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The Four Things

Every move does four things. Noticing all of them is critical for accurate calculations.

What is Conceptualization?

The power of Conceptualization, and why I'm abandoning the word 'visualization'

Chess Visualization and Aphantasia: A Guide

Aphantasia is not a weakness in Chess. It just requires a different approach.

Popular Series

Finding Your Model

Part 1 of 5

Two Biases

Don't try to copy other people's brains. Find how yours wants to work instead.

Intuition Series

Part 1 of 6

Your Enthusiastic Friend

Treat your intuition like an enthusiastic friend rated 200 points below you.

Part 1 of 6

One Key Resource

Why our working memory is the most important resource we have in Chess.

Part 1 of 5

Seeing the Matrix Code

The origin story of Don't Move Until You See It.

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Just the Chess

Blindfold training makes your brain a better Chess player.

conceptualization training

The Struggle Is the Point

The difficulty of blindfold training is exactly why it works so well.

conceptualization training

Keep It Tethered

The power and risk of putting blindfold training in your regimen.

conceptualization training

Semi-Blindfold

A lot of our regular Chess is played "blindfold" anyway.

conceptualization training

Seeing the Matrix Code

The origin story of Don't Move Until You See It.

conceptualization training

Clarity on Clarity

The goal of our conceptualization training, and how to know when you've achieved it.

conceptualization training

We Are Astronauts

When we play Chess we push the very limits of what the human brain can do. No wonder things go wrong.

The New Mantra Technique

An updated technique to make sure you see the important stuff before you move.

The Four Things

Every move does four things. Noticing all of them is critical for accurate calculations.

Jessika's Review

A technique to build your in-game awareness.

conceptualization training

Win When You're Winning

Why we play badly when we're ahead and how to fix it.

Consider Illegal Moves

Use the moves you can't play to find the best moves you can.

Comparisons

A technique to make calculation easier on your brain.

Reducing Pressure

Ways you can minimize mental pressure to avoid working memory overloads.

Freewheeling

Why it often feels like our brain acts by itself when we're under pressure.

Forgetting

The main reason you make one-move blunders.

Freezing

Why our brain sometimes stops thinking and what we can do about it.

The Loyal Labrador

Meet the primal, automatic part of your brain that causes your blunders.

Flip the Board

We must learn to spot patterns for ourselves AND for our opponent.

Willpower Is Not the Answer

Laziness isn't why you blunder.

The Vacated Square

A habit to help you recognize second order effects.

Making Time for Conceptualization

How to work conceptualization into your busy day.

conceptualization training

Three Habits for Maximum Impact

The best bits of my advice to apply to your game immediately.

conceptualization training

Feeling the Position

How the sense of space affects a verbal model.

Seeing Something

How pictures work for verbal thinkers.

Seeing with Words

Four ways to conceptualize without any mental pictures.

Leap of Faith

The early discomfort of conceptualizing without mental pictures.

I Didn't Really See It

It's not the pictures that matter, it's the understanding.

Five Sentences

The exercise to force your brain to notice everything a move does.

conceptualization training

Detached Interest

The optimal mindset for your best Chess.

Bit by Bit

Five simple (but not easy) steps to clear calculations.

conceptualization training

Second-Order Effects

The biggest mistakes and opportunities come from the less-obvious consequences of moves.

The Position In Front Of Us

Unless you understand where you are, you have no hope of getting where you want to go.

Simplifications

How our brains try to cope with the information overload of calculation.

Seeking Clarity

The core challenge of calculation is in managing the limits of our brains.

"Obvious" Moves

Sometimes a move is so obvious, we miss its deeper intent. Here's why.

"Weird" Moves

Your opponent plays something weird in the opening. Here's what happens in your brain.

Safety Net

Build habits that catch the mistakes before you play them.

Freewheelin'

How to stop your Intuition taking over.

Better Suggestions

Teach your Intuition the patterns that matter.

Possibility Space

The relationship between our goals and our Intuition.

Resistance

The importance and difficulty of keeping Reason in charge most of the time.

Your Enthusiastic Friend

Treat your intuition like an enthusiastic friend rated 200 points below you.

The Labeling Method

Branching calculations are tricky for our brains. Here's how to approach them.

Everything Evolves

The Chess world is changing. Here's what we need to do to adapt.

adult improvement

Know Your Why

We all need different things out of Chess, and "improvement" is not the answer for everyone.

adult improvement

Train Your Brain

If we don't train the adult brain to handle Chess better, it will continue to let us down.

adult improvement

Quality Over Quantity

How to make the most of your time studying Chess as an adult.

adult improvement

Embrace Your Experience

The superpower of adult learning, and why you must connect the things you learn to things you already know.

adult improvement

Start Where You Are

How to understand your adult brain so you can find Chess advice that will actually work for you.

adult improvement

Masters vs Us

Why adult improvers feel something missing in the advice of Masters.

adult improvement

Preventing Mistakes

How to avoid mistakes and how to recover when they happen anyway.

Emotional Cascade

How tilt works and why it's so damaging to our Chess.

Space to Think

Why we Freeze, Forget, and Freewheel in Chess games, and what we can do about it.

Mentalpedia

Familiarity is a huge advantage in Chess, and the reason is rooted in your working memory and psychology.

Overload

When we push our working memory too far, things go wrong.

One Key Resource

Why our working memory is the most important resource we have in Chess.

Three Ratings

The number next to your name doesn't matter. Here's what does.

What is a Conceptualization Model?

How our brains represent Chess information, and why it's important to find what works for you.

The Process II

The finishing touches for finding your brain's natural conceptualization model.

The Process

The first steps to finding your brain's natural conceptualization model.

Objects and Spaces

The difference between Object and Spatial visualizers, and why it matters to your Chess.

What is Conceptualization?

The power of Conceptualization, and why I'm abandoning the word 'visualization'

Pictures and Voices

Some people think in images, others in words. Which are you?

Two Biases

Don't try to copy other people's brains. Find how yours wants to work instead.

adult improvement

Chess Visualization and Aphantasia: A Guide

Aphantasia is not a weakness in Chess. It just requires a different approach.

The Discipline to Start

If you start enough times, you'll eventually finish.

adult improvement

The Mental Juggler

An ode to the part of our brain that keeps all the balls in the air: our working memory.

Focus Comes First

Why focus is the first and most important part of learning anything.Especially, Chess.

adult improvement

Gorillas In Our Midst

What gorilla?

adult improvement

Breaking Plateaus

What Artificial Intelligence teaches us about pushing through stagnation in our Chess.

adult improvement