The Importance Of Unlearning - Part 1

The Importance Of 'Unlearning' In Chess ⁣

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You may be wondering...⁣
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What is Unlearning?⁣
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Why does this especially matter for adult improvers?⁣
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How can we 'unlearn' the things impeding our improvement to the next level?⁣
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In this blog, Part 1 of 3, we will discuss the first of these questions.

What Unlearning Means

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Unlearning means 'to make an effort to forget your usual way of doing something so that you can learn a new and sometimes better way' ⁣
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Our 'usual way' of doing something is not limited to habits but also the beliefs and ways of thinking that lead to these habits. ⁣
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This is not an easy process, else everyone would be doing it. Many are so caught up in one way of doing something that the idea of 'unlearning' never occurs to them. ⁣
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But much like there are several moves of similar strength in many chess positions (or several actions with the same value in different poker situations), there may be more than one path to a desired outcome. ⁣

How I Discovered Unlearning

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I first understood the concept of 'unlearning' from Jonathan Rowson's 'Chess For Zebras' book in late 2005, and it made a great impression on me at the time. ⁣
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At that time, I'd been stuck around an 1800 rating for a year and was getting increasingly frustrated by my first real plateau. ⁣
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It took a considerable amount of reflection to realize that my positional understanding, which had been my strength in 2003, was now my weakness. And that my tactics, which were my big weakness in 2003, were now my greatest strength. ⁣

My First Attempts To Unlearn

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I learned some new opening variations in 2005. The good reason was to improve my chess understanding and learn how to play other types of positions. The real reason was that I was terrified of my opponent's preparation (after playing in the 2004 World Youth Championship and 2005 Australian Junior Championship with a very narrow repertoire). ⁣
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But it wasn't until I unlearned the way I calculated in chess, and replaced it with new, better thinking systems (using 'How To Choose A Chess Move' by Soltis) in late 2006, that I broke the plateau and surged from the high 1800s to a 2100+ level. ⁣
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Next Time

In Part 2, we will discuss why the concept of 'unlearning' is especially valuable for adult chess improvers!

See you there.