Chess Spending Principle

The 60–30–10 Rule: The Only Smart Way Parents Should Spend on Chess

Most parents want the same thing:
real improvement, not just activity.

But in chess, money is often spent in the wrong order. The result? Busy schedules, rising expenses—and very little growth.

That’s where the 60–30–10 rule comes in. It’s a simple framework that separates progress from noise.

60% – The Coach (Foundation)

This is the non-negotiable core.

A good coach doesn’t just teach moves. A coach:

• Builds thinking habits
• Corrects mistakes early (before they fossilize)
• Provides structure, discipline, and direction
• Saves years of trial-and-error

Without consistent coaching, everything else becomes guesswork.
Parents sometimes hesitate here—but this is the engine of improvement.

No engine, no journey.

30% – Self Resources (Reinforcement)

Once guidance is in place, resources begin to matter.

This includes:

• Chess books and databases
• Online platforms and training tools
• Home practice, analysis, and revision

These sharpen what the coach introduces.
Used without guidance, they confuse.
Used with guidance, they compound.

This is where strength is built quietly.

10% – Tournament Spending (Control & Expression)

Tournaments are important—but only in the right proportion.

They provide:

• Practical experience
• Psychological exposure
• Rating feedback

What they don’t provide is improvement by themselves.

Tournaments reveal strength.
They do not create it.

Spending heavily here without a strong foundation only exposes weaknesses faster.

The Common Mistake Parents Make

Many parents reverse the order:

• Too many tournaments
• Too many apps and platforms
• Too little coaching

This looks productive—but it’s inefficient.

It’s like polishing a car, adding premium fuel, and entering races…
without first building the engine.

The Core Principle

Coaches create strength.
Resources reinforce it.
Tournaments reveal it.

When parents align spending in the 60–30–10 ratio, progress becomes predictable, steady, and sustainable.

Chess improvement isn’t about spending more.
It’s about spending right.

And when the foundation is correct, results follow—quietly, naturally, and inevitably.

Crafted by Randy Alstone @ Sa. Kannan, The Immortal Coach.

Universal Chess Development Model

8-Year Universal Chess Development Model

Chess improvement follows a natural long-term progression.
Skill does not grow randomly — it develops in clear stages, each building on the previous one.
This 8-year model outlines a universal path from beginner to peak level, suitable for students of any age.

Years 1–2: BASICS

Focus: Tactics + Playing Practice

• Learn rules, checkmates, and correct piece movement
• Build tactical awareness (forks, pins, basic mates)
• Play regularly and review games

Outcome:
A player who can play complete games confidently with minimal blunders.

Years 3–4: UNDERSTANDING

Focus: Studying Master Games

• Learn chess ideas from classical and modern master games
• Understand planning, piece activity, and positional themes
• Develop intuition and long-term thinking

Outcome:
A player who understands why moves are played, not just what moves are played.

Years 5–6: STRENGTH

Focus: Calculation + Strategic Concepts

• Train deeper calculation and visualization
• Learn core strategic concepts (pawn structures, weak squares, attack & defense)
• Analyze one’s own games seriously

Outcome:
A competitive player with consistency, discipline, and practical strength.

Years 7–8: MASTERY

Focus: Complete Chess

• Opening systems and preparation
• Endgame technique
• Integration of tactics, strategy, and experience

Outcome:
A complete chess player operating near their personal peak level.

The Core Structure

• Basics → Playing correctly
• Understanding → Thinking correctly
• Strength → Competing strongly
• Mastery → Playing completely

Key Principle

Each stage must be completed before moving to the next.
Skipping stages leads to fragile progress; following the sequence leads to stable, long-term improvement.

This is a universal growth model — simple, scalable, and applicable to all serious chess learners.

Crafted by Randy Alstone @ Sa.Kannan, The Immortal Coach.

Risk as Medicine

Comfort is not rest. It is sedation.

In small doses, comfort helps recovery. In large doses, it quietly kills growth. Most people don’t fail because they took too many risks. They fail because they took too few, for too long, and mistook stability for strength.

I prescribe risk as medicine.

Not reckless risk. Not impulsive thrill-seeking.
Deliberate, conscious risk—taken the way medicine is taken: with intent, timing, and dosage.

Comfort Is a Slow Disease

Comfort feels harmless because it doesn’t hurt immediately. It comes with routines, salaries, familiar roles, and social approval. But over time, it dulls perception. Hunger disappears. Curiosity fades. The edge softens.

You stop asking “What am I capable of?”
You start asking “How do I protect what I have?”

That’s not wisdom. That’s fear wearing clean clothes.

Risk Reawakens the System

Risk brings the nervous system back online.

When something is at stake, attention sharpens. Intuition speaks. Energy returns. You become present—not because you want to, but because you must. Risk forces alignment between thought, instinct, and action.

Comfort lets you sleepwalk through life.
Risk makes you awake.

Risk Builds Self-Trust

The more comfort you accumulate, the more dependent you become—on structures, permissions, and guarantees. Risk reverses this. Every risk taken and survived restores a simple truth:

I can handle consequences.

That confidence cannot be borrowed. It must be earned through exposure.

Small Risks Prevent Big Ruptures

People who avoid discomfort don’t avoid pain—they postpone it. Suppressed growth demands repayment later, often as crisis, breakdown, or regret.

Regular, voluntary risk keeps the system adaptive.
No pressure means no resilience.
No resistance means no strength.

Risk is preventative medicine.

Risk Tells the Truth

Comfort lies politely.
It says, “You’re fine.”

Risk is blunt.
It asks, “Are you actually capable—or just protected?”

Truth is uncomfortable. That’s why it works.

The Dosage Matters

I don’t prescribe chaos.
I prescribe calculated exposure.

Risk your opinions.
Risk your routines.
Risk your identities.
Risk the structures that make you feel safe but keep you small.

Never risk your health, your integrity, or your long-term clarity. Those are the organs you need to heal everything else.

Final Prescription

If your life feels stagnant, numb, or overly predictable, the diagnosis is simple: excess comfort.

The treatment is not motivation.
It is not inspiration.
It is risk—taken willingly, regularly, and consciously.

Comfort makes you manageable.
Risk makes you alive.

Take your medicine.

Crafted by Randy Alstone.

Stay Alstoned!

Say No to Gluten - Chess Diet Rule 1

All Blunders Come From Gluten

A Mind–Body Lesson for Every Serious Chess Player

If you’ve ever stared at the board after a ridiculous move and wondered, “Why did I play that?”, let me give you a bold answer:

Because you ate the wrong thing.

Yes, I’m serious.
And no, this isn’t a diet lecture — it’s a performance upgrade.

The Hidden Enemy of Clarity

Gluten isn’t just a harmless ingredient floating in bread and biscuits. For many people, it creates inflammation, brain fog, slow thinking, and unpredictable energy crashes.

In chess, that’s the holy trinity of disaster.

• Your calculation slows down by half a second.
• Your working memory drops one layer.
• Your intuition gets covered in a thick fog.

Result?
Blunder. Blunder. Blunder.

Not because you’re weak.
Because your brain was fighting your food instead of the position.

Chess Is a Cognitive Sport — Treat Your Brain Like an Athlete

If a sprinter ate something that tightened their muscles, they wouldn’t blame their “bad running technique.”
They’d blame the food.

Chess players, however, love to blame themselves:
“I’m stupid.”
“I’m inconsistent.”
“I’m tilted.”

No. You’re just loading your brain with substances that sabotage clarity and precision.

Every move you calculate travels through the physical organ inside your skull.
That organ has fuel requirements. If you disrespect that, don’t expect clean moves.

Gluten = Fog. Clarity = Victory.

When students remove gluten for just seven days, they consistently report:

• Faster thinking
• Fewer blunders
• Higher stamina in long games
• More emotional stability
• Sharper tactical awareness

Why?
Because the brain is no longer inflamed.

You can’t expect a Ferrari engine to run well on contaminated fuel.
You can’t expect a chess mind to operate at peak performance on gluten-heavy junk.

The 60/30/10 Law: The Anti-Blunder Diet

My students follow a simple golden rule:

60% Fat – 30% Protein – 10% Carbs.

This is the diet of clarity.
This is the diet of sustained focus.
This is the diet that eliminates the #1 cause of blunders: unstable energy.

When your brain runs on clean fat and steady protein, it becomes:

• Calm
• Sharp
• Efficient
• Predictable

That is the foundation of good chess.

Chess Talent Is Real — But So Is Chemistry

You can have brilliant instincts, great pattern recognition, and years of training — but if your biology betrays you, your moves will betray you too.

Every time a player drops a piece for free, I don’t first ask: “What opening did you play?”

I ask: “What did you eat today?”

Because the blunder didn’t start on the chessboard.
It started on the plate.

Make the Choice

If you want to:

• reduce blunders
• increase rating
• win more tournaments
• think like a champion

…then the first move isn’t 1.e4 or 1.d4.

It’s saying no to gluten.

Your brain will thank you.
Your rating will prove it.

Crafted by Randy Alstone.

Stay Alstoned!

Five Elements in Chess

Pancha Mahābhūtas in Chess

Pṛthvī (Earth) = Structure
Āpas (Water) = Flow
Agni (Fire) = Tactics
Vāyu (Air) = Activity
Ākāśa (Space) = Space

In classical thought, everything is made of five elements.
In chess, strength comes from the same five forces — not as symbolism, but as pure functional reality.
Here’s how the Pancha Mahābhūtas translate directly into the mechanics of strong play.

---

1. Pṛthvī (Earth) = Structure

Pṛthvī is stability.
In chess, this becomes the quality of your pawn structure and overall solidity.

• Strong pawns
• Sound central control
• A position that cannot be shaken easily

When Pṛthvī is firm, the whole position stands tall.
When it cracks, the game caves in.

---

2. Āpas (Water) = Flow

Āpas is movement, smoothness, continuity.
On the board, this appears as how effortlessly your pieces coordinate.

• Natural development
• Pieces supporting each other
• Fluid transitions

If Āpas flows, your game feels light and connected.
If it’s blocked, everything feels stiff.

---

3. Agni (Fire) = Tactics

Agni is sharp power — the ability to burn through obstacles.
In chess, this is your tactical strength and calculation.

• Combinations
• Sharp ideas
• Direct attacking force

Agni converts potential into immediate impact.

---

4. Vāyu (Air) = Activity

Vāyu is motion, speed, expansion.
In chess, this becomes piece activity and momentum.

• Mobility
• Initiative
• Rapid piece involvement

When Vāyu is present, your pieces breathe freely.
When absent, the position suffocates.

---

5. Ākāśa (Space) = Space

Ākāśa is openness, room, presence.
In chess, Ākāśa is simply the amount of board your pieces control.

• More space = more possibility
• Less space = forced restriction

Ākāśa decides who gets to play their plans and who gets pushed into survival mode.

---

The Essence

The Pancha Mahābhūtas are not five different systems.
They are five angles of one truth:
every position you play is shaped by Structure, Flow, Tactics, Activity, and Space.

This is the simplest, clearest lens for understanding your own chess.

Crafted by Randy Alstone @ Sa Kannan.

3 Elements of Chess- Life Lesson

The Three Fundamental Elements of Chess — and Their Real-Life Hierarchy

Every chess player learns about time, space, and material. But very few understand the true hierarchy among them — the way these three elements shape not only positions on a board but also decisions in real life.

Here is the clear, universal structure:

1. Time (Tempo) — The Supreme Element

In chess, time means tempo — the ability to mobilize, strike, or gain the initiative ahead of your opponent. A single tempo can transform a passive position into an attacking one. It dictates the flow of the game, the rhythm, the momentum.

In life, time is the only asset that never renews.
Money can be earned again.
Material can be replaced.
But time only moves forward.

Just as a player who loses tempo falls into defense, a person who wastes time loses initiative in life. Time sits at the top of the hierarchy because it defines every other element.

2. Space — The Field of Possibility

Space in chess is freedom: the ability to maneuver your pieces, express your plans, and restrict your opponent’s choices. With more space, your position breathes; with less space, your pieces suffocate.

In life, space matches perfectly with money — not because money is the goal, but because it creates options. Money amplifies your reach, your mobility, your access. Just as a spacious position gives more plans, financial space gives more paths.

Space is the second-most important element: powerful, enabling, and often decisive — but always subordinate to time.

3. Material — The Lowest of the Three

Material is the simplest concept: pieces, pawns, tangible assets. Gains in material can lead to wins, but only when time and space are not compromised.

A rook locked behind its own pawns has the “value” of a rook but the impact of a stone. Similarly, cars and possessions in life are material assets: useful but constantly depreciating, losing value with time and neglect.

Material has its place, but it is the least important of the three. Sacrifices in chess — and in life — are often made to gain time or claim space. That’s the natural order.

The Hierarchy Summarized

Time → Space → Material
Tempo → Control → Assets
Irreversible → Expandable → Depreciating

When you understand this hierarchy, your chess becomes more strategic, and your life becomes more aligned with what truly matters.

Master time, command space, and treat material as a tool — never the purpose.

Crafted by Randy Alstone @ Sa Kannan.

Chess Improvement Series- 3

Why Some Students Improve Faster: The Dunning–Kruger Effect in Chess

One thing I’ve learned after coaching hundreds of students:
chess improvement is not decided by talent alone — it’s decided by mindset.

Some students grow rapidly.
Some stay stuck for months.
The reason is often a simple psychological pattern called the Dunning–Kruger Effect.

It explains why:

• Less experienced players often think they’re stronger than they really are,
• While stronger, more aware students are humbler and more realistic.

Understanding this helps both students and parents.

1. The Overconfident Beginner

These students believe they already “know everything.”
They ask for openings before learning basics and get upset when corrected.

They don’t lack talent — they lack awareness of their own gaps.

2. The Plateaued Intermediate

They know some concepts, feel their weaknesses, but don’t yet know how to fix them.
This is the stage where many students get stuck.

They need structure and consistency, not shortcuts.

3. The Quiet Worker

Shows up, listens, applies what they learn.
No excuses, no overconfidence.

These students often underestimate themselves —
and because of that humility, they improve the fastest.

4. The Humble Talented Student

Naturally strong, learns quickly, but always feels there’s more to learn.
This is the ideal mindset for long-term success.

5. The Excuse-Maker

Blames losses on everything except their own mistakes.
Without self-reflection, improvement slows dramatically.

As a coach, I want every student to grow.
But growth happens only when a player:

• accepts mistakes
• stays open to learning
• works consistently
• develops honest self-awareness

If parents understand these patterns, they can support the process better.
If students understand them, they will improve much faster.

Chess doesn’t reward ego —
it rewards awareness, discipline, and a willingness to learn.

Crafted by Randy Alstone @ Sa Kannan.