16 Comments

This is a great story. Congrats! Good inspiration. I worked fairly consistently on chess this year and saw essentially no rating growth - so good timing for reading this post :)

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Mar 27Liked by Martin B. Justesen

Thanks so much for sharing your journey. You mentioned that you started using Chessable. How useful did you find it? I noticed that you are using Keep it Simple 1.e4. How useful was the course? Many thanks, Mark

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author

Glad you liked it! I would recommend the smaller opening courses with 100-300 lines. Some of the large ones gets too large in my opinion

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Feb 19Liked by Martin B. Justesen

The long haul journey. Shows if you put in the work things will improve. Wonderful to see. Congratulations. I should take a look at my long term history and do a similar write up for the chess community for those who need the inspiration.

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author

Thank you 🙏🏻 sometimes it helps to zoom out

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This is really inspiring. Thank you for sharing. This goes to show that Chess is a long term investment. If you want to be good, one must be in it for the long haul.

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author

Thank you 🙏🏻 Yes, keep working a little each day and it will eventually accumulate into something

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Mar 2, 2023Liked by Martin B. Justesen

A good read thank you

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Jul 28, 2022·edited Jul 28, 2022Liked by Martin B. Justesen

Martin, Hi! Thanks for another excellent content. I’ve a question: I’m a real beginner and I’m just playing longer/correspondence games right now (5-10 days). I don’t have much time for chess, and I think lower time control matches (like blitz or bullet) will not help me improving in tactics/ calculation.

Do you think that longer games (online) could help beginners to get experience / train or I should try some “shorter” games too? Thanks!

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author

Thank you, Diego! I would recommend you to play 15+10 or 10+5 games when you have the time, and go over them, when you have the time. I did not find correspondence games helped me much even though they are convenient. Of course if you really enjoy correspandence chess, then that is the most important :)

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Jul 26, 2022·edited Jul 26, 2022Liked by Martin B. Justesen

Great newsletter! Thanks for the year-by-year analysis.

One question came to mind. I have chess.com and lichess accounts, but I essentially never play on lichess. What drives you to play on one platform or the other?

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author

I like some features on chess.com and some on lichess. And sometimes when it goes bad on one platform I like to switch to the other :)

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Do you have any examples in mind for lichess features you like? (I'm trying to find a reason to play there more.)

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Jul 26, 2022Liked by Martin B. Justesen

Could you post the moves of that last game? Would like to look at it lichess Analyser. ty

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author

Here is the game:

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. g3 c6 4. Bg2 Nf6 5. O-O h6 6. c4 Bd6 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. b3 Nbd7 9. Bb2 Ne4 10. Nxe4 dxe4 11. Ne5 f5 12. f3 exf3 13. exf3 Qc7 14. f4 Nxe5 15. fxe5 Be7 16. Qe2 Bd7 17. Rac1 c5 18. d5 exd5 19. cxd5 Bg5 20. Rcd1 a6 21. a4 f4 22. e6 Be8 23. d6 Qb6 24. e7 Rf5 25. Qe6+ Rf7 26. Bd5 c4+ 27. Bd4 Qxb3 28. gxf4 Bh4 29. d7 Kh8 30. dxe8=Q+ Rxe8 31. Qxf7 Rxe7 32. Qf8+ Kh7 33. Bg8+ Kg6 34. f5+ Kh5 35. Bd5 Re3 36. Bxe3 Qxe3+ 37. Kh1 Bf6 38. Bf7+ Kg5 39. Rg1+ Kxf5 40. Rdf1+ Ke5 41. Qe8+ Kd4 42. Qxe3+ Kxe3 43. Re1+ Kd2 44. Rd1+ Kc3 45. Rc1+ Kb4 46. Rxc4+ Ka3 47. Rb1 b5 48. axb5 axb5 49. Rxb5 1-0

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author

Thank you! And yes, rating growth comes at strange times and not always when you expect it. And good luck with your substack :)

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