Welcome

One year project

It’s been over 5 years now that my ELO ranking (national and FIDE) hasn’t really evolved. Even though I’ve tried explaining it by the lack of games played, I’ve been feeling for some time that I might have reached my limits. To get over this rut, I’ve decided to carry out a project for exactly one year: I will explore all possible paths that could allow me to progress as efficiently as possible in a minimum amount of time spent.

Throughout this year, I will share the results of my research on my blog by
posting
1 article a week.

At the same time, I will be carrying out an experiment through which I will acquire one new habit on a weekly basis.

Chess and Productivity

Over the past two years, I’ve read a great number of books and articles around the subject of productivity. My initial goal was to be able to better manage my time, mainly for professional reasons. But I soon discovered that I could also put my readings to profit on a personal level.

However, I did not expect that certain tactics could also be applied to chess progression. Indeed, some of the pillars used to achieve heightened productivity, such as exercising or the ability to focus, are also increasingly perceived as essential elements on the road to achieving chess master level.

Habits of Chess Success

It is this exact correlation between chess and productivity that gave me the idea for my project and inspired the title of my blog.

It is not a secret anymore that chess mastering requires constant efforts in the long run and this hard work and perseverance is often discouraging even for the bravest.

The magic key behind habits is that they represent a powerful means of improvement without conscious effort once they have been established.

About me

My name is Gregory Pirard, I’m a Belgian player with a ranking of roughly 2100 ELO. (national ranking)

My father first taught me the rules of chess when I was 16 years old. I then started constantly playing rapid games online (20 minutes per player) until I decided to walk into my city’s local chess club at the age of 20. After a first encouraging ranking at 1956 ELO, my passion for chess was deeply rooted.

Here is some extra information to get to know me beyond the world of chess.

  • My english is not perfect but my wife will take care of the translation, to spare you to horror of my vocabulary and grammar mistakes (I will be commenting on the articles on my own, so I apologise in advance). I would like to take this opportunity to thank her a lot for that and her general support.
  • I graduated University with a business degree, specializing in management and marketing. I am counting on my business-y mind to help me process all the information out there and offer you clear and practical ways to improve, by selecting the most relevant elements.
  • I played football for many years, before stopping after several injuries. I now take comfort in watching the Red Devils (national Belgian football team) play.

Let’s Start

Welcome to my blog and thanks for being here!

You’ll find here the details of the experiment if you don’t know where to start.

You can also check out the habits I’ll develop every week right here

 

I hope you’ll enjoy! Don’t hesitate to comment or share your ideas and own experiences and experiments.