The Simplified Chess Improvement System Explained
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[00:00:00] Hey, and welcome back to Next Level Chess podcast. I'm Grandmaster Noël Studer, and today is a little bit of a different episode. I just wanna take some time to talk about my recently relaunched course, the Simplified Chess Improvement System. And in a broader sense, just give some behind the scenes insights.

Why did I even create this course? What do I think is the problem with traditional chess training, the philosophy of the Simplified Chess Improvement System, who it is for, what you can expect if you would ever enroll. And yeah, just giving you a little bit more insight into this course that I've recently launched.

If you just want a completely [00:01:00] normal chess improvement episode, this is not the episode for you. You have a lot. Should be like around 40 episodes so far on the podcast. There are 150 plus articles on the homepage, so you can find chess improvement stuff over there. Today will be about the Simplified Chess Improvement System, and I hope it will just give you some additional insight and for those that maybe aren't sure if they should get the course or not, should provide them with some good answers to their questions.

So let's start by just talking about the origin story of that course and why I even decided to create it or to refilm it. Some of you might know that I've launched the course that was previous to that course, which is called Next Level Training. I've launched that in December 2022. This was my first chess course after roughly one and a half years of writing about chess improvement.

And [00:02:00] what I found is that there is so much material about what you should study. There are opening courses. There are so many things, like there are amazing books, amazing courses, but there's very little material about how to study well. And from my personal experience I realized that how you study makes such a huge difference.

For those that don't know, I was a professional chess player. I was. I am still the youngest ever Swiss grandmaster. And I played chess professionally for six years, and in those six years I suffered a brain injury that limited my chess study. I had a lot of concentration issues. I had a lot of headaches, pains around my neck.

So, I was really constrained in how much I was able to study. I went from studying 10 hours a day when I just got professional. I was super motivated and I overdid it to then being forced to do everything in two [00:03:00] to three hours a day. And when I went to tournaments, I needed to be very careful about how much I prepare in terms of openings, for example, while other grandmasters would prepare the whole night, I had maybe half an hour to prepare for the game because I didn't want to use up my focus power before the game.

So I was forced to do things smarter, right? I didn't have as much time as others, so I needed to get more out of the little time I had. And there I had a huge realization that if you do less, but if you do it better, if you focus on what really matters, you can even have great results this way. So even with my traumatic brain injury, I won still a hundred points on grandmaster level, and that was super insightful for myself.

And then once I started working as a coach, once I started writing about my experiences, I realized, holy cow. Also amateur chess improvers has have the same problem. Many of them have limited time. You have a job next to [00:04:00] it. Even though some people invest a lot of time in their chess, but it's super important that you focus on doing the right things the right way.

And I see that many people struggle. Many people invest a lot of time in their chess, but somehow they don't see improvements. Very often it's because they don't do the right thing. Or they don't do the things the right way. So these two things are super important, and that's how I came up with this Next Level Training course.

And over the past, a little bit more than two years, I got a lot of feedback, a lot of happy clients, a lot of happy students that improved their chess, but I sort of realized that I gave a lot of good information in that Next Level Training course. But the whole sequencing of the information wasn't ideal.

And also as a side note, there was just the video quality and the sound quality wasn't amazing either. So I decided, okay, let's do [00:05:00] everything from scratch. Let's redo the whole course, the whole kind of how it's built up how it looks, everything was redone. With all of that feedback that I got from 700 plus students at this point, and I relaunched a course recently, calling it the Simplified Chess Improvement System. 

And the whole goal is, well, how the name says, to simplify, to give a system a holistic chess improvement approach that helps you improve your skills, improve your chess step by step, right? So instead of just telling you, well, in this position, do this, it's more about, Hey, when you study tactics, do it exactly this way. 

These are the recommended resources when you analyze your games. Here's how to analyze your games. Here is how to learn from your games. What should you do when you feel FOMO, which courses are for you, which books are for your level? So it's all about just helping you improve your chess more consistently.

And I really [00:06:00] feel that, especially in today's modern world, where things are getting quicker and quicker, and we are overwhelmed by so much material. Many adult improvers especially, are in need for a simplified system because if you're listening to this, probably you've tried out many things, you've bought some courses, bought some books, tried maybe even coaching, and at some point you started chomping around things, you weren't sure what you should study, and you were just overwhelmed by the sheer possibility of studying chess, right? You feel like, oh, I should do endgames, middlegames, openings, tactics. I need to improve everything, but I can't improve everything at once.

I start this book, then I don't finish it and I start this course and I don't finish it. Like it's just such a stressful experience to improve your chess because, also everybody screams at you with, oh, buy this course, get this, get that, do this advice. So what I really aim to do is like offering a lens through which you can [00:07:00] look at the chess world and to simplify the work you do. 

What that means is also saying no to some of the more traditional ways of chess training. Just because, well, sometimes saying no is extremely liberating, right? If you finally say, okay, I don't need to study so much openings. Whew. You get so much more time for other things, but it doesn't mean that you should just completely ignore openings.

It's just that you want a more simple approach towards opening. And one of the biggest problems that I see with traditional courses, traditional chess training, or just what most people are doing, is that so much focus in chess right now goes into increasing your knowledge of the game. And that's nice.

That's cool. But that doesn't automatically translate into playing better games. And this is super key, and this is [00:08:00] where I believe so many people struggle. They study books, they learn things, they watch videos, they increase their knowledge of the game. Now they know, okay, double pawns aren't good. Bishop should be on long diagonals.

Like all of these kind of things. You amass knowledge about the game. But when you play, somehow you can't bring that knowledge into the game. It feels like, huh? Why am I always making the same mistakes, even though I have more knowledge? And the problem is that there is a huge skill gap. So knowledge is what if somebody asks you about the game of chess without stress, without competition?

What? You can just basically recite like a school child, just, okay, I know that First World War was then, Second World War was then this was that. This was then, but. Actually the application of knowledge is what you need, which is the skill part. And as chess is a game, I see it very much as a sport.

It's the competition. At least if you [00:09:00] care about improving your rating, it's the competition that matters. So most of the chess training is geared at, Hey, you know more when you watch this course, when you read that book, what you should do instead, if you really want to improve your game, if you wanna make the most out of the limited time you have, you should start to increase your skill level.

So that means instead of knowing, oh, this is a fork. Being able to apply, seeing forks in a game, and that requires a different kind of training that requires an active problem solving training. The whole idea that I have in this Simplified Chess Improvement System is that you're not only amassing knowledge, but I teach you how you can improve your skills so that when you train, you actually train skills that you can then use during your game.

I use tactics as an example. Most people are solving [00:10:00] tactics the wrong way. You might be familiar with this. You might go to a tactics website and whenever you see attempting move, you just execute it. You see, oh yeah, I'm sure there is a tactic. Bishop takes h7. Must be the tactic.

So I just execute it. Now if you just thinking about solving tactics. You are probably getting a lot of exercises right, because, well, mostly the most obvious move is the right move. But now imagine what happens during a game. You sit during a game and you teach your brain, when you look at a move that seems tempting, just execute.

Now during the game, you just execute. Turns out there was no tactic, right? And you just blundered a piece. So this is the huge problem that many, many, many adult improvers face is during training. They learn habits, they learn ways of solving positions that are absolutely terrifyingly bad during the games.

So. If you feel like, oh, I play mindlessly, I'm not calculating through all the possibilities during my [00:11:00] games, it's very likely that you're doing it wrong in the training and then you bring it over to the game. So what's the solution to that? Well, we need to train tactics in a way that you use, that you learn the right habits.

That then also serve you during the game. For example, I teach this habit inside the Simplified Chess Improvement System of writing down your solutions when you solve tactical exercises. So instead of just looking at the first move that seems, oh yeah, that's cool, and executing it, you force yourself to say, okay, how?

What is the full line until the end? That I'm sure that in a game I would play it this way. Then you think about it. Then before you execute it, you write the full line down and then you execute it. And this way you train just how you have to think during the game. Because if you train it this way, then during the game you will also be able to calculate like this and this one simple improvement, for example.

It is just helping [00:12:00] students from the Simplified Chess Improvement System to train in a way that you play better during games. It makes a huge difference, and we take this whole philosophy and we use it, or I use it, for endgames. I use it for openings. I use it for strategy, so we're only studying the endgames that actually are happening during the game. 

We don't care about endgames that at the moment are not happening in your games. Same with openings. Instead of studying grandmaster lines and super deep stuff. If something is not coming in your games, you don't have to study it. So it's much more practical.

It's a much more, okay, what do I need during the game to execute better? And then I train this way so it's way more efficient and it's just a better way of training chess and actually making sure that what you're doing in training is going to be in your games as well. And one other core principle [00:13:00] that I teach in the Simplified Chess Improvement System is that the quality of what you're doing is way more important than the quantity.

So I say this again, the quality of what you're doing is way more important than how much, so the quantity of your training. So instead of saying, I train 25 hours, maybe you are starting with seven hours, but you do those really focused. 

And students from the Simplified Chess Improvement System. Also from Next Level Training, the course before that. They are reporting that they're studying way less, but they have better results, and that's just because they know now when they study, they study with better focus. They don't waste their time on unuseful, huge opening courses. They're doing what matters and they're doing it the right way, and that's really the most important things.

The three dos of chess improvement. If you have heard other podcast episodes, I've talked about them quite [00:14:00] a lot. Do what matters, do it well and do it consistently. Those three things are really the guideline principle of this whole course. So now you might think, okay, that sounds cool. I like the Simplified Chess Improvement System as an idea, but what is the course exactly?

So let's talk a little bit about how this course is structured. So I structured this course and that was one of the main reasons why I refilmed everything, 'cause I wanted to restructure it. I have it in three parts right now. So part number one, I call the transformation, which is just a seven day training plan.

I give you that plan. I teach you exactly what you have to do in all of these seven days. It's a roughly an hour per day where you get rid of your old bad habits and you start new good habits and you focus on what matters most. So you get a mindset shift. You start focusing on the long run [00:15:00] ,you do tactics the right way.

That's one of the things that is so important, and you do the game playing and analysis the right way. So you focus really on what matters the most. Then after this week, you've transformed your way of training chess, and you're ready to create your own personalized chess training plan. So in part two, I help you step by step, coming up with a plan that suits your life. 

What stuff are you focusing on? What resources are you focusing on and how much time do you wanna put into? When are you training? Then you get your own plan, and then it's time for part three where you get the steady, long-term improvements and you really come back to this part three whenever you have chess improvement problems.

So for example, in part three you will learn how to study endgames. So, it's when it's time to study and games, you go watch, how should I study endgames. And then you execute. When you feel you have focus problems, you go to a [00:16:00] module on focus. When you have time trouble. I'm now just working on a new module on time trouble, so you can go in there, oh, what should I do if I have time trouble, and so on and so forth.

So you have these three parts, which makes it more actionable than the previous version where I just basically dumped all the knowledge of chess improvement on you, and you had to figure out how to do it yourself. So it's more step by step and it's just aimed at helping you improve your game. 

Now, I wanna talk a little, something else that comes up from time to time is people asking me. Well, is this really for me? Right? Is this course something that is targeting myself? So I wanna talk a little bit about who is ideal for this course and who should stay away from it.

So let's start with the people that should stay away from it. If [00:17:00] you want a quick hack, if you love opening courses and you don't care about improving your chess, this is not for you. Also, if you are a professional chess player trying to make a push for a grandmaster title, that's also not ideal for you.

This course is really for ambitious adult improvers that wanna improve their chess with a system. And by following a plan, this is for people that have five hours a week, roughly on average or more than that for chess improvement. And you care that you are actually making improvements. You don't just wanna learn about chess history and you don't care if your rating stays the same. 

It's also for people that have tried out some stuff already and feel overwhelmed by too many resources and unclear training [00:18:00] methods. It's really targeting people who feel like, oh my God, I need something that is simplified. I want a system and I want to just be able to have one place where I know okay.

This is my kind of Bible of chess improvement. This is what I can follow, I can execute and I will be able to improve my game. In terms of rating, there is not really a very strong rating range given just because it's a holistic training system. It's not, here is how you do tactics and I give you positions and you can use resources that are aimed at your level, but in general, if you're still below a thousand rating on the online platforms, I recommend you first go through my beginner course if you want to have something from me. And then once you push through this 1000 rating barrier, 1100 rating [00:19:00] barrier, then you can go and get this Simplified Chess Improvement System.

Also in case some parents of a child that plays chess are listening to this. This is not intended for children just because creating a system and learning in a structured way is really something that is more important for adult improvers. So I made this specifically for adults. Because kids usually, they absorb information so easily and quickly that it can be that they can just follow their interests, just do what's fun to them, and they still improve quite a bit.

So this is really intended at adult Improvers. If you are a parent of a kid and you want to help them, guide them the right way. Then at most, I would recommend that you as a parent are going through this course and then helping your [00:20:00] child in this way. Maybe structure a little bit more and helping them find a good coach, understanding what could help them improve their game, but for a child themselves to go through this course, this is not ideal, really intended at an adult audience.

And as we've been talking about results, right? Training for rear results, you might ask yourself, well, what can I expect in terms of results? Now, I'd love to give a guarantee on a certain rating win because, well, it's very good in a marketing sense and it's motivating for people. But sadly, that's not how chess improvement works. 

It's so different for the person that is 1200 rated and spends 20 hours a week to the person that is rated 1900 and spends five hours a week, right? They can expect different outcomes. So I can't promise a certain [00:21:00] rating win, especially in the short run, because that's really important. If you wanna train the right way, you need to start thinking long term.

That's something that is very ingrained in my training approach. We're not training for, well, once you join, a week after you want 200 points, amazing. But it's building the right habits that lead you to consistently improve your skills, and then these skills will turn into results eventually. So what can you expect, if not immediate rating gains?

What you can expect is to be able to study with a simplified plan and not having overwhelmed anymore as to what should I study and how should I study it. So when it's time to put in time for chess improvement, you will know exactly what you should do, what resources are suitable for you, how you have to execute.

So you have the simplicity and you will be able to put in the [00:22:00] work and you will not feel overwhelmed. And students also share that they feel much less scared of making mistakes, which is one of the things that is so important. If you want to improve that, you feel ready to, okay, if I lose a game, it's not a catastrophe.

They feel happier when they go play tournaments and when they have bad results, they can take it better. You can expect that you are getting more out of the time that you spend on chess. You waste less time. If you are someone that is buying a lot of random courses, you will find that you will save some time and energy on these random courses because you have a system that you feel okay, I don't need to buy these 17 courses. I just need one that actually fits me. And then I go through it from start to the end and then I can get another one. 

So these are some of the things that you can expect. There are students who have chomped a lot of rating. They [00:23:00] are students that have reduced their training time and found more joy.

You can find if you're joining our community success stories from people that have won a lot of rating points, but it's not something that you should expect or it's not something that is, everybody is jumping X amount of points in a y time just doesn't work like that. But when you simplify your training, when you work with a plan, when you work consistently, at some point you will see results.

So if you're still listening to this, a little bit more improvised podcast, thank you so much for listening. If this sounds like something that will help you, if you're overwhelmed, if you need a plan, if you want a simplified version of a chess study, if you wanna know how to study chess the right way, then I believe that Simplified Chess Improvement System is really something for you.[00:24:00] 

You can check it out. There is a link in the podcast description wherever you listen to this podcast. And I hope to see you in there and to answer your questions in the community, to cheer you on and to hear of your success story in the not so distant future hopefully. And for everybody else, this podcast will go back to normal next week.

We just have another podcast on simplifying your chess training, on improving your mindset, on getting more out of the little time you have for chess. You can check out my newsletter. The newsletter is also going out every Friday. Mostly has similar or the same topics covered on the podcast just a little bit earlier.

That's everything for me. I hope it helped you understand the Simplified Chess Improvement System a little bit better. Hope you know what to expect if you thought about getting it and yeah, see you in there. Or see you next week on this podcast.