already set for yourself, because you know, when you're in the throes of a chess game you know you have all these thoughts going through your head Do I want my pieces here? Do I want my pieces there? How is the game going? What's the flow? And to be in tune with you know the position and saying, oh, there's tactics here.
Nicholas:Or have something screaming at you, I think comes from doing easier tactics over and over, and not so that they're easy because you can just figure it out, but so much so so that it's automatic. It's not that you have to think about it, it's that you just know it. It's like language and speaking you just know the words, then you can talk. This is the same with chess fluency, and I think a majority of games are lost by these easier tactics in a pretty wide range from the lowest rating all the way pretty much up to 2000,. Almost to master, I would imagine.
Daniel:Yeah, absolutely. In fact, I have a little funny story that involves Dan Heisman with that and someone I'm sure you know as well from chess Twitter, omar Mills, also known as Chess Von Doom by his handle. There was a tactic that Omar had posted and he said it was really hard for him and it took him, I think he said, somewhere around eight or nine minutes to figure it out and ultimately he did. But being at the level he's at versus a national master, a difference arose. So Dan loves to solve puzzles on chess Twitter.
Daniel:So he responded with his answer of what it was and Omar said, like I'm afraid to ask, but how long did it take you to spot that? Took me like eight or nine minutes. And Dan Heisman said, I think about eight or nine seconds. I'd probably be at eight or nine minutes as well. We're all there at some point in our journey. But yeah, it just shows you like what. I think it's just a stark contrast on, like how do you compete with someone who can solve something in eight or nine seconds when it's taking you eight or nine minutes?
Nicholas:And I think that all just comes down to experience. You know, dan has been playing chess for longer than many of us have been alive, so he's got these patterns in his brain. They're just there to you know, and if he took eight to ten seconds to figure it out, that means there was probably a little bit of a challenge for him to figure out. It wasn't automatic and he wasn't able to recall it super quickly, right? Because if he was, if he was able to recall it quickly, like, let's say, an international master or a grandmaster would have seen it automatically. They just would have seen it, like, just looking at the board, they look for a second and they know it.
Daniel:Right, it wasn't one of those easy tactics we're talking about, then?
Nicholas:Yeah, it's a varying and it's not even just a varying degree of difficulty in the puzzle.
Daniel:It's just how many times they've seen that particular puzzle and how automatic it is to be able to recall the pattern improvers, because so often we're busy and tired from you know, our day-to-day responsibilities, probably most notably for everyone their career, their job and I just think it's like on those tough days where you don't have much in the tank, so to speak, that easy tactics are a nice way to get your chest in without having to do the deep calculation. You still, you know, are working on improvement, but you know you didn't have to have full brain power, so I think they kind of fit nicely in the adult lifestyle. Okay.
Nicholas:And title that's given on everybody, and I know it's thrown around quite a bit. The reason I don't like it is because I believe it gives you know I'm doing air quotes here chess improvers, not adult improvers. Um so, but the the thing is, is the days that you don't want to do it are the days that you must do it if you want to improve. That's what I believe, because the dead, the, the the quickest way to not improve is to to to show up that one day and be like I'm just going to skip today, and then what happens? Oh, then you get into another routine. You have to build a habit, right? So what habit are you going to build? Are you going to build the skipping a day habit, or are you going to build I'm going to work on chess habit?
Daniel:Yeah, I mean I take some different perspectives on that, but this is getting to know your takes on these things and what you've found to have worked.
Nicholas:Yeah, we each have a different perspective.
Daniel:Right, right, yeah, let's talk more about your chess journey, and we've kind of talked about what you're doing right now. Let's start with your chess origin story. So when did it begin? And you know some highlights on how your journey has unfolded since then.
Nicholas:This is interesting and I don't think it's too dissimilar than many people's journeys where, you know, I learned when I was young. I learned when I was about eight years old. My dad taught me the game of chess. He taught me how the pieces move, but other than that he taught me nothing. So I learned when I was eight and the only person I really had to play was him until I was a teenager. Because you know what happens when you start playing chess you learn and then you go try to play your friends and you smash them because you know how to play and they don't, and then they don't want to play you anymore because it's not fun to lose. So I did that for about eight years, trying to beat my dad and I didn't beat. I never beat him. I lost for eight years until I was 16. It wasn't until I was 16 until I beat him and it wasn't like I was playing him every day. It was here and there, so it was very sporadic. It wasn't like I was going to chess day. It was here and there, so it was very sporadic. It wasn't like I was going to chess tournaments or anything. It's like he just basically taught me the game, how to play it, and that was it. And we played here and there for a couple of years and it wasn't like a daily thing, it was just on and off. And then in high school I met some friends that played chess and we found that there was a club at my high school and we joined that club and then we ended up going to state for the state competition. Now, all this was scholastic. None of it was like USCF rated or anything like that, so I really have no idea what the ratings of players were. But this was my first introduction into tournament chess and team chess, which to me was absolutely fascinating.
Nicholas:And during that time, when I was maybe about 16 or so which this will be back in 96, which this will be back in 96, so that kind of dates me a little bit I was given a book, uh, from my parents as a gift for either a birthday or christmas or something, and it was, uh, the poll, the huge polgar book, the chess 5 335, chess problems, combinations of games. So that was my only resource that I had for chess and and I didn't even realize that there was a whole like library full of chess books I was just like, oh, chess, this is cool. And the first time I actually ever put study together was when I was going to go to state and go study and I used that book, I went through and did all the maintenance ones and I did all the maintenance twos before I had to go to state. That was the first introduction to any type of chess study whatsoever.
Nicholas:In high school I went to state twice and we didn't place very well because our team was really not that good and there's a lot of drama in terms of that. Chess players are was a lot of drama in terms of that. You know, chess players are kind of each one of a kind, but they all think that they're the best. So there was a lot of turmoil on who's first board, second board and third board and so on. So there was lots of drama with that.
Nicholas:But yeah, after high school, chess has kind of been in my life on and off. High school chess has kind of been in my life on and off. I joined our local chess club and went there for a little bit and it was on and off. And I think at the beginning you get a what's called a provisional rating. I picked up one of those after my first tournament, which I believe was like 1080. And then it took me like six or seven years to finish those 20, 25 provisional games to actually get a full rating. So, and it was just I was, I wasn't very serious about chess, it was just something to do, and this was all in my early to mid twenties. So you know, kids that are in their early to mid twenties are doing have a lot of other interests, uh, in uh at that time.
Nicholas:you know, uh, you become of age at 21. So you start to do other things, right, yeah?
Daniel:Just to uh follow up on your high school years. There you said that that Polgar book was the only one that you had initially. Makes me me wonder what the learning training experience was like being on the high school chess team.
Nicholas:Okay, yeah, so if I go back to then, we had no trainer. There wasn't like we had a high level chess person. This was just a bunch of kids who knew and liked how to play chess and we were all trying to figure it out on our own. There was no like instruction or higher level player guiding us in this journey whatsoever. It was just like a club at school, so it was completely chaotic. So the only thing that we really did during like chess club was just play each other, which was we played each other in quick games. We would bring speed chess, we'd bring clocks and then we'd also play a lot of Bug House. That was really all we did until we went to state and I think I was the only one that actually had any type of chess resource. That I can remember, at least back then, and my memory's thin then because that was 25 plus years ago or whatever, sure, but yeah, I mean that's sort then because that was 25 plus years ago or whatever.
Daniel:But sure, um, but yeah, I mean, that's sort of. What I was wondering is like did anyone else talk about other resources they were working on or you know?
Nicholas:no, that stuff kind of didn't come up, okay, uh, we all just played and played and played. Uh, whatever tricks or traps we learned, we would teach each other. So it was all like is very collaborative, which was kind of cool um, yeah, no, that's that's uh.
Daniel:That's really interesting to see how different uh dynamics can work. That sounds somewhat similar to to my experience and well, my very brief experience only in my freshman year on the high school team not very organized, not very regimented so it was a hot mess it's like I don't even know how we made it to state, to be honest with you so yeah, just now I guess I'm kind of bouncing around on the timeline here for your journey.
Daniel:You kind of took us up through your early 20s and then you returned to the game several years ago, more recently, and if I'm not mistaken, your USCF rating at that time was about 1400. Is that correct? Let me just start with that. Is that accurate?
Nicholas:Between my mid-20s and up until this point where I started playing again, I had come in and out of the chess club. I started dating my now wife and we have four kids together. So I taught my set of twins, who are now adults, how to play the game. And I came and I brought them into the chess club and taught them. So I was in and out and then my wife and I had two more kids and I taught them and then brought them to the club again. So I had bounced in and out and I was never, ever really serious about it until post pandemic, when I came back and my club opened back up in June of 2022. So since that time I've been extremely into chess and it's been quite serious for me.
Daniel:Would you say that teaching your kids chess and encouraging them to learn, you know like bring them to the club, and things like that was what got you back into the game yourself?
Nicholas:I had always been into it. So during that period, while I was raising my kids and coming in and out of the club, I did find chesscom and I had an account there and I would play daily games because that was really the only form that I had time for. I would set myself up for playing tournaments, but they were daily tournaments, so I would have three to seven days. Some of them were 14 days. I remember one tournament took me over 10 years to finish.
Nicholas:Wow, wow, yeah because it was a 14-day per move tournament. It was nuts and I made it to the last round because I was playing so well and, yeah, it took forever.
Daniel:So probably phrasing it as getting back into the game isn't like you said, maybe the best way to say it.
Nicholas:Yeah, it has always been there, right, so I'd always been interested in it. I had followed, you know, from that time, you know I got into, you know, following Kasparov, and back in when I was in high school you know he was challenging computers and Deep Blue. So I remember that like, like that was a significant part of my chess development because I was a huge Kasparov fan back then and you know I knew about Fisher and searching for Bobby Fisher was a, you know, an iconic chess movie and those types of things. So I'd always been into chess, at least from a surface level and a fan standpoint. But I was never super serious about improving. I was just like, oh, I'm going to play and this is going to be fun, maybe I'll learn some traps or whatever and I'll get better. But I never took it as seriously as I do now since I've returned.
Daniel:I see what made you want to become more dedicated to improvement. Maybe that's the way of saying it?
Nicholas:That's a good question. I guess I never really put much thought into it, other than you know, I taught my kids and I wanted to show my children that if you work hard at something, that you can get better, no matter what level you're at. And at that time I started finding out that there was an online community, there was videos, there were streams and all of that. And then the pandemic happened. Queen's Gambit came along, and that was great and that was pretty much the, the catalyst to kind of like at least bring me back into oh, chess is still here, um, and it kind of raised my, my awareness again. And then I started doing some research and looking online and I was like, oh, wow, this community is huge. Wow, this is really just blown up.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are familiar reactions to the experience that I had that as well, and I think a lot of others you know, seeing the chess boom unfold, felt about it. You have a pretty regimented approach to how you go about improving. How you go about improving, I'm curious where that came from in terms of the ideas on how to structure your training program and your goals and things like that. I mean you probably learned it from others. I'm just curious who were you learning from?
Nicholas:No one and everyone all at the same time, so I know, that's kind of a weird answer everyone all at the same time.
Nicholas:Okay, so I know that's kind of a weird answer no, no-transcript. So a lot of trial and error would be my answer for that. I had to figure out how I learned best with chess. Now I know how I learned best with other things, but I didn't really know how I learned best with chess when I was a teenager. I only had one resource, so I just read the book and learned the stuff in the book. Well, now we have information overload. Well, now we're just we have information overload. There's information at your fingertips for free, and I have a massive chess book collection. There's many online communities and I've had to do a lot of trial and error to figure out you know what works best.
Nicholas:And one, one thing that I, one book that I believe every improver that should read, which will give you a framework for how to structure your study or your plan, is the book pump up your rating by Axel Smith it. I think it is the template for how you need to try to figure out your own plan Interesting or, of course, find a coach that will give you a plan. So, and those are the two approaches Either you have to figure out your own plan for yourself or you have to get a coach to give you a plan. Both methods work. You have to find the method that works for you Right. And in that book he talks about for those that are uninitiated, he talks about the four pillars of chess improvement, which are tactics, openings, end games and game analysis. And you should probably be. If you want to improve in chess you have to work on those four things. That's kind of his mantra.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, that's awesome, and you answered a question I was going to ask you which was like what's one thing that you like from that book that's helpful?
Nicholas:The one thing that I think everybody needs from that book is he talks about. You need to find a way on where your problems are, and in the book he has this spreadsheet. Well, it's not. I call it a spreadsheet because I've taken everything in the book and put it on a spreadsheet but it's a list of things that could go wrong in your game and you have to apply those things to your games. So I've analyzed every one of my games since I've returned every one of my over the board games, which I can't remember how many it is.
Nicholas:I'd have to look at my playlists on YouTube. It'll tell you exactly how many games. It's maybe 140 or so ish total, and I've applied this method to it. So every single loss that I have gone through, I put it through what he talks about in the book and then I've categorized all my mistakes. And when you do that and you see it in a single pane of glass, it's pretty glaring where your issues are and what you have to work on. So if you're not learning what that is by either doing it yourself or having a coach tell you where your problems are, you're probably not going to improve at chess, right.
Daniel:Right. So yeah, no, that's that's fantastic. That's great. I'm not. I have not read that book and I'm not as familiar with it, so I appreciate hearing about it and, you know, understanding a little bit of of why it's effective. You also mentioned that the other way to create a plan for your improvement, besides starting with that book, is to get a coach. Have you worked with a coach and, if so, oh, really, I have not, okay.
Nicholas:So everything that I've done, I've done on my own, or I have joined one of the online communities and try to follow whatever plan they have put forth, if you don't mind me asking is there a particular reason, like in terms from a chess perspective of the online communities, and try to follow whatever plan they have put forth?
Daniel:If you don't mind me asking, is there a particular reason, like, in terms from a chess perspective, that you didn't want to work with a coach?
Nicholas:Cost is a factor.
Daniel:Sure sure.
Nicholas:I don't. So one thing that I learned while I was in the military is we can all do everything that we want ourselves. The one thing that I believe a coach is extremely beneficial for is helping you be more efficient in that process, and some people do really well with coaching and others don't. I've had many coaches in the past not for chess, but other various aspects of life and some have been good. They're not all created equal, let's put it that way, and my experience with them in my life has not been the most pleasant, mainly because I have a real problem with authority. Mainly because I have a real problem with authority and I don't like people telling me what to do.
Nicholas:So that's mainly a me problem, not necessarily a most people problem.
Daniel:And not necessarily a problem at all. Yeah.
Nicholas:If I'm being completely candid, yes, yeah.
Daniel:Yeah, no, that's really interesting. I like hearing different angles on that.
Nicholas:I'm not opposed to coaches and actually I have been talking to a few, so I could be potentially picking one up in the near future.
Daniel:Yeah, that's it. I did not expect the conversation to close with that.
Nicholas:Yeah, so I think it's about finding the right fit right. I'm a really good self-starter and I'm really good at doing my own thing, so I don't think I necessarily need a coach. However, okay, let me back up a little bit. I've never formally had a coach that I paid. However, dovetailing on this, what I think is really super important is that you have a higher level training partner that can help you point out your problems as well yeah, which I do have, which is extremely beneficial because he's on his way to master and has been a high level expert for quite a long time, so it's quite easy for him to point out the flaws in my game that I can also see with me following my own process, and it's good to see that validation from an outsider's perspective. So I'm not opposed to coaches.
Daniel:You mentioned with coaches, that one thing that you saw that they can do potentially do well at least is to increase the efficiency of the process. Is that the part that's attracting you to? You know, contacting coaches right now and considering one.
Nicholas:No, actually not because I think I'm on the right path as far as my efficiency is concerned, I believe. I'm just looking for an additional perspective from somebody that's much higher rated than me to point out things that my other expert master friend maybe doesn't see. So just having multiple angles and multiple points of view on my on on a single game, to be like hey, you did you consider this and this instead of just one you know you've.
Daniel:You've made it this far without working with a coach and, uh, you know your. Your results have been very impressive, thank, you.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, as I referenced earlier, I'm kind of looking at the timeframe of when you started being more regimented, committed to the improvement process, when you were around 1400 at that point, and then since then I think correct me if I'm wrong over a roughly two-year period you've reached a high of 1849. So over 400 USCF rating points. Just looking at that is really impressive. That's not something most chess improvers do. So what would you say are one or two key things that you could attribute that to?
Nicholas:So the things I have? Three things. So the things that I have, three things um, the number one, most important thing for anybody that wants to improve at chess is consistency period. Six days and you only work on chess once on a Sunday for two hours. That is not the same as working for 15 minutes every day than working on it for two hours straight. You need to be working on it consistently. That's the number one thing, and I think that's where a lot of adults probably trip up, is that the days that they come home and they're tired from work or you know, picking, picking up their kids from school and all that, they're like I'm not working on chess tonight, but just can't. Those are the days that you have. You have to kind of force yourself to do it and then, um, you'll see the benefits from it quickly. Number two for my development and this is a huge hot topic and many people will say that well, higher level players. It's highly debated.
Nicholas:It's highly debated, um, de la maza's method, rapid chest improvement uh, to me is is paramount for for improvers, especially once you're an adult, mainly because what we lack, which is time to be playing, we don't. We're not forcing those patterns into our brain enough. We're not forcing those patterns into our brain enough, we're not seeing it enough, whereas children have tons of time on their hand and they play a lot. They get these patterns. They get to see a lot of chess patterns all the time over and over. So I know there's been talk about brain elasticity and all of that. I'm not a neuroscientist so I don't really understand much of that. But what I do understand is, as an adult who's trying to improve, you have to get pattern recognition going and you have to force these patterns into your brain. So take a set of puzzles and you have to make them automatic by doing them over and over and over again. Now I know that's going to meet a lot of flack in the community, but that's what's been working for me and I've proven that his method works.
Daniel:Quick clarification on that. When you say patterns, are you referring only to tactical patterns?
Nicholas:Yes, I suppose I haven't done this yet, but I suppose it could be true for positional themes as well. I don't see why not.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, that's what I was wondering, if it extended beyond tactics.
Nicholas:I haven't personally done it that way, mainly because I believe my positional understanding is quite high, and where I'm lacking was my tactical ability, so that's really all I've been working on, sure, or my tactical ability, so that's really all I've been working on. But I don't see why it wouldn't work for doing positional stuff as well. I believe it would work. I think anything in that kind of spaced repetition is beneficial, no matter what it is yeah, I mean, it would be based on the same idea, right?
Daniel:The advantage of being able to just quickly identify something.
Nicholas:Yeah, I think if you were deficient in the strategy types of positional problems, that you could take some sort of beginner positional course and cycle it over and over and over again. You could probably cram that stuff into your brain pretty fast if you were following it. The only difference is that a lot of the positional strategy courses are not built like some of the tactics courses, where you're given the position and the puzzle and you're meant to go answer it with no annotations whatsoever.
Nicholas:Most positional courses are not set up that way, at least from what I've seen.
Daniel:Right, so I believe you've cited two and you wanted to mention three, so my apologies for interrupting that.
Nicholas:Yeah, the third thing would be analyzing your games. You have to find out where your mistakes are and you have to find out if those mistakes are reoccurring in your games and then you have to solve them. If you can solve them and find new sets of issues in your game, rinse and repeat. As long as you keep solving those problems, you'll close the gaps.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, those. That's a, that's a great set of three there. So again, kind of talking about your journey and what's helped you and maybe now on what didn't. I'm always curious. For someone who's made a lot of progress, like yourself, it's very much a process of learning what works and what doesn't, I think, for any endeavor. So was there something that you attempted to help you improve? But, looking back on things, or maybe even if you realize at the moment it just didn't help as much as you'd hoped?
Nicholas:Yes, so I have joined a number of the online one-size all improvement groups that are out there. I'm not going to name who they are, um, but to me they don't work. I don't think there's a one size fits all improvement to every person. I think everybody is individual. What these programs I believe do really well is they give you a set of stuff to work on and they give you a more regimented course outline if you don't know what to do. I think they're very good at that. Whether or not they work well for some I'm sure they do. They didn't work well for me and every time I joined one and started following those programs, I saw a downward slide in my rating.
Daniel:You know, I think one of the main appeals to those programs nonetheless, just from the other side of it, from, you know, the improver side and looking for help is that one of the most common questions they have is what should I be working on, like what's important? Oh, yeah, yeah. So I mean, I definitely don't fault anyone for having that question. In fact, I think it's a great question. So what would what would your answer be to an improver who said what should I work on?
Nicholas:So I think everybody has to answer the why. Why chess? What is your purpose? Is it just improving? Because you can pick up any book and you can improve just by reading that book. You will learn the stuff in that book and you will get better at chess. Whether or not your rating reflects that remains to be seen, but I would imagine no matter which book you pick up and read that's chess related, you'll gain benefit from it and you'll probably raise rating points because you've gained some sort of understanding.
Nicholas:I do agree with you that there is a huge appeal for the question how do I get better at chess? What should I work on? Those are huge questions that need to be answered right, and if you can't answer them for yourself, these groups are great for that. Whether or not they're the right fit for you is a completely different scenario. I've tried the few that are out there. I've looked at most of them and I've actually joined them and paid money to do them, and I do think they all have their benefits. Anybody that's trying to learn has to answer the why and what their real purpose had. Improving is. If they don't do that, then joining these groups is useless in my opinion, because if you just want to get better at chess, just go pick up a book or watch a youtube video that says here's the top 10 books for chess improvement.
Nicholas:And go buy those 10 books and then go work on them.
Daniel:It's that simple.
Nicholas:Also, we have AI tools. Ask ChatGPT and ChatGPT will spit something out. Now I know that's going to get a lot of flack in the online community. You can't have ChatGPT tell you what to do. Why not? Why they can go. Look on every. You know it scrubs the internet for every grandmaster plan that's ever been posted online publicly and it puts it all together in one right, so it's like you're getting all the grandmasters. So I also don't agree that, um, a grandmaster might give you the best advice for a club level player.
Nicholas:And I'm going to say this and here's why because I know that's also going to get a lot of flack in the online chess community. I'm not saying don't listen to grandmasters, but what I'm saying is is that what a grandmaster says to you about improvement may not be completely accurate for your level. And the reason I'm saying that is because most of these people that become grandmasters were grandmasters before they were an adult, so they don't know what it's like to try to level up as a class player. As an adult. They were already a master by the time they hit 20 for most of them not all of them, but a fair majority of them. I mean using hikaru as an example. When did he reach 2000, like before?
Nicholas:he was 10 exactly so, like what I'm saying is a lot of these grandmasters say that you need to do this, but they don't know that because they learned all this stuff before they were an adult and what they know, what they know how to do is what they know, their method and what they were taught, and that's how you do it, but that doesn't mean it's the right way. So you know, there's probably been hundreds, if not tens of thousands of people that have listened to Grandmaster advice and then they stay plateaued for years. Why is that? If they were listening and doing all the stuff the Grandmaster said, shouldn't they be getting better?
Daniel:slash topic I wanted to discuss with you, nick, is improvement while juggling all of the adult responsibilities that we have, and I kind of bucket that into just a thing of time. So we have all these other things in our life taking up our time and then we have the time that's needed for chess improvement. And after hearing you talk for a little while now, I think it's a little funny because I think I partially know the answer of what some at least maybe some of what you might say here. But I'm curious, you know, like how you manage that, or like what you found effective in terms of utilizing the time that you did have for chess improvement while also tending to everything else in life so the one major thing in my life that I do not take away from is my family.
Nicholas:They're number one, and family and my kids come first. Chess takes a backseat to all of that. So if something has to come up with, family, that's most important. So nothing I do for chess takes away from from my family whatsoever. That's first and foremost. If it did, I wouldn't do it. Period, yeah, um, how I balance that is um.
Nicholas:My wife used to work third shift, so when she worked at on nights I would typically be doing my own, I would have my own free time and I would be doing things after I put my kids to bed. So that would be then. In recent times my wife now works first shift, so I don't have that luxury anymore. So that free time at night has kind of gone away, unless she goes out and does something with her friends. But that's, you know, a totally different. That's unscheduled. So it's not like I can just rely on having a time to do that.
Nicholas:A lot of it happens over my lunch breaks. Or I wake up early and usually what I will do is I'll go for a run in the morning. But if I don't go for a run in the morning early I will work on chess, but usually I'll go for a run and work on my fitness, which I believe is super important for chess as well. Then I'll do it in the morning before everybody wakes up. That's a lot of times when I get things done and mainly over, like lunch breaks and free periods. So a lot of times I'll pick my kids up from school, I'll come home and then I have a little bit of time when I'm starting to wind down from work. I'll maybe have an hour or two where I'll put into chess as well.
Daniel:Yeah, that's fantastic. Everything that you've done, nick, is super impressive in of itself, just with the chess improvement journey that you've taken in recent years, but on top of that, if people aren't familiar, you've also created chess content along the way. I have, yeah, yeah, and your two main platforms for that are on Substack and YouTube. So, just broadly, what motivated you to decide to start creating chess content?
Nicholas:So when I came back to chess, I only just wanted to improve and get better. I really didn't set out to actually kind of be a chess person online, but then I realized I still really enjoyed content creation. And now I'd been off for about two years of content creation. I was missing it and I thought, well, why didn't I think about this before? Why didn't I start a chess channel back when I started my gaming channel Like I've always enjoyed chess why didn't I just do chess content? That would have been amazing.
Nicholas:And there's endless content for chess. Like every single game is different, they're never the same Along with all of the ways to improve and all of the topics you can talk about in chess Everything from improvement, news, drama, tournaments, I mean you name it. There's tons of options. And I thought, oh well, you know, I see this community online. I started finding, you know, the chess punks on Twitter and I found all these different places and I saw that there's a very active community of chess people online and I thought, well, you know, I'm 14, 1500.
Nicholas:I think I can help others learn how to play chess. You know, I'm sure there's millions of people coming into the game just starting that don't know anything and I'm perfectly capable of sharing information that can help them improve and get better. And then I learned that there was a huge community out there of improvers that really kind of like to follow other improvers and I thought, well, I can, I can document and share my journey and I think people would really uh, relate to that, especially the people that are really trying to improve.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, that's a I mean, that's a great reason to do it, and I thought I'd uh spend a minute or two, uh just talking about one of your Substack articles. In fact, I mean, you've written about a lot of interesting topics and I love your YouTube videos and what you discussed there. I love the themes that you address, so it's hard to just pick one, but the one that really caught my eye in looking through these is one that you titled Chest Study Lag Time. For people who aren't familiar with it, in the article you make the point that seeing results in chest takes longer, on average, than other endeavors like fitness. Obviously, that can be a lot of frustrating. It can be frustrating for people when we're used to seeing faster results and other things that we're pursuing. So I'm curious if you have found anything that helps soften that blow of you know, the blow of maybe being frustrated or even a little disappointed.
Nicholas:Nothing softens the blow on how long it takes. At least, I have found you. Well. One thing that I think people have to do is surround themselves with the people that believe in you. I think that's important. You can't have these people around you saying you can't do it. You know that was part of my issue with some of the online communities that you grow for all size one size fits all improvement. They're like, oh, you can improve, but only this much, you know, um.
Nicholas:So you try to find people that agree with you and are on your side and believe that you can do whatever you say you're going to go do, and then you have to trust your process. When you find your process and whatever that might be if you go through the book or you go through books and they teach you how to find your own process, or a coach tells you the process you have to believe in that process and you have to trust it and then go through it. You have to be consistent with following it and just know that at the end you will improve, no matter what. If you're not really putting in the effort and you're kind of how do I say this the most politically correct way effort. You're only putting half effort, you're going to get half the results, maybe no results, but if you put in full effort, you will get results.
Nicholas:So finding your process is extremely key. However, you do that either with a coach or on your own. Once you find the process, you have to stick to it. I had to find mine, and it wasn't easy to find mine, but honestly, that's just seriously. That's like another blog topic right there.
Daniel:I'm going to have to put that on my list how to find your process. Yeah, for sure. Well, no doubt some new ideas for content can arise out of all the conversations we're having.
Nicholas:I know I love it. This is great content, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. You can't be too hard on yourself really. You just have to. Anything that you do in one day is such a small sample size. So if you go work on chess and it just sucks and you're like this day is horrible, Nothing's working, Everything's falling apart. I've lost five blitz games. Don't be too hard on yourself. Tomorrow's a new day. I've lost five blitz games. Don't be too hard on yourself. Tomorrow's a new day. And we don't play chess by the day or the hour, or even the week or the month. We play chess by the year. And if you're really trying to improve, you have to ask yourself are you better than you were last year at this time? If you're not, then we have some serious things to talk about. But if you are, then you're doing the right thing and you need to keep moving forward.
Daniel:I have a thought on that and I'm curious to know what you think, which is I agree that it's just going to be difficult to some degree. That won't change about dealing with the fact that test improvement will have a lag before you actually see it in your rating and maybe in your games. It's just going to be tough to deal with to some degree. But I do think that just even knowing that, like reading your article, can help people you know, just knowing like hey, you're not necessarily messing up if there's a three to six month lag, and I think that has value in of itself and maybe at least stops you from beating yourself up over what's just the norm.
Nicholas:Yeah, 100%. I have the results to show it. I came back to chess in middle of 2022 and I promptly, in the next six months, I lost 100 points.
Daniel:Yeah.
Nicholas:And then, at the beginning or end of 2022, early 2023, I had a 150 point jump. So it takes time for your brain to organize all this new information you've been taking in. It takes a lot longer when it's dealing with your brain and knowledge and information, because the brain takes a long time to assimilate all this stuff. It's like learning a language. How do you learn a language? Do you learn it in two days, three days a week? No, in six months you'll be better at learning a language. It's the same thing. Or, when it comes from a learning perspective, I believe You're not fluent in a day. You're not fluent in even a year. In five years, you can still have people that have been working on the same language for five years and they're still not yet fluent. They're a lot closer than they were and they can probably speak and communicate, but it's not 100% right. So chess is the same way, I think discussing future goals.
Daniel:I mean, we talked a lot about your journey and what you've been working on recently. I also just wanted to spend a little time discussing what you're working on in the future, or for the future, rather. So to that point, you have stated in your Twitter bio that you're on the road to earning the national master title. Why is earning the national master title important to?
Nicholas:you. It's important so I can prove that anyone can do it. I believe every single person that wants to play chess or wants to become a national master can become a national master. Above that, I believe there's a lot of other stipulations, but I think anybody can reach the national master title with enough work and drive to do so. Mainly, I want to do that to silence anybody who disagrees. I'm not going to name any names, but you know there's people out there that say that if you start as an adult, you can't reach master, and I want to prove that you can Well silencing naysayers is like one of my most favorite reasons you could ever get for doing anything, I get great.
Nicholas:I get extreme satisfaction out of doing something that somebody tells me I can't do. Yeah, it's the whole thing with authority that I have a problem with.
Daniel:So yeah, I was thinking about that. There's like a little bit of a link there.
Nicholas:It's a huge, it's a huge link. It's. It's. They're like twins there. They go hand in hand.
Daniel:That was great. Do you have a timeline for when you'd like to reach that goal?
Nicholas:Um, I never put a timeline on it. It's not a goal that's in the front of my mind. I just put it out there and I set it and I leave it. What I usually work on is my process of production goals. Am I doing the things I'm supposed to be doing every day? Am I being consistent? Yes, yes, yes. If I can answer yes to those, then I'm doing the right thing. Am I being consistent? Yes, yes, yes. If I can answer yes to those, then I'm doing the right thing. And if I keep following these things, rinse and repeat, eventually I'll become a master. If I were to put a figure behind it, I would say I'd like to reach national master by the time I'm 50. And I think that's acceptable. Yeah, that would give me six years from now. A little less than six years, because I just turned 44 in September.
Daniel:When people have big goals like that, regardless of whether it's for chess or not, there's often major markers along the way. Right, that's a big, big chunk that it's broken up into. What's the next milestone for you that you're trying to reach on your way to national master?
Nicholas:I've been going by the rating bands. So, uh, when I came back, I was a class D or class E player, I think I don't even remember. Uh, what 1300 is 1300 something? Um, but I wanted to reach class B. Um, my series on my channel was road to class B, but I wanted to reach class.
Daniel:B. My series on my channel was Road to Class B, my next one was Road to Class A. I've attained those and now my next challenge is reaching experts. So 2000 is where I'm trying to hit next. I would like to hit that before the end of 2025. Journey itself is just related to what you're excited about within chess, because to do all of what you're doing, you know, requires, uh, being excited about some aspect of it. So, like, what keeps your fire going for for doing all of the work?
Nicholas:Uh, I have a deep passion for it. Um people telling me I can't do something as a huge factor. Um, you know, winning is really fun and I I love um kind of the I told you so mindset. So, uh, I know it's kind of uh uh. Maybe some people might think that's a little wrong, but that's kind of what gives me the drive that I have.
Daniel:Um.
Nicholas:I really do believe anybody can reach national master and I think that would be great to prove. Also, I have a secondary goal of when I do reach National Master and I will that I'm going to write a book about it. So you know I've already been talked. I've talked to people at Chessable. I'm writing a Chessable course. I haven't put that out there yet publicly, but I am. So I would like to start beginner's Chessable courses and then I want that to all kind of tie in and then potentially write a book about how to do it.
Daniel:That's amazing.
Nicholas:I love that. So that's kind of a long-term thinking and retirement type of thinking. I don't want to do what I do for a living for the rest of my life, so I would like to potentially get into the more public figure chess space and maybe become a chess author long-term. So that's kind of another long-term goal. But this is the main factor.
Daniel:That's fantastic. That's great. I love it, and I'm just wishing you all the best on that journey. I have full confidence that you will reach your goal.
Nicholas:Well, if you really want to give me that you got to believe I can't.
Daniel:Oh, that's right, I'm sorry, just kidding.
Nicholas:No, I appreciate it.
Daniel:I didn't pour any fuel on. Yeah. So yeah, I've had a great conversation with you, nick. I'd love to talk hours and hours more about everything. We'll make that a second visit sometime in the future to kind of catch up on your journey and cover the topics we didn't get to this time, god knows.
Nicholas:Yeah, maybe 2026 we can. We can talk when I'm an expert, that's fantastic.
Daniel:That's a great, great opportunity for it. 26, we can talk when I'm an expert. Yeah, that's fantastic. That's a great opportunity for it. I'd love to To close our conversation, though, I have what I always close all my episodes with now a series of fun rapid questions. First question in that knights, or bishops Knights 100% Awesome. What's your favorite time control?
Nicholas:Correspondence in classical Longer the better.
Daniel:Who is your favorite chess streamer or YouTuber? Simon Williams, nice. Who is your favorite player of all time, lasker? If you could play any of the top players in the world right now, who would it be? Caruana, if you could hang out with any chess celebrity for an evening, who would it be? And just to clarify chess celebrity just means someone well-known, but they don't have to be a top player, sure.
Nicholas:It would be Yasser Sarawin. Awesome, oh, I love Yasser. I don't think you can choose anybody else. Can you imagine the stories? Yeah right, he's. I don't think you can choose anybody else. Can you imagine the stories? Yeah right, like he's been around for forever, so like yeah.
Daniel:Yeah, he'd be tough to compete with for chess celebrity for an evening. What's your favorite opening to play as white? The English. What's your favorite opening to play as black Carol Kahn. Do you have a?
Nicholas:chess vice. I do, and it's not what most people probably might think, like Bullet or watching YouTube videos. It's actual chessable openings with video presentation. Oh, oh, explain please. I can't get enough of them, man. I have to close them out because working on openings is not good.
Daniel:And final question if a chess genie existed and could grant you any one chess wish, what would you wish for?
Nicholas:This is my favorite question that you have in this rapid fire questions list. This is great, but it would be that Fisher kept playing chess.
Daniel:Oh nice, I love that. I don't think, yeah, no one's ever said that, but I, ooh, that might've-. Good, I'm glad nobody said that.
Nicholas:I don't think, yeah, no one's ever said that, but I ooh, that might have Good. I'm glad nobody said that. I was hoping I had a unique answer. I think we were robbed of a lot of brilliant stuff that could have came later, after his world championship that you're familiar with.
Daniel:Nick Weissel on Chess Twitter. Yes, and when he was on, he said that this wasn't part of the last question, but he said that, like he covered some of the hot takes that he did on Twitter and one of them was that he thought Karpov would have beaten Fischer. Do you want to quick thoughts on that, since we brought it up?
Nicholas:That's an interesting question and one I have not actually thought about. Um, I believe it would have been a very interesting match and I believe it would have been close. I don't think it would have been a blowout, like I think most people would think. Right, uh, car pobs positional and strategical understanding, which is so far above everybody else, and he gave Kasparov a run for his money so many times that, uh, I I don't know if he would have been able to take it away from Fisher, but I think Fisher would have struggled greatly against that type of style, for sure, um, and I think it would have been a very entertaining match to watch.
Nicholas:Yeah, I was just going to say to your point that's the great match that we missed out on right it is, yeah, it, it most certainly is, and I I think it would have been a fantastic one yeah, well, that's a.
Daniel:That's a great way to finish it. I love your answer on that. That's one of my favorites that I've heard, being a big fisher fan obviously myself like that's. That's implicit of what I'm saying.
Nicholas:Um, but yeah it's hard for me to pick because, uh, I, I, I, uh, I like car pop so much.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand Well, nick. It was, um, uh great having you on the show. Uh, really enjoyed our conversation and, uh, definitely I'd love to have you back, uh, as you said, when you reach expert and and, yeah, I just appreciate all the insights and advice that you have. I'm sure it's going to be really helpful for people listening, and I just want to thank you very much for your time, for being on the show.
Nicholas:Oh, thank you so much. It's been an absolute pleasure. I'm in good company.
Daniel:Thank you, yeah thank you, thanks for listening. This has been a production of my business, adult Chess Academy, and that has a website with the same name. If you want to look for it, you can also find me being way too active on Twitter by searching my username, lona underscore chess. See you next week.
