How NOT to get better at chess

The Oblivious Chess Grandmaster

“He doesn’t even know his own rating, going into the tournament,” he told me.

Ramesh RB was referring to his top grandmaster student, at the time close to hitting the coveted 2700 rating mark. “That’s why I tell all my students: you need to be like Pragg.”

How could a professional chess player like Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa not know their own rating? Isn’t that one of the most important metrics in competitive chess?

For most of us, our rating is a badge of honor, a measure of our progress, and often… an unhealthy obsession. After each online game, we’re hoping to see that number tick up.

Maybe this fixation on ratings is precisely what’s holding you back from true improvement in chess?

The Chess Rating Trap

“When a metric becomes a target it ceases to be a good metric”

—Goodhart’s Law

I believe that unhealthy interest in your own rating may be the most serious obstacle many chess players – especially those from the online generation – will face when trying to figure out how to get better at chess.

Let’s look at a few reasons why this might be so:

• Loss of the beginner’s mindset: Caring about your rating tends to result in one of two states of mind: in some moments you’re proud of your rating, more eager to show how much you know, than to learn new things. In other moments you beat yourself up, thinking that you’re a hopeless chess player and unable to learn anything at all. Neither mindset is the one you want to cultivate: one of curiosity, lack of presumptions and eagerness to grow.
• Quantity over quality: You find yourself playing game after game, hoping to “prove” your rating. When you’re on a losing streak you can’t stop playing until you “regain” your rating. But are you really learning from each match, or just going through the motions?
• Short-term thinking: Instead of exploring new ideas, you stick to openings you know and rely on memorized patterns. This might preserve your rating in the short term, but it limits your long-term growth.
• Avoiding challenges: Scared of losing points, you shy away from difficult positions or stronger opponents. But these are precisely the situations that help you improve!
• Playing vs. learning: The dopamine rush from winning (and gaining rating points) becomes addictive. You prioritize playing over analyzing, studying, and truly learning the game.
• Emotional rollercoaster: Your mood swings with your rating. A good day inflates your confidence, while a bad streak crushes your motivation. Neither extreme is conducive to steady improvement.

So, what should you do instead?

Solution: Try to DECREASE Your Rating

Perhaps we can remedy this issue with a simple hack: instead of trying to win every game, you try to lose it. In fact, set a goal to lose 60% of your games. Crazy? Hear me out.

Here’s the catch – you’re not trying to lose by blundering your queen on move three. Instead, your objective is to:

1. Get into interesting, challenging positions
2. Play them to the best of your ability
3. Analyze why you lost when you do

By doing this, you’re reframing your rating not as a measure of your skill, but as your current “difficulty setting” for opponents. Sometimes, to learn and grow, you need to dial down the difficulty. No better way to do so, then to go on a losing streak!

An extra psychological benefit: instead of feeling that you lost to your opponents or that they outsmarted you, it is now you who outsmarted them! In fact, they were simple training dummies, useful for generating interesting positions to learn from, and helping you decrease your rating quickly.

Embracing the Chess Grandmaster Mindset

Remember Pragg, the grandmaster who didn’t know his own rating? His approach isn’t just for titled players. In fact, it might be even more beneficial for amateurs:

• Freedom from self-imposed limits: When you don’t know your exact rating, you’re less likely to think, “I can’t beat this player, they’re rated 200 points above me.”
• Focus on the board, not the number: Without rating anxiety, your full attention is on the position in front of you. You’re not afraid to take time to think in an interesting position. Running out of time will just help you reach your rating point loss goal!
• Enjoyment of the game: You’re playing chess for the love of the game, not for rating points.
• Long-term improvement: By focusing on the quality of your play rather than short-term rating gains, you’re setting yourself up for more substantial long-term improvement.

How to Implement the “Lose to Win at Chess” Strategy

• Target a 200-point rating decrease: This gives you a concrete goal and ensures you’ll face a variety of opponents.
• Embrace new openings and positions: Use this as an opportunity to explore lines you’ve been curious about but were afraid to try, in case you’d lose a lot of rating.
• Focus on learning, not winning: In each game, set a goal to understand one new concept or pattern, regardless of the outcome. Perhaps decide that for the next few games, you’ll only focus on making kingside attacks, regardless of how feasible that plan is.
• Analyze every loss: Treat each defeat as a valuable lesson. What went wrong? What could you have done differently?
• See opponents as training partners: They’re not there to beat you; they’re there to show you your weaknesses and help you improve.

Your rating is just a number. Realize that when it moves up or down, that doesn’t reflect a skill change, only a temporary change in difficulty. By letting go of rating obsession and embracing a learning-focused mindset, you’ll not only become a stronger player in the long run but also enjoy the journey much more.

So, the next time you sit down to play a game of chess, try channeling your inner Pragg.

Happy chess playing, may you find great training dummies to decrease your rating, and may your next loss be your most instructive game yet!