Lim Zhuo Ren Chess

  When was the last time your confidence took a knock? Is confidence actually fragile? If confidence can be broken, how can I rebuild it? Part 1 I had a lot of trouble during primary school. My grades were bad, I didn't like going to school and I got punish a lot. I actually almost got expelled once but that's another story. Then when I was turning 12, my parents got me 1:1 lessons with a chess coach, I started getting better and being able to answer his questions and getting positive feedback and encouragement. It made me more confident in my abilities. I then started playing tournaments. My first few tournaments were disasters but as the year progress, the results got better and better. And my confidence grew. For some reason, confidence growing in chess also improved my confidence in other areas. Its like that saying a tide rises all boats. I did well for UPSR that year. And I never had issues with school after. Exams weren't tough even though I miss 2-4 months of the sc...

  Theory vs Practical In science class in school and college, there were always practical sessions. Not just theory. They need to go hand in hand. My 2nd batch of student of the 6 months classics group had been asking to play me in simul since March. Since June was the last month of the current 6 month program. I decided that 5 months of theory probably got too boring for them. So I decided the last 4 classes would be of a practical nature. They were so excited when I told them. We played around 5 simuls and I lost to at least half of my students at least once. Its good to see how much they improved ( i did my job well ). We also did some hand & brain sessions. For the last class, they asked me to do a tournament for all of them. The results are in the photo. The ones who finished 5th, 7th and 8th are the 3 guys who finished top 10 in the Herosifu tournament (under 12 section). The 2nd, 3rd and 4th placings for our internal tournament are 12 and 13 years old.

  Thinking Without Action is Procrasination 2 Months ago, i suffered some setbacks in a tournament. I lost to one player, A from the Philippines who created a new lichess account in 2020. He had played over 3000 games in the space of a year. He also finished in the top 10 of the Zonals featuring many GMs. After the tournament ended, I decided to do the same. Create a new lichess account and play openings I normally do not play such as 1.e4. The only game that didn't feature 1.e4 was one game and I played it this morning. It helped me cross the 2500 barrier on lichess for the first time. Something I never did using my main account. So after 178 games played, I have reached 2500. Its not such a great thing in the grand scheme of things. But for me, its progress. And I am happy I started a new thing from a setback. What slight change are you thinking about that you can make that could bring you results? Maybe its time to get out of the thinking and start the doing.

  The Bicycle Approach to Life......& How You can use it to play even better chess as well as enjoy it more.... There was this story about this guy who was ultra-competitive and a real go-getter. When he was young, he started biking down the beach near his house. And when he started he would push super hard. Pedaling as hard as he could. No matter how hard he pedaled, he would never get lower than 43 minutes to finish the trail. After a few weeks, he started getting less and le ss excited about going through that slog. He became tired. One day, he thought how about today I just take it easy, and go at a decent pace. He could enjoy the view and didn't need to strain himself. At the end, he looked down and couldn't believe his eyes. He took 45 minutes. All that effort, strain and pain, just for an extra 2 minutes. It doesn't help consistency because you are more likely to stop doing things when they become tiring and when they feel like a slog. For chess, its similar, tra...

CLICK HERE  to see my original reason first! I wrote the reason slightly over 5 years ago. Read it prior to writing this.  I think the reasons I wrote in 2016 are still valid. But perhaps not the priority  anymore. I think I don't exactly know the real reason. So typing the reasons I had back in 2016  seem abit naive to me now. But sometimes reasons can change. Alot of times when I write, it is actually to organise my own thoughts and to understand myself more.  When I read the 2016 post, I actually feel some pain and sadness. The selfish truth is Probably I wrote it to document my journey and see how far I have come and Also to be accountable to follow through on some of the goals I have, I have tried different things in the past 5 years. Some worked and SOME FAILED Spectacularly. It really is a journey. It also provides a good springboard for me to  reminisce and see what I thought from a few years ago. Right now, I feel a bit lost and I want to make some...

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How this way of thinking and doing things help me make Decisions and how you can too! CLICK HERE  to watch the VIDEO