Mark Howitt's Chess Coaching

[Mark Howitt]

Mark Howitt's chess training continues...

pic on blog

[Mark Howitt]

Actually stopped my chess drama to play a game of 10 min each chess online... played alright and won... think goal is one of these a day at least til I'm doing a full time job

[Mark Howitt]

Going to quickly blast this out here...

Because might be interesting for none chess people too...

Whenever I play an otb chess game I usually put in a MINIMUM of 2 hours of prep before the game, playing the game itself which can take 3 hours, then MIN 2 hours analysis after...

This is for a game where I get 0p if I win...

If it's for a team like Huddersfield in Yorkshire league like I've said to my share mentor NO WAY am I going to let Mark Howitt be on the team sheet if I can't give 100%. I've given 100% for every otb game I've played in my life and always want the team to win...

[Mark Howitt]

Think it's best to put this here...

My estimated grade for otb was based on my old ECF/BCF rating not my YCA one which is more accurate...

Still remains to be seen how strong I am otb but I think I'm doing alright... bought another physical chess set now and winning online...

[Roger de Coverly]

My estimated grade for otb was based on my old ECF/BCF rating not my YCA one which is more accurate...

Assuming they followed the published rules, the rating of 1840P (October 2023) is based on a two game performance. the first is a win against a player rated 1494 and the second a draw against a dummy player rated 1800.

Historic results from 2008 are ignored, so you are treated as a player new to the rating system.

[Mark Howitt]

Yep thanks...

Doing stewarding today prob about 1 hour's playing. Would like to meet u in person

[Mark Howitt]

Just won another game online...

I think for my own personal game (and this may help people around my age who are not pros etc) I think the goal of min 1 online game per day plus a bit of training helps...

I bought a physical chess set to setup positions...

May do another hour playing today...

I'm giving chess quite a bit of free promo in real life... normal people think I am good at chess lols... prob do some more coaching soon...

[Mark Howitt]

This is just another thing to get it off my mind really... may help some people...

I think when you get into your twenties etc... it's a balance between how much you want to play chess or earn money/do other things...

Because it's obvs that yeah... just do min wage job you get more money... plenty of other things to do...

Money's worthless when you die though so it's all about getting that balance...

[Mark Howitt]

Over 200,000 views on https://markhowitt.blogspot.com/ thank you all... will do a proper article on this... you can do many things if you believe in yourself...

[Mark Howitt]

The Value of a Chessplayer...



More thoughts...

And this kinda alludes back to what I wrote on this blog years ago...

There are plenty of jobs where you can get paid and it doesn't need much brainpower or skill. Sometimes in fact once you get IN a job you don't have to do much work and you can get paid for 'team building' etc...

A chessplayer...

Well I've been looking at chess results lately...

There are some chessplayers who play chess all their lives. Everyone has 24 hours in a day.

I think people prob play chess for different reasons. Like the Inner Game of Tennis goes into... some will play for the social aspect, some to get out of the house etc...

But anyway...

The value of even a good club chessplayer is something that would take MANY hours of work to reproduce. Like imagine you wanted to take even quite a smart guy off the street at random. How many hours of work would it take to make him into a good club chessplayer.... hundreds min...

(He'd have to have the right type of intelligence in memory etc to even do it)...

So... if chessplayers were valued more BY THE UK or people in the UK in general even good club players could be paid or at least not made to pay to play. There are plenty of other countries where chess gets more government support. I think one of the reasons we produce so few pros is they're having to compete with people from India etc who have a low min wage compared to ours and they fight for the same prize money in intenrational tourns...

Anyway.... just more thoughts...

[Mark Howitt]

I just found out one of my opening moves I played against Wainwright about 24 years ago and I thought was BAD was actually best comp move...

Surreal world

[Mark Howitt]

I remember when I was like about 21...

There was this rapidplay tourn in Calderdale...

I remember coming to play my opponent... oh I thought... his grade's not that high it can't be that good.

I won.

It turned out to be Dave Patrick who was rated around 150 before the old grades got inflated.

But because I THOUGHT it was an older man with a lower grade I just expected to win. Like how I expected to beat Greg Eagleton in 2004...

But like when I was say about 18 I was a bit SCARED of playing higher rated players... like ohhhhh he's higher rated than me... I might LOSE...

But with the amount I've looked at chess now...

Carlsen said it himself... the game is a draw if nobody makes a mistake...

So it's just like a puzzle really... certainly if a guy is older than me he might be less physically fit or his mind might be slowing down...

[Kevin Thurlow]

"So it's just like a puzzle really... certainly if a guy is older than me he might be less physically fit or his mind might be slowing down..."

Or they might be luring you into a position they have played 1000 times before...

[Mark Howitt]

Lol yeah maybe...

But tbh I'd rather play older players than under graded youngsters...

Is pretty surreal as you get older to know you were playing when they weren't even born...

[Mark Howitt]

Just played another game...

Honestly the amount of respect I've got for anyone PLAYING chess for a living is a lot...

Sometimes I play good but I can see now just how much work I have to do- I won but don't know why opponent resigned...