All Chess All The Time @ACATT_AllChess

Be consistent.

Be consistent.

Be consistent.

Be consistent.

Be consistent.

Be consistent.

All you have to do is at some point today sit at a chessboard for an hour. Or half an hour. Or 10 minutes. Or 5 minutes. Just as long as you sit at a chessboard at some point today.

"I remember vividly that I suddenly started to see possibilities for exchange sacrifices in my own games after I had collected and studied material on this theme for a training session." - Arthur van de Oudeweetering.

"One book irresistibly caught my attention. It was titled Zo speelt Botwinnik! ('Botwinnik lehrt Schach' - i.e. 'Botvinnik Teaches Chess'). It was written by the Austrian Hans Muller. 'This book', I said to my grandmother." - Jan Timman.

What if you really tried for a bit? Just to see what it was like.

"The basic idea here is to play the man. Don't seek complications against someone of whom the reply to 'how does he play?' has always been: 'with an axe.'" - Jacob Aagaard

"Many equal or supposedly 'drawn' positions still offer plenty of scope to outplay the opponent." - Mihail Marin

" ... it is obvious that the time when I began to specialise, by studying certain niche areas of the game in great detail, was also the moment when I began to ascend towards the level of a truly strong player who would go on to become a Grandmaster." - Tiger Hillarp Persson

At the 2003 Jamaican High School Championships Usain Bolt ran 200 metres in 20.25 seconds. 13 years later he won his third Olympic Gold Medal in 19.78 seconds He spent an entire career cutting his time by less than half a second. Tell me again how you can't handle your plateau.

"One of the most important skills for any successful player is the ability to remain competitive in unfavourable situations, and score a decent number of points from the games we should 'rightfully' lose." - Peter Heine Nielsen

" ... for attaining the rank of 'mere' Grandmaster with a rating of around 2500 ... chess talent alone is wholly insufficient. All Grandmasters (not just those with the 'super-' prefix) have travelled a long road of diligent study and practice." - Pavel Eljanov

"Probably the most important attribute for a grandmaster is his tenacity ... he will press on until there is no hope left ... they now that this attitude brings results more often than their amateur opponents expect." - Jacob Aagaard

"The sad fact is that the lessons are simple and trite. My strengths are in the areas I studied hard; my weaknesses are in the areas I neglected." - GM John Shaw.

Chess is what you do despite your life making other plans for you.

"The engine will tend to point out errors but will not tend to shed light on the trends or false thinking that lay behind them." - Peter Wells (Chess Improvement: It's all in the mindset)