RoadToFM #1: Introducing myself

Allow me to introduce myself...

I'm Marc, a 23-year-old engineer who LOVES chess. My story with the game begins in school, where we had chess class once a week. I was good at it, beating all my classmates, and my teacher tried to encourage me to do some extra classes and play tournaments, but at the time I loved football so much that I couldn't see myself changing it for a much quieter and thoughtful activity.

At 12 y/o, chess classes stopped. Some years passed and I started to appreciate how much I enjoyed chess. I started playing online almost every day, following tournaments and watching videos... But it was not enough. At 21 y/o I joined a chess club, where I still play to this day, and went on to play tournaments and the local league.

After two years of combining my Engineering degree and chess, I have finished my studies and found a part-time job that suits me well, which means... I finally have TIME to devote to chess!

Why chess?

Before saying what I want to become, I must say why. I have always struggled with concentration, procrastination, and frustration. If you pardon my boastfulness in the following lines, as a result of being a gifted kid I always had excellent results at school and other activities without effort. Until I reached University, I never had to study to get good grades and thus I never developed any sort of sacrifice for the things I wanted.

Chess, however, has been a massive eye-opener for me, because I realized that I would never be good at chess naturally, and being as competitive as I am, it was truly hard to digest.

That is exactly why I am so motivated to take on this challenge: to prove to myself that I can become good at something I love but I'm not naturally good at, and that to achieve this goal I have to prove myself that I can overcome procrastination, frustration, and bad habits, and I must give the best of myself. In other words, chess is the means to a personal goal. Now, what is my chess goal?

My goal is to become an FM

Yeah, sounds big... Especially, when I'm rated 1515 FIDE at the moment. But don't get me wrong, this massive dream is there to keep me motivated and dreamy, but the main challenges I'm here to face are what I have named The Three C's: consistency, confidence, and concentration.

Consistency

It is the key to success. As Sean Oulashin preaches, consistency is not being perfect every day, it's about showing up every single day. You can do a little one day, you can be super productive on the next. It doesn't matter, as long as you show up, you are one step closer to your goal.

Confidence

In my own experience, confidence is like a videogame booster. If you are confident in yourself, your abilities and your games go one step up. Alternatively, if you lack confidence, you play with doubt, below your real level.

Concentration

Simply, the dearest friend of any intellectual activity...

What will I post?

Game analysis

Mikhail Botvinnik believed that the most essential thing in chess was to master analytical skills. He was of the view that the core skill of any chess player should be to refine as much as possible its ability to correctly assess and evaluate any given position, and the way to master this skill is none other than analyzing games, especially Masters' and your own. Furthermore, he stated that to be consistent and force oneself to analyze profoundly and to the best of his capabilities, the analysis should be made public.

So I decided to take this advice word by word, and from now on I will post my game analysis from every tournament game I play, with the idea of establishing a consistent and quality analysis habit, and even maybe receiving advice from higher-rated players! Just as a note, I will never use an engine, so my analysis will of course be flawed. Thus, I am open (and extremely grateful for) to corrections and suggestions.

Training routine

My following blog post will be my training routine, which I will detail exhaustively, and refine whenever I find some flaws in it. For the routine, I was inspired by GM Noël Studer's posts, which I wholeheartedly recommend for any player.

Thoughts, insights, and habits

I hope to learn a lot from this journey, especially from setbacks and frustrating times, that no doubt will come. This is why I would also like to share my thoughts, insights, and tips that I acquired along the way. My idea is to open myself as an exercise of confidence, to better understand the roadblocks that an amateur chess player faces, and to inspire other players to walk this journey knowing the strategies that other people in the same situation implement to overcome difficulties.

Last words

I hope that you like this post! For any questions, advice, or any other thing, feel free to comment or to send me a message via Lichess Chat. The journey is on...