Chess Coaching Truth

Chess Coaches Are Cheating Their Students

In today’s chess world, many coaches are taking shortcuts. They package “chess improvement” into tactics drills, opening files, or casual playing sessions without supervision. On the surface, this looks like training. In reality, it is negligence. It is cheating.

The Illusion of Progress

Tactics are flashy. Openings look attractive. Playing games feels active. But none of these, by themselves, build true chess strength. Students may feel they are improving because they get quick wins or memorize traps. In truth, their foundation remains shallow. They collapse once the opponent resists.

The Real Core of Chess Learning

Chess is not built on short-term tricks. Chess is ideas, strategy, and long-term understanding. This foundation does not come from puzzles or memorized lines. It comes from master games.

When a student studies how masters think—how they build positions, transform advantages, and convert wins—they absorb the essence of chess. They see patterns of harmony, not just fragments. They learn when to attack, when to defend, when to exchange, and when to wait.

Why Coaches Avoid Master Games

Showing master games takes patience. It demands effort from the coach to explain complex ideas in simple terms. It requires guiding the student through the slow process of thinking like a master. Most coaches avoid this. They choose the easy path: tactics apps, opening dumps, and unsupervised play.

This is not teaching. It is entertainment disguised as education.

The Honest Path

A real coach does not cheat students with shortcuts. A real coach builds chess understanding step by step. That path runs through annotated master games. Tactics, openings, and playing practice have value—but only after the student has first absorbed strategic truth from the classics.

Final Word

If a coach is not showing you master games, they are holding you back. Improvement in chess means entering the minds of the masters. Anything else is surface-level training that wastes time and money.

Stay Alstoned!

Bulletproof Chess Improvement Framework

Why 60% Mastery, 30% Tactics, and 10% Games is the Only Viable Way to Improve in Chess

Most chess players fail to improve because they attack symptoms, not causes. They spam blitz games, solve random puzzles, or read opening PDFs without a framework. Real improvement is not about doing “more.” It is about directing effort into the right channels. There is only one formula that aligns perfectly with chess growth: 60% mastery, 30% tactics, and 10% games.

1. Mastery: The Strategic Foundation (60%)

Mastery is fat—the slow-burning, stable energy source that sustains growth. In chess, mastery means:

• Studying classical games.

• Learning deep endgames.

• Understanding strategic plans and positional concepts.
  This builds long-term stability. Like fat in the body, mastery training gives depth and calm, the reserves you draw from in every real battle.

2. Tactics: The Muscle Power (30%)

Tactics are protein—the raw building blocks. Without tactics, your chess “muscle” breaks down. With too much, you become unbalanced. The sweet spot is daily puzzle solving, calculation training, and tactical motifs. Enough to stay sharp, not so much that everything is reduced to tricks.

3. Games: The Control Lever (10%)

Games are carbs—the fast energy. Necessary, but dangerous in excess. Endless blitz creates sugar highs followed by crashes: shallow play, bad habits, and stagnation. Limiting games to 10% means each game is played with focus, reviewed with care, and used as feedback to refine study.

The Improvement Mechanism

• High mastery = depth, stability, strategic clarity.

• Moderate tactics = sharpness, precision, calculation strength.

• Low games = controlled practice, no wasted energy.

This is not theory. It is the exact framework that separates serious improvers from stuck blitz addicts.

Why Other Ratios Fail

• Game-heavy training = flashy but shallow. No foundation, no growth.

• Tactic-only training = sharp tricks, but collapse in long games.

• Strategy-only training = knowledge with no execution power.

The Only Sustainable Path

The 60/30/10 ratio is not a temporary hack. It is the only viable structure for sustainable chess mastery. It aligns with how real improvement happens: deep foundation, tactical reinforcement, and controlled application.

Bottom line: If you want to actually get stronger, there is no shortcut around this ratio. 60% mastery, 30% tactics, 10% games—the Bulletproof Chess Framework—is the only way forward.

Stay Alstoned!

Chess Improvement Factors

Three Pillars of Chess Improvement: Learning, Effort, and Passion

For any student aiming to grow in chess under the guidance of a coach, three qualities are non-negotiable: the ability to learn from mistakes, the willingness to work hard, and a genuine interest in the game. These traits define how quickly and how far a player can progress.

1. Learning from Mistakes

Every chess game is a lesson. Blunders, miscalculations, and missed opportunities are not failures but stepping stones. A student who reflects on mistakes with humility and curiosity develops resilience. Instead of repeating errors, they evolve with each experience. Chess rewards those who treat every loss as instruction rather than discouragement.

2. Willingness to Work Hard

Talent without effort stagnates. Improvement in chess demands hours of study, analysis, and practice. Opening preparation, tactical drills, and endgame training require focus and persistence. A student who embraces this effort builds discipline and strength over time. Hard work is the bridge between potential and performance.

3. Interest in Chess

No amount of training is effective without genuine passion. Interest fuels the mind to sit longer at the board, to study games late into the night, and to push beyond comfort zones. When a student enjoys the process, learning becomes natural. Passion is the energy that sustains long-term progress.

Conclusion

A coach can provide guidance, tools, and structure, but the real engine of growth lies within the student. The combination of learning from mistakes, consistent hard work, and true interest in chess creates a foundation that no obstacle can break. With these three pillars, every coaching relationship becomes a journey toward mastery.

Stay Alstoned!

Shaktiman is Me

Shaktiman Within Me – The Five Elements in My Chart

Most people know me by my outer self – an Aquarian reformer, a thinker, a guide with Piscean undertones of mysticism. This is the layer the world sees: the Gangadhar face – intellectual, reform-minded, and eccentric in the pursuit of higher truth. But hidden within me lies something far more powerful: the Shaktiman essence, born from the conjunction of five planets in my 12th house.

In my chart, Capricorn in the 12th house holds Moon, Mars, Venus, Saturn, and Rahu. These five planets are not random placements – they directly represent the Pancha Bhootas, the five elemental forces of the universe:

1. Moon (Water – Jal Chakra)
   Symbol of intuition, healing, and adaptability. It governs the flow of inner emotions and the unseen currents of life. This is my ability to channel deep subconscious energy.

2. Mars (Fire – Agni Chakra)
   Exalted in Capricorn, Mars fuels unstoppable willpower and fiery destruction of obstacles. This is the core of my indomitable energy, the flame that never dies.

3. Venus (Earth – Prithvi Chakra)
   Anchor of materialization, attraction, and fertility. This is my power to manifest comfort, magnetism, and balance in the physical realm.

4. Saturn (Air – Vayu Chakra)
   The karmic disciplinarian, master of breath and endurance. This is the force that grants me patience, structure, and mastery over time itself.

5. Rahu (Ether/Space – Akash Chakra)
   The power of illusion, expansion, and astral reach. This is my access to hidden realms, to break through barriers, and to connect with the infinite.

Together, these five planets form a complete elemental integration within me. This is not mere coincidence – this is the mark of Shaktiman. Just as the superhero in the series embodied the Pancha Bhootas through his chakras, I too embody them in my subconscious power.

The Dual Identity

• Outer Life (Aquarius Lagna + Pisces Sun/Mercury): The reformer, visionary, eccentric scholar – my Gangadhar side, visible to society.
• Inner Life (12th house conjunction): The hidden superhero, the elemental powerhouse, the Shaktiman within.

This duality defines me. The world sees a thinker. The universe knows a force. I am not just a man navigating society – I am the bearer of all five elements, living proof of the Shaktiman principle in real life.

Strength Training is the Key

Strength Training: The Only Real Way to Lose Fat

Most people think walking or cardio is the answer to fat loss. They’re wrong. Walking helps. Cardio helps. But only strength training changes the one number that actually decides whether you stay fat or get lean: your BMR.

What is BMR?

Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the calories your body burns every hour just to stay alive. No exercise, no movement—just organs working, brain firing, heart beating.

• A 35-year-old man, 170 cm, 88 kg → 74 kcal/hour
• A 32-year-old woman, 169 cm, 80 kg → 64 kcal/hour

That’s 1,700–1,500 calories per day, even if they do absolutely nothing. This is the “silent fire” of the body.

Why Strength Training Beats Everything

Walking 30 minutes burns ~105 kcal. But at rest in the same 30 minutes, your body would already burn ~32 kcal. So the net gain is just 73 kcal. That’s half a banana. That’s not enough to change your life.

Strength training is different:

1. Higher Session Burn
   Even 10 minutes of lifting weights burns ~100 kcal -already more than slow walking.

2. Afterburn Effect
   Strength training keeps metabolism elevated for hours after the workout. Cardio stops the moment you stop.

3. Muscle = Permanent Calorie Burner
   Muscle is the only tissue you can voluntarily increase that raises BMR. Each kilo of new muscle adds ~13 kcal/day at rest. Two kilos of muscle = ~26 kcal more burned daily, forever. That’s ~9,500 kcal/year = 1.2 kg of fat, even if you never change diet.

The Trap of “Only Cardio”

Yes, cardio burns calories while you do it. But it doesn’t rewire your metabolism. It doesn’t build calorie-hungry tissue. That’s why cardio-only dieters lose weight, stall, and rebound. Their BMR stays low. They’re fighting against their own biology.

The Strength Training Advantage

• Lifting makes you stronger.
• Strength means muscle.
• Muscle means higher BMR.
• Higher BMR means fat loss on autopilot.

Walking is fine for health. Cardio is fine for stamina. But for fat loss that sticks, strength training is the only lever that transforms your body’s baseline engine.

Bottom Line

If you want to lose fat and keep it off, stop chasing small calorie burns with endless walking or jogging. Start lifting. Build muscle. Upgrade your BMR. Strength training isn’t just exercise - it’s the only method that changes your biology so fat loss becomes permanent.

Stay Alstoned!

ChessDiet and ChessFit

Chess Fitness: The Hidden Edge Professionals Overlook

At the top levels of chess, rating differences are razor-thin. Everyone studies openings, everyone trains tactics, everyone knows the endgame. What separates winners from those who falter is not more memorization—it’s the body and mind that carry the player through hours of deep calculation.

That’s where I come in.

I’m Sa Kannan, a Chess Fit Trainer and Chess Diet Consultant. I specialize in preparing professional players to perform at their best by addressing what most ignore: nutrition, exercise, and stamina.

Why Physical Preparation Matters in Chess

A classical game can last 5–7 hours. The brain consumes 20–25% of the body’s energy, and without the right fuel, even a great player will suffer fatigue, brain fog, and poor decisions in critical positions. Add the stress of tournament schedules, travel, and irregular sleep, and you can see why physical conditioning isn’t optional—it’s essential.

My System: Energy for the Long Game

Through years of experience with performance nutrition and functional training, I’ve developed a framework tailored for chess professionals:

• Diet Protocols for Focus and Stamina
  High-fat, moderate-protein, controlled-carb structures designed to stabilize energy during long rounds and avoid mid-game crashes.

• Exercise Routines for Mental Clarity
  Simple, targeted strength and mobility training that improves blood circulation, posture, and endurance at the board.

• Recovery and Lifestyle Optimization
  Strategies for managing stress, enhancing sleep quality, and ensuring consistent tournament readiness.

Who This Is For

I work with:

• Professional chess players preparing for national and international tournaments.
• Titled players who already have strong chess knowledge but want a physical and mental edge.
• Ambitious competitors seeking holistic preparation beyond opening theory.

What You Gain

• Sustained energy for marathon games.
• Clearer thinking in time trouble.
• Reduced fatigue across multi-day events.
• A structured lifestyle that supports—not sabotages—your chess.

The Difference

I’m not here to teach you chess—you already know your game. I’m here to make sure your body and mind are conditioned to let your chess shine at its highest level.

Your preparation doesn’t end with databases and engines. It begins with how you eat, train, and recover.

Let’s build your hidden edge.

Diet and Fitness in Chess

The Overlooked Dimension of Chess: Diet and Fitness

When people think of chess, they imagine long hours of deep thought, strategy, and calculation. Rarely does the conversation turn to diet, fitness, or physical conditioning. Yet, professional chess is a sport of the mind that rests heavily on the body. Mental clarity, stamina, and resilience all have direct links to nutrition and physical well-being.

Despite the mounting scientific evidence, the chess world still lacks widespread awareness of how much diet and fitness shape performance. Many players still assume that talent and training alone guarantee results, overlooking the subtle but critical role of food and lifestyle. An imbalanced diet can cloud focus, reduce energy during long games, and accelerate fatigue. Conversely, the right nutrition can extend concentration, sharpen calculation, and even regulate emotional stability under pressure.

The Hidden Demands of the Game

• Brain Fuel: The brain consumes a disproportionate amount of energy, demanding a steady supply of glucose and ketones for peak function. Poor eating patterns disrupt this flow, leading to lapses at crucial moments.
• Physical Endurance: A classical game can last up to 6–7 hours. Physical stamina directly impacts mental sharpness in the final stretch.
• Stress Resistance: Tournament play brings psychological stress. A body conditioned through proper fitness and diet recovers faster and withstands pressure better.

The Gap in Professional Preparation

Most chess professionals train openings, tactics, and endgames with extreme rigor, but few devote equivalent discipline to fueling their body for performance. The gap is stark: world-class calculation paired with subpar self-care. This lack of awareness leaves vast potential untapped.

My Perspective

From my own work, I see that diet and fitness are inseparable from chess performance. I have developed systems like the 60/30/10 Universal Law, aligning nutrition with cognitive and physical demands. The approach is simple: 60% foundation, 30% reinforcement, 10% control. Applied to diet, this gives the brain steady fuel and the body stable energy during the grind of competition.

I do not view chess training, fitness, and diet as separate silos. They are a single ecosystem. When optimized together, a player doesn’t just know the moves, but has the biological and mental foundation to sustain high-level play hour after hour.

The Future of Professional Chess

As awareness grows, it will become impossible to ignore the role of diet and fitness in competitive chess. Those who adopt this holistic approach will outlast, outthink, and outperform. The time has come for chess professionals to see beyond openings and tactics, and embrace the truth that chess is not just about brains. It is about the body that sustains them.

Crafted by Randy Alstone!

Stay Alstoned!

How to reach your ideal body weight

Why 60% Fat, 30% Protein, and 10% Carbs is the Only Viable Way to Reach Ideal Weight

Most diets fail because they attack symptoms, not causes. Weight loss is not about “eating less” or “burning more.” It is about controlling the body’s fuel system. There is only one formula that aligns perfectly with human biology: 60% fat, 30% protein, and 10% carbs.

1. Fat: The Master Fuel (60%)

Fat is not the enemy. It is the body’s original energy source. When fat dominates the diet:

• Energy stays stable for hours.
• Hunger reduces naturally without force.
• The body learns to burn stored fat, not just incoming food.
  Saturated and healthy fats (ghee, butter, coconut oil, MCT, animal fats) are the engines of long-term weight control.

2. Protein: The Builder and Protector (30%)

Protein is muscle insurance. Without enough protein, weight loss will eat away at lean tissue, leaving the body weak and slow. But excess protein is also a trap—when it crosses a threshold, it turns into glucose through gluconeogenesis, spiking insulin and stalling fat burning. The sweet spot is moderate protein: enough to preserve and build muscle, not enough to overload the system.

3. Carbs: The Control Lever (10%)

Carbs control insulin, and insulin controls fat storage. Every carb-heavy meal raises insulin, which shuts down fat burning and signals the body to store more. Limiting carbs to just 10% forces the body to stay in fat-burning mode. With insulin consistently low, stored fat finally becomes available as energy.

The Weight Loss Mechanism

• High fat = steady energy + fat adaptation.
• Moderate protein = preserved muscle + controlled glucose.
• Low carb = low insulin + unlocked fat stores.

This is not theory. It is the exact biological switch that determines whether your body burns fat or hoards it.

Why Other Ratios Fail

• High carb diets = constant insulin spikes, sugar crashes, fat storage.
• High protein diets = muscle may hold, but excess converts to glucose and stalls progress.
• Low fat diets = energy swings, hunger, cravings, eventual burnout.

The Only Sustainable Path

The 60/30/10 ratio is not a temporary hack. It is the only viable structure for sustainable weight loss and ideal body composition. It rewires the metabolism to work with biology, not against it.

Bottom line: If you want to reach and maintain your ideal weight, there is no shortcut around this ratio. High fat, moderate protein, and low carb is the only way forward.

Crafted by Randy Alstone!

Stay Alstoned!

The Philosopher's Stone

The Philosopher’s Stone: The Greatest Misconception in Human History

For centuries, alchemists searched for the Philosopher’s Stone. They imagined it as a magical object that could turn lead into gold and grant immortality. Kings funded expeditions. Scholars wrote cryptic manuscripts. Secret societies guarded formulas. The Stone became the ultimate prize of seekers.

But here lies the greatest mistake: they searched for an object that never existed.

The Philosopher’s Stone was not a rock, not a powder, not a liquid. It was never meant to sit in a crucible or be hidden in a flask. The entire pursuit was a misreading.

The true Stone was always a being, not a thing. A principle embodied, not manufactured.

Alchemists spoke in symbols. Lead did not mean literal lead. It meant the raw, dense, unrefined state of human life. Gold was not literal gold bars. It meant purity, incorruptibility, and perfection. To “transmute lead into gold” was to elevate existence itself—to transform the mortal into the divine, the ignorant into the enlightened.

Yet generations obsessed with physical matter. They built furnaces, mixed chemicals, and died disappointed. Their mistake was simple but fatal: they externalized what was always internal.

The Philosopher’s Stone is the principle of ultimate transformation embodied in life itself. When present, it can uplift, refine, and transmute everything it touches—not by chemical reaction, but by divine action.

Alchemy was prophecy misunderstood. The Stone was not hidden in caves or buried in deserts. It was destined to appear as a living embodiment of transformation—the axis around which a new age would turn.

The true Philosopher’s Stone is not found. It arrives.

Stay Alstoned!

Chess Mentor

Chess as My Lifelong Journey – and Why I Want to Mentor Your Academy

I started playing chess in 1999. By 2002, I earned my first FIDE rating of 1956, and in July 2007 I reached my peak of 2111. The years that followed were a test of balance between career, life, and chess itself, with my rating moving up and down. But the constant thread has been this: chess is not just a game to me, it’s a mirror of life, strategy, and discipline.

Since 2017, I have been coaching players of all ages. In this time, I’ve guided absolute beginners to tournament readiness, and I’ve worked with rated players looking to break plateaus. I’ve come to see coaching not as simply transferring knowledge, but as shaping thinking patterns—teaching students how to approach problems with clarity, patience, and creativity.

Now, I am ready to scale. My vision is to work with 12 academies across Tamil Nadu as a mentor. This isn’t about running parallel institutions or competing with existing systems. It is about strengthening them. Each academy already has structure, space, and community. What I bring is mentorship—designing long-term training systems, guiding coaches, and creating consistent improvement pipelines for students.

My proposal is simple:

• Partner with existing academies.
• Share my training methods and psychological frameworks.
• Offer direct mentorship for both coaches and students.
• Build a statewide network of excellence, raising the standard of chess education in Tamil Nadu.

By 2030, I want to see Tamil Nadu not only producing more rated players but also nurturing thinkers who can carry chess wisdom into every walk of life. If your academy is looking to expand its impact, I invite you to join this mission.

Wisdom vs Knowledge

Wisdom vs Knowledge in Chess Coaching

As a chess coach, I hold wisdom. My students hold knowledge. This is the dynamic that drives growth.

1. Nature

   • Students gather knowledge: opening lines, tactical patterns, endgame techniques.
   • I provide wisdom: when and how to use that knowledge effectively.

2. Source

   • Students learn knowledge from books, databases, and practice.
   • My wisdom comes from years of experience, reflection, and battles on the board.

3. Time Factor

   • Students can acquire knowledge quickly by study.
   • Wisdom in chess matures slowly through thousands of games and errors.

4. Depth

   • Knowledge answers the moves and variations.
   • Wisdom teaches when to trust theory and when to trust intuition.

5. Transferability

   • I can give students knowledge directly.
   • My wisdom can only be shown through guidance, not injected.

6. Utility

   • Students’ knowledge without wisdom may lead to mechanical play.
   • Wisdom ensures they apply knowledge with creativity and balance.

7. Dependency

   • Students depend on memory of positions and theory.
   • I depend on judgment, pattern recognition, and psychological insight.

8. Measurement

   • Students’ knowledge is visible in test scores, rating improvements, and recall.
   • My wisdom is visible in how they evolve into independent thinkers at the board.

9. Scope

   • Knowledge is about knowing openings, tactics, and endgames.
   • Wisdom is about knowing timing, strategy, and the flow of the game.

10. Outcome

• Students’ knowledge builds skill.
• My wisdom transforms skill into mastery.

---

In short: Students may carry knowledge, but as their coach I bring wisdom—the compass that directs their chess journey.

Stay Alstoned!