Improving at chess is simple. Just follow my three Do’s and you’ll be good. That doesn’t mean it is easy, though.

What makes it hard are the roadblocks along the way. And most of them are self inflicted and imaginary.

You might resonate with some:

• Overthinking
• Buying courses you don’t need
• Jumping between resources, never finishing anything
• Not doing what you know you should do
• Procrastination
• Tilt
• Losing motivation

It is the same for chess, business, nutrition… You don’t need complex systems to get better at them. You just need to follow a simple plan for long enough to see improvements.

The problem is that following this simple plan is really hard.

My 6 months Challenge

I know this all too well, because even though I write about these things, I do struggle with them too. When I publish a YouTube video and it doesn’t do as well as expected, I feel sad and lose a little motivation. Instead of working on the next one, I check the stats and somehow want to forcefully make it be seen my more people.

On bad days, I start to re-think my whole business strategy, get tempted by silly clickbait titles and start comparing myself with other chess content creators. That’s just such a waste of time.

Whenever I get back to my long term vision I get clear on what I should do.

• Provide the most helpful content possible
• Slowly improve more technical things without falling into clickbait
• Let the compound effect take care of the rest

To be able to do just that, I’ve set myself a 6-month challenge. From November 1st 2025 to May 1st 2026 I’m going to stick to my plan without interpreting the results along the way.

Sure, if I need to see some stats for feedback or improvements, I can do that. But what I won’t do is to check results just for results sake. And if I do, I want to remind myself to just do the work that I planned to do.

There is this famous quote attributed to Bill Gates:

“Most people overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” – Bill Gates

and I totally agree.

Just that I believe in our quick living world, we don’t even need to wait 10 years to see great results. Sure, if you want to become a Billionaire, maybe give it a decade.

But if you just want to improve your game, get out of a plateau, or like me, reach more people and improve my teaching skills, already 6 months of consistent work can make a huge difference.

You Can Join, Too

This is an open invitation to anyone to join this challenge. For 6 months, stop interpreting your results. Just decide what is the best plan to improve your game, and stick to it. And whenever you get caught in a cycle of interpreting your results and wanting to change your whole approach to chess, just remind yourself of that challenge and do the work.

My hope is that in 6 months, most of us will be surprised by how much we can improve if we just follow the process. As at least my YouTube numbers are public, you’ll be able to follow along and see how this journey goes.

Keep improving, GM Noël

PS*: This article was initially sent out to my Newsletter list. If you want to get chess improvement advice for free in your inbox, join 17,000+ chess improvers by signing up for Friday Grandmaster Insights here.*

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