I didn’t have much trouble deciding what I wanted my learning project to focus on. I knew I wanted to improve something I had minimal knowledge of, so I ultimately decided on chess. As a child, my father taught me the basic movements of each piece with no real strategy or techniques. I stopped playing chess after being able to defeat him, since he was the best player I knew. I was inspired to get better after watching a show titled The Queen’s Gambit. I was especially intrigued by how the protagonist picked it up without researching and could play chess on the tiles of her ceiling. The show had also introduced me to chess ratings, which interested me the most. I downloaded the chess.com app because it gives you a rating, and I was curious how I would match up compared to the masters playing around 2300. Chess.com starts your rating at 800, so it was very humbling to lose a few games and get stuck at around 700. I battled to get it over 800, and I am currently sitting at 818. My goal for the end of this course is to reach 1100.
To reach my goal, my plan is to start by learning ideal openings to complement my style of play, although I am most comfortable with opening in the middle. I enjoy using knights and often will trade a bishop for a knight. I would like to learn the value of each piece because I have heard, although I am unsure, that the value will change depending on where your pieces lie on the chessboard. I would like to know when it is ideal to trade pieces so that I don’t lose any positioning. I would like to focus on my endgame the most because I believe that great players are not the ones who memorize their openings, but are the ones who can almost read and react. This belief is reinforced by my favourite chess player, Hikaru. His speed is what impresses me the most. He is able to see multiple moves in advance, which is highlighted by his premoves in unofficial matches. It is amazing to see him sit back and watch his premoves beat his opponents.
I plan to use sources from social media outposts such as YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram to learn tricks and advantageous openings. I will use the chess.com app to work on my middle/endgame since it offers chess puzzles that work on checkmating, as well as random players at my skill level for me to play against to practice my moves. I hope to play at least one game every day. I will also use the app as my assessment strategy since it keeps track of my chess rating, and I may review my matches to see where I went wrong and what the “best move” would be in that scenario. I also plan to use Chatgpt for any particular questions that may arise, although I have seen that AI will cheat and use illegal moves.