Overcome stagnation in chess improvement

After my recent therapy session, I shared with my therapist how I struggled with walking straight for two days afterward, feeling like my concussion symptoms were coming back. Two weeks ago, she responded with a simple "Great."
At first, I was taken aback, but Michele, my therapist, had a point. She understood something important: sometimes, to make real progress, you have to go through a rough patch first.
This idea isn't just for people recovering from head injuries—it's something that applies to everyone, including chess players.
Many of us tend to give up when things get tough, or we don't want to deal with short-term setbacks. But that's exactly what keeps us stuck.
To move past a plateau in chess, or any area of life, you need to:
Be ready for a temporary drop in performance when you're trying out new strategies.
Stick with those new strategies for a while, even if they don't seem to be working right away.
I learned this lesson the hard way when I tried to improve my tennis serve. Even though I could get the ball over the net okay, I didn't have the right technique, so I was stuck at a mediocre level.
When a friend offered to teach me the correct technique, I struggled at first. I made a lot of mistakes and double faults. It would have been easy to go back to my old serve, but I knew that wouldn't help me improve.
This same idea applies to health and chess improvement too.
To break out of this cycle, I use two strategies every day:
I expect things to be tough at first.
I commit to trying new things for a while, usually one to three months.
When I started working with a chess expert named GM Iossif Dorfman, I had to change the way I thought about the game completely. It was confusing, and I felt like I was making more mistakes than ever. But I stuck with it, knowing that it would pay off in the end.
And it did. Within a little over a year, I reached the level of Grandmaster.
To avoid getting too frustrated, I didn't play in many tournaments during those first few months. Why put myself through that stress when I knew I wasn't at my best yet?
For chess players today, especially with online play being so popular, it's easy to get caught up in our ratings. But if we want to improve, we have to be willing to take risks and accept that we might lose some points in the short term.
Here are some tips to help you learn and grow in your chess journey:
Focus on your long-term goals, not just your rating.
Play on different platforms—one for serious games and one for practice where you don't worry about your rating.
Stick with new strategies for at least a month before deciding if they're working or not.
If seeing your rating drop stresses you out, try hiding it for a while.
Remember, progress often comes with setbacks. Embrace the challenge—it's how you'll get better. And while it might be tough in the short term, the rewards in the long run are worth it.
So ask yourself: What matters more to you, short-term comfort or long-term success? The choice is yours!