Growing Beyond Your Comfort Zone (Free E-Book Sample)

Growing Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Chess Improvement has its share of challenges and struggles, even when you know what to do. The diagram above has helped me through the toughest times in my chess journey, where I felt like quitting.

The key takeaway is that comfort is the enemy of growth. So, when you feel uncomfortable, but take action anyway, it means you are growing! (It also shows great courage, for there is no bravery without the presence of fear). 

Perhaps you are in the 'fear zone' right now. Your dream of becoming a chess champion (in your own words) is clear, but you have some doubts. Doubts like 'Can I really do it?', 'I can't achieve it because of...' or 'My friends think it's too hard'. 

Everyone experiences these doubts at some point - but the champions ignore them and bring their A-Game every time.

The following game of mine, where I used a surprise weapon for the first time to beat an International Master with Black and achieve my first GM Norm, is a powerful demonstration of the advantages of pushing yourself outside your comfort zone.

I still remember when, as a junior, I would play the same openings in virtually every game, thinking that I needed to know the opening theory deeply to play an opening well.

As a 12-year old, I went through a phase of experimenting with several new openings with both colours. I started playing 1.e4 in many of my games, and experimented with new systems such as the Scandinavian and Modern Defence as Black. There were other experiments that were a lot less successful, and admittedly, at that time I didn’t really know how to learn and master new openings. My rating went down in that year and I felt very defeated and frustrated that my attempts to learn new things weren’t working.

However, when I was stuck around 2200-2250 FIDE for nearly 2 years, it was my willingness to keep trying new ideas, and learning how to play different types of positions, that got me out of my rut. When I finally got the hang of playing the Open Sicilian with White (using the English Attack setup, rather than a different setup against every Black variation), my results skyrocketed and I gained nearly 100 points in my next few tournaments to finally become a FIDE Master.

Naturally, this is just an example, and there are many other ways to push yourself beyond your comfort zone than learning new openings. Nonetheless, it gives you a taste of what is possible, and I encourage you to be courageous and try new things, without fearing the ‘what ifs…’.

This was a sample from 'My 2021 Grandmaster Chess Training Plan'. Click here to access the full Training Plan and make this year your best ever chess year!