00:00You have to analyze your own games.
00:17Analyzing your own games is vital for your progress
00:21because that's the ultimate source of inspiration.
00:25And when I say inspiration, it's more like learning experience
00:29but if you want to understand how to get better,
00:33you have to look exactly at the moves you made
00:35and find out the nature of your mistakes
00:38but also to understand why you made good moves in certain positions.
00:42Learning about yourself is impossible.
00:45It's absolutely impossible without being very thorough analysts of your own games.
00:51And you have to be very honest, brutally honest,
00:55even relentlessly honest with your own games.
00:58Don't try to please yourself with some commentaries.
01:02Oh, this is here.
01:04I made a bad move because, you know, somebody was talking loudly
01:10or my opponent looked at me.
01:15It wasn't very pleasant.
01:17Don't look for any excuses.
01:19It's all about you, about your moves, about the quality of your moves
01:23and better you understand the nature of your mistakes,
01:26better you understand the nature of your game, good and bad moves,
01:31better are your chances of making fast improvement.
01:37While being a professional player,
01:46I had a habit
01:48that
01:49you have to
01:51glance
01:53at your game
01:54almost instantly.
01:56When it's over, you have to analyze it
01:58while it's all fresh in your mind.
02:00You try to understand what's happening in the game
02:02and then you can set it aside because you have another game probably next day.
02:08And then you have to go back.
02:10And you have to find out what did go wrong.
02:15But also, you have to find out
02:17what did go wrong with your opponent
02:19because if you won the game,
02:21it doesn't mean that you haven't made a mistake.
02:22Most likely, it's because your opponent made the last mistake.
02:27And it's very important that you find these mistakes.
02:31Opponents' mistakes and your mistakes.
02:34The greatest danger,
02:36it's what I call gravity
02:37of your past success.
02:42If we win,
02:44we're always tempted
02:45to consider it as a result of our greatness.
02:48We made great moves,
02:50we crushed our opponent,
02:51let's move on.
02:54But I bet you
02:56there is a mistake.
02:59And if you don't find these mistakes,
03:02if you didn't find
03:04what went wrong in your game
03:06before they did,
03:10they will be ahead of you next time.
03:13So to be ahead of a curve,
03:14you always have to analyze your own games,
03:18even if you win.
03:19And that's what I did all the time.
03:21What's the difference?
03:22How do you find the best place for learning patterns?
03:28Studying classical games
03:29always helps.
03:32Because at the end of the day,
03:33it's about patterns
03:34and where can you find
03:36the best place for learning patterns
03:38if not studying the games
03:41if not studying the games of those giants
03:43who have invented these ideas.
03:50I spent a lot of time working on
03:51a series of books called
03:53My Great Predecessors.
03:54And one of the things I discovered
03:56in the process of working on these books
03:59is that
03:59very often
04:01in the crucial moments
04:03of these games,
04:05they made better decisions
04:07at the board,
04:08at the moment where
04:09all your senses are mobilized.
04:12They saw more
04:14and better moves
04:16than
04:17when later
04:20they were in comfort of the studies,
04:23writing books
04:24and making comments
04:25when your senses
04:26are
04:26switched off.
04:29I can
04:29only recommend
04:31to read
04:32these books
04:33because
04:34this is
04:35like an encyclopedia
04:37of chess ideas.
04:39You can enjoy some of them
04:40more than others.
04:41You can like
04:42Morphe games
04:43more than
04:43Steinle's games.
04:44You can like
04:45Kamerblanga games
04:46more than Lasker's games.
04:47You can like
04:48Alohen more than
04:49Batvinik.
04:50But at the end of the day,
04:51you want to be a good player,
04:52you want to improve your chess,
04:54you have to know
04:55all these games.
04:56You have to learn
04:57from these games.
04:58Trust me,
05:00your chess
05:01will be more creative.
05:03It's
05:03like getting richer
05:04because you have
05:06more ideas.
05:07You will feel
05:08these certain things
05:10even beyond
05:11your ability
05:12to appreciate it.
05:13It will be
05:13kind of
05:14subconscious
05:15education
05:16that will
05:17at one point
05:20or another
05:20help you
05:21at a crucial moment
05:22at your game
05:22because many
05:24of these patterns
05:25that have been
05:26developed by
05:26these great players
05:28of the past,
05:29many if not all,
05:31they're still relevant.
05:34You can have
05:35different openings
05:35but at the end of the day
05:36we reach an endgame
05:37and there's certain rules
05:38that will apply
05:39whether the game
05:40was played
05:41in 1905
05:42or in 2017.
05:44to you.
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