The MoveLibrary Guide

I have written this guide because I feel like the recommendations and resources available to chess improvers today have missed something important. This guide attempts to remedy this gap.

I started to get serious about improving my chess play about three years ago, and while there were a lot of amazing resources for improving your chess, it seemed like many of them weren’t that efficient in actually making an impact. Over years of working on the problem of my own chess improvement I found different ways to use existing tools to better improve my game. Although there are variations of these techniques that I’d seen mentioned elsewhere I felt compelled to write about the unique things that worked best in my experience.

My three year improvement plan had the goal of exceeding a 2200 USCF rating, and I can verify that these techniques are well suited to gaining that level. They worked for me. I believe that variations of these techniques will be effective at improving chess play at virtually any level. Further, I have been doing this work in my late 40s, so I can attest that they work well for adults. The principles that underlie these techniques should apply with improvement and learning at any age, however.

No techniques for self-improvement - in any sphere - are easy. Improvement takes work and dedication, and no amount of strategizing or optimizing that work changes this basic fact. This guide aims to help readers identify what exactly differentiates better chess players from worse chess players, and to identify the activities that most efficiently transform a person to play better chess.

So, if you’re interested in becoming a better chess player, and you’re interested in maximizing the impact of the work you put in to achieve that goal, then you’re in the right place.