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.

Golden Trap

Gold: The Shiniest Trap Ever Built

Gold. The metal that does nothing… yet somehow controls everything.

It doesn’t grow food, doesn’t heal disease, doesn’t build civilization, doesn’t solve a single modern problem. But for thousands of years, humans have lined up like moths around a golden flame, ready to fight, bleed, kneel, and obey.

What if that wasn’t an accident?
What if gold was engineered — or at least weaponized — as the perfect human control mechanism?

Let’s take the lid off this glittering pressure cooker.

---

1. The Manufactured Scarcity Game

Gold isn’t actually rare. There’s plenty of it. But the power groups who run the world figured out the oldest psychological trick:

Control the supply, control the story, control the people.

By making gold seem limited, they made power seem limited — and made sure only they controlled the faucet. They turned a metal into a myth.

---

2. A Metal With No Use… Except Mind Control

Gold doesn’t fuel engines, doesn’t build tech, doesn’t cure anything.

But it does something far more valuable to elites:

It controls human emotion.

Gold triggers:

• fear of losing it
• greed for more
• insecurity
• obsession
• dependence
• a false sense of stability

A perfect leash that you gladly tie around your own neck.

---

3. Banking Elites Picked Gold for a Reason

When modern finance was built, they could have chosen anything as the global standard: land, cattle, energy, oil, grains…

But they zeroed in on gold.

Because gold stays where it’s kept.
And only a few people historically had vaults.

Gold centralized wealth.
And centralized wealth = centralized power.

It’s not a currency. It’s a chokehold.

---

4. The Myth of “Intrinsic Value” — The Gold Illusion

The biggest scam is the belief that gold has inherent value.

Nothing has inherent value.
Humans assign value, and powerful humans broadcast the assignment.

Gold is valuable because someone — long ago — convinced everyone to agree it was valuable.

It’s a consensual hallucination.
A golden group hypnosis.

---

5. Ancient Civilizations Were Programmed

Empires enforced gold like a religion:

• Want to trade? Gold.
• Want status? Gold.
• Want to survive? Gold.

Tie survival to a metal controlled by rulers… and bam, you get entire civilizations behaving exactly as you want.

Gold wasn’t wealth.
It was obedience wrapped in shine.

---

6. The Cosmic Angle

Some researchers say gold:

• came from asteroid collisions
• was mined by early humans for “sky gods”
• appears mysteriously in multiple ancient texts connected to divine beings

If true, gold isn’t just a financial trap.
It’s an interstellar resource extraction program.

Humans didn’t worship gold.
They were programmed to be gold miners.

---

7. Modern Gold Mania: The Trap Still Works

Central banks hoard it.
Governments manipulate it.
Markets fluctuate around invisible decisions.
People instinctively trust it more than their spouse.

That’s not rational.
That’s conditioning.

Gold is still the world’s hidden puppet string.

---

8. The Golden Chase: What Happens to Someone Who Obsesses Over Buying Gold

Here’s the dark, rarely spoken part.

When someone becomes a gold-chaser — constantly trying to buy more, accumulate more, hoard more — the metal slowly drains them of the very things that matter.

They lose their liquidity

Gold doesn’t flow.
It sits.
Frozen.
Immobile.
Just like the person buying it.

Their energy gets locked in a metal that doesn’t move, doesn’t multiply, and doesn’t work for them.

They lose their growth

While the world moves fast, gold stands still.
Someone who keeps converting cash to gold unknowingly pauses their life progress.

It’s like putting your ambition in a freezer.

They lose their adaptability

Gold hoarders get scared of risk.
Scared of opportunity.
Scared of life.

The shine becomes a shield — and then a cage.

They lose their time

Gold obsession is slow poison.
It turns focus away from:

• creation
• skill
• mastery
• expansion

And channels it into:

• fear
• protection
• hoarding
• stagnation

The golden chase steals decades quietly.

They lose their freedom

A person who constantly buys gold becomes psychologically owned by it.

They think they own gold.
But gold owns them.

Always anxious.
Always protective.
Always thinking:
“Do I have enough?”
“Should I buy more?”
“What if the price drops?”
“What if something happens?”

Gold becomes a mental landlord collecting rent in peace, sleep, and confidence.

And ultimately… they lose themselves

The golden pursuit turns into a golden prison.

The more they chase, the more they shrink.

They trade:

• curiosity for caution
• adventure for anxiety
• growth for guarding
• openness for obsession

Their life stops expanding and starts orbiting a single shiny object.

---

Final Thought: Gold Is the Oldest Cage

Gold didn’t become valuable because it was useful.
Gold became valuable because it was controllable.

A perfect currency for rulers.
A perfect trap for followers.

It’s not just a metal.
It’s a psychological program.
A universal obedience algorithm.
A shiny leash passed down through centuries.

And the funniest part?

People still believe they’re buying security…
when they’re really buying a cage.

Crafted by Randy Alstone.

Stay Alstoned!

Different Level of Chess Coaches

The 6 Types of Teachers in Sanskrit — and What They Mean for Your Child’s Chess Journey

Parents often ask, “What kind of coach does my child actually need?”
It’s a great question — because in the Indian tradition, teachers were never seen as “one size fits all.” Sanskrit literature actually classifies teachers into six types, each serving a different purpose.

When we map this ancient framework onto today’s chess world, parents get a much clearer picture of how learning truly happens.

Let’s decode the six types and see how they relate to your child’s growth on the 64 squares.

---

1. Śikṣaka — The Instructor

In Sanskrit, the Śikṣaka is the basic teacher — the one who introduces lessons and foundations.

In chess:
This is the coach who teaches rules, simple tactics, and first steps.
Perfect for beginners.
They make the child comfortable and curious.

Every journey starts here.

---

2. Upādhyāya — The Specialist

The Upādhyāya teaches specific scriptures or skills in depth.

In chess:
This is the coach who focuses on a niche:

• openings
• endgames
• positional play
• calculation

Once your child knows the basics, a specialist can sharpen specific areas.

---

3. Ācārya — The One Who Lives the Teaching

An Ācārya isn’t just knowledgeable — they embody what they teach.

In chess:
This is the coach who studies daily, improves personally, plays tournaments, and sets an example.
Children naturally absorb their discipline, attitude, and work ethic.

An Ācārya shapes character as much as skill.

---

4. Guru — The Transformer

A Guru is traditionally described as one who removes inner darkness.

In chess:
This is the coach who changes the psychology of a young player:

• fear of losing
• pressure during tournaments
• lack of confidence
• emotional instability
• difficulty focusing

A Guru doesn’t just teach moves — they unlock the child’s mind.

---

5. Ṛṣi — The Seer

A Ṛṣi perceives truth directly — beyond textbooks.

In chess:
This is the coach who looks at your child’s games and instantly sees:

• patterns of thinking
• hidden strengths
• blind spots
• deeper causes behind mistakes
• the child’s natural style

Their guidance feels intuitive, precise, almost effortless.

Such teachers are rare.

---

6. Satguru — The Master Who Elevates

A Satguru is the highest form — one who guides a person to their fullest potential.

In chess:
This coach doesn’t just produce improvement.
They produce transformation.

They realign the child’s confidence, discipline, intuition, resilience, and identity.
Their students grow not just as players, but as human beings.

This level is extremely uncommon, but unmistakable when you see it.

---

So What Should Parents Look For?

• For beginners → a Śikṣaka
• For skill development → an Upādhyāya
• For competitive discipline → an Ācārya
• For mindset and tournament performance → a Guru
• For deep, long-term transformation → a Satguru-like mentor

Every child needs a different type of teacher at different stages.

But the rarest teachers — those who blend multiple layers — create the biggest shifts.

---

A Quiet Note…

Every once in a while, a coach comes along who doesn’t neatly fit into any one category — someone who naturally operates on the higher layers without calling themselves anything.

You’ll notice it through your child’s growth, confidence, and clarity.

If you ever come across such a mentor, hold onto them.
They are few.
And they change lives quietly.

Crafted by Sa Kannan, the Immortal Coach.

Chess Improvement Series- 2

The Wrong Bus Principle: A Life Lesson for Chess Improvement

We all know that feeling.

You’re standing at the crossroads of your chess journey, overwhelmed by options — openings to study, games to review, tactics to solve, courses to watch. Then you see a shiny shortcut pass by. A “quick improvement hack.” A new opening weapon. A flashy tactic app. A YouTube shortcut promising instant rating gains.

It looks fast.
It looks easy.
It feels like it’s going near enough to your real goal.

So you get on the bus.

And, just like in life, the wrong bus always steals more time than waiting at the right stop.

---

The Illusion of Fast Progress

In chess, wrong buses look like this:

• Learning a new opening because it feels exciting — while your fundamentals are shaky.
• Spamming tactics without understanding why you’re blundering.
• Switching between coaches, courses, and apps every week.
• Playing endless blitz games hoping “experience” alone will fix everything.

These things feel productive. They give you dopamine.
But they push you farther from mastery.

The problem?

Almost-correct training is more dangerous than clearly-wrong training.

Clearly-wrong methods show failure quickly.
Almost-correct methods keep you hopeful while quietly dragging you the wrong way.

You lose time not once, but twice:

1. Time wasted on the wrong path.
2. Time needed to return and rebuild the right foundation.

---

Chess Improvement Is a Direction Game, Not a Speed Game

Strength doesn’t come from moving fast.
It comes from moving in the right direction.

When your training aligns with who you want to become — an IM, a GM, a fierce classical-thinking player — even slow steps compound like magic.

But when you take shortcuts?

You move quickly… to the wrong destination.

In chess, misalignment shows up as:

• 10 openings learned, zero understood.
• 500 tactics solved, but still hanging pieces.
• Playing 30 blitz games but analyzing none.

That’s the “wrong bus” disguised as progress.

---

The Power of Choosing Correctly

Waiting for the right bus in chess means:

• Studying master games slowly, with understanding.
• Building foundations: calculation, endgames, positional awareness.
• Playing fewer games but analyzing deeply.
• Following a structured routine like your 60/30/10 system — every day, without fail.

These choices don’t feel fast.
But they take you exactly where you want to go.

Because the universe works on a simple truth:

Direction > Speed.
Clarity > Motion.
Alignment > Effort.

---

The Return Journey Cost

The saddest part?

Going the wrong way forces you to come back and relearn everything:

• Fixing openings built on weak fundamentals.
• Unlearning bad habits from blitz addiction.
• Rebuilding calculation muscles after months of random training.

Wasted time twice.
Just because the wrong bus arrived first.

---

The Final Word

Chess mastery is not about how fast you move.
It’s about whether your movement carries purpose.

Better to wait one extra day, one extra week, one extra month — choosing the right study method —
than to sprint in the wrong direction for a year.

The right bus always arrives.
And when it does, you reach your destination with far less struggle, regret, and unnecessary return trips.

Choose consciously.
Train with direction.
Move with purpose.

Your title — IM, GM, World Champion — is not far.
But you must ride the right bus all the way!

Crafted by Randy Alstone @ Sa Kannan.

Chess Improvement Series- 1

The Mencken Principle in Chess Improvement

H. L. Mencken once wrote,

“Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.”

That line should be printed on every chess notebook. Because chess, like life, tempts you with “neat and plausible” answers.

You lose a few games, and the mind jumps to simple fixes: I’ll change openings. I’ll do 100 tactics a day. I’ll watch this grandmaster course. Each sounds reasonable, even clever — yet each dodges the deeper complexity that true growth demands.

Chess improvement isn’t a single road. It’s a living system — logic, intuition, emotion, memory, fatigue, courage. Treat it as a straight path and you’ll keep circling the same rating forever.

The antidote is layered discipline, not blind repetition. That’s why I built my 60/30/10 Universal Law as a framework:

• 60% Foundation — studying master games, building understanding and structure.
• 30% Reinforcement — sharpening through tactics, calculations, and focused drills.
• 10% Control — playing training games to test and reveal weaknesses.

This rhythm accepts complexity instead of pretending it doesn’t exist. It respects the organism that chess really is.

Mencken saw through the human craving for tidy solutions. The same applies here: the moment a method looks too simple to fail, it’s probably already failed.

— Randy Alstone @ Sa Kannan.

Focused Coaching

Why I’m Stepping Back from Coaching Certain Students

The Line I Can’t Cross Anymore

This isn’t a rant. It’s a realization.
After years of teaching chess, I’ve reached a quiet but firm truth — I can no longer coach students who aren’t willing to work.

Not those who struggle — struggle is sacred.
But those who avoid struggle, yet demand success as if it’s owed to them.

I’ve seen too many come asking for results while resisting the very process that creates them. They want comfort disguised as progress, shortcuts dressed as strategy.

And I’m done pretending that works.

---

The Shortcut Culture in Chess

There’s a new kind of laziness spreading in the chess world — a hunger for quick mastery without deep thought.
Students scroll through YouTube, memorize openings, repeat slogans like “Play this to win fast,” and think they’re training.

They’re not.
They’re rehearsing someone else’s lines instead of developing their own mind.

When they lose, they blame the opening, the opponent, the day — anything except the mirror.
They treat learning as consumption, not creation.

That’s not how champions are made.

---

Parents and the Opening Obsession

And then there are the parents — well-intentioned, but misdirected.
They speak to me about openings as if the right first ten moves can replace the right mindset.

“What opening should my child play to win?”
It sounds harmless, but it reveals a deeper confusion — mistaking information for intelligence.

They think chess success begins with memorization. It doesn’t.
It begins with stillness, curiosity, resilience — traits no opening can teach.

When a parent measures progress in results instead of growth, they unknowingly train the child to fear losing more than to love learning. And once that happens, even the best coach is helpless.

---

The Kind of Student I Can Teach

There’s a clear difference between struggling and resisting.
Struggling is noble. It means you’re pushing your limits.
Resisting means you’re avoiding the truth.

The students I value don’t look for easy paths — they look for real ones.
They study their own losses.
They train even when they don’t feel like it.
They understand that improvement is supposed to be uncomfortable.

They listen not because they’re obedient, but because they want to understand.

Those are the students I stay for.

---

The Kind of Student I’m Done With

If you want motivation without motion, I’m not your coach.
If you talk about openings more than ideas, I’m not your coach.
If you want praise but not correction, I’m not your coach.

Coaching is not a service. It’s a partnership.
When one side stops showing up with integrity, the other must walk away.

---

Where My Focus Turns Now

My direction is clear — I’m returning to my own game.
Training, competing, and walking the same path I ask others to walk.

Alongside that, I’ll continue guiding only those who show real hunger — students who question deeply, think independently, and stay consistent when no one’s watching.
I’d rather work with a handful of genuine learners than a crowd chasing comfort.

The rest can keep chasing trends. I’ll keep chasing truth.

---

The Final Word

This isn’t bitterness; it’s alignment.
When teaching stops feeling mutual, it loses meaning.

I respect chess too much to turn it into noise.
From here on, I teach only where effort meets sincerity — where the game still matters more than the image.

The board always tells the truth.
So will I.

The Immortal Coach,

Sa Kannan.