Testimonials from fans about Dan's Novice Nooks, books, and teaching
- See Howard Stern's chess interview in the NY Times.
- "...you have students drinking freely from your fountain of knowledge."
- one of my adult students. I like that! - "Chess has been the thing that has brought (my son) out of his shell!" - the mother of one of my students. Makes it all feel worthwhile..
- Nice blog about how Novice Nook helped a reader win a first national championship at a class level.
- "By the way, I really enjoyed your new book; The Improving Chess Thinker. I teach a chess class at Mullen High School (where I work full time) and I use many of your concepts in class (hope you don't mind, I give you full credit of course!). Many of these beginners go from no chess experience to over 1100 USCF in twelve weeks! I think it is an understatement to call your writings genius." - Peter Augros
- "...NN (and Thinking Cap series) are the best reads on the internet - by far." - Postman at Chessville
- "I have found Everyone's 2nd Chess Book and the Novice Nook articles to be just about the most helpful book and articles I've ever read and it's clear that many others feel the same way. It seems you have struck a chord with your readership by writing about topics which should be in novice/intermediate books but which aren't or , if they are, are not explained in a clear and understandable way. More power to your elbow !" - Russell Reagan
- "Thanks for helping me win the Wyoming state chess championship last year. Your column Novice Nook has been consistently helpful, and where "gee, I wish I'd said that" comes up the most often.
I'm a classic baby boomer and started playing chess in 2nd grade and postal chess in 1964. got to be a weak postal master, mostly by following Ken Smith's advice, after I gave up thinking I'd ever get any better. OTB your advice to play real chess instead of "hope chess" was the best I've learned since Smith's. Next week end I lose my crown, but at least I got to the top once. It's fun to beat experts, and it's fun to get linked with players you've known over the years." - Bruce Johnson - Chris Stratford tweeted: "Your writing is up there with the great CJS Purdy"..."What is most frightening is how you seem to be writing about me all the time - and I'm sure that is how so many readers feel."
Don't think Novice Nook can help stronger players? Read these two interesting emails from USCF experts:
- After reading your article “The Two Triggers,” I had a great tournament this weekend, including a draw against IM Timothy Taylor (2395). Thanks a million. Your article taught me that I had been making two bad mistakes: taking too long and non-critical moves, and not taking long enough (often because of shortage of time) on critical moves.This past weekend I played four straight games without doing this. Not only were my results good, I felt so much more comfortable at the board that I enjoyed it more than ever. Many thanks for writing a great article. Sincerely, Chris Slupik USCF 2137
- As a result of some of your Novice Nook columns, I am over 2100 for the first time in 9 years. After reading your 2 Triggers column, I believe I will never lose another slow game, no matter who I play. My opponents may outplay me and win, but I will not lose. (I had this same feeling years ago, after I first read the works of Purdy.) Thanks for your work, Mitch Fitzko
- "Hi Dan,
"Just wanted to let you know that proofreading The Improving Chess Thinker raised my rating at least 20 points last weekend at USATE. While reflecting on time management [note: See Novice Nooks on Time Management] I came to the astounding realization that while I properly manage my time against weaker players (who I know will make mistakes once the position "heats up"), against players of my own calibre or better I egregiously misallocate my time. I've used chess engines enough by now to recognize which moves won't effect the "evaluation" by more than a tenth of a pawn and which ones mean much more; this, combined with realizing how efficient and powerful my thought process really is (after reading some of the protocols of weaker players) led me to feel confident in playing sharp moves, trusting my intuition to save time on those tenth-of-a-pawn difference moves, and understand when I was reaching diminishing returns in complicated positions. I finished 5.5/6.0, beating three masters in a row and winding up with a beefy performance rating of 2541. :) And, unsurprisingly, two of those three masters lost because they used poor time management or didn't recognize a critical position.
"Anyhow, good job with the book and I'll certainly be telling my story and seeing what I can do to help make the book successful.
Best, Jonathan" (NM Jonathan Hilton) - "Hello Dan:
I just wanted to up date you on the tournament results. I played in the U1400 (Reserved) section, and I won all 4 of my games!! A perfect 4.0 score. This tournament was the Tarrant County Chess Championship so I won the Reserved Championship Trophy. I am very pleased with the results. The last game my opponent and I both had 3.0 points that made the game even more fun.
I told myself before the tournament that I would simply follow the opening guidelines (move every piece once before you move any piece twice, castle early!!, knights before bishops etc.) and not try any "fancy" tactics that weren't clear to me and of course play real chess as much as possible; although the short time controls (rnds 1&2 G/45 rnds 3&4 G/60) made it tough and I made my share of mistakes.
Thank you for the great lessons and I'll be talking to you soon." - "Hi Dan,
Broke 1600 on ICC standard play. Thanks, Fred
PS. I think I've gained about 300 points since starting with you 5 weeks ago. Thank you!"
[Note from Dan: If I could do this for everyone just think what I could charge!] - "Dan,
I won my simul game against Hikaru Nakamura. I am very excited about this and had to tell you. It is in my library if you want to look at it. "
- email from Jack Yang, NM Chris Yang's father:
"Hi Dan,
Good morning! There is a good news that Chris was selected to the 2016 Scholar-Chess Player Awards https://new.uschess.org/news/2016-scholar-chess-player-awards/. It is very competitive this year. All other four players are IM or WIM. Your recommendation letter definitely made Chris' application stand out. We really appreciate your help!
Chris did well in his Junior year. For chess, he just won the PA High School championship the second time in a row with a clear first. He finished the Physics and Math competitions with good scores. Now he has more time for chess. He is playing Philadelphia Open this long weekend. If he can keep his GPA and top rank in North Penn High School, I think that he will have a good chance to get into one of the top Ivy schools next summer.
Thanks again for your help!
Jack"
Steve Shutt on Intermediate Time Controls:
"When I teach young players to think about their next move, I tell them to look at their opponent's last move and try to figure out his plan. "If your opponent could make two moves in a row, what would his next move be?" Then I tell them to think about their own move and if more than one seems reasonable, consider how your opponent will respond to each one and then what will be your response to his response. This can get quite complicated and can be very difficult for a young player who will have more trouble in visualizing the board and remembering his analysis.
"When playing Game 30, there is very little effort to think any of this through. They generally spend very little time thinking about their opponent's plan and impulsively make the first move that comes to mind. This is why I think young kids who play exclusively in Game 30 events are rarely competitive with those who play in open tournaments with the slower time controls. In fact when my players compete with the strongest young New York players who participate at the Marshall or another strong chess club nearly every weekend, my guys usually get blown off the board by kids their age."
"When I teach young players to think about their next move, I tell them to look at their opponent's last move and try to figure out his plan. "If your opponent could make two moves in a row, what would his next move be?" Then I tell them to think about their own move and if more than one seems reasonable, consider how your opponent will respond to each one and then what will be your response to his response. This can get quite complicated and can be very difficult for a young player who will have more trouble in visualizing the board and remembering his analysis.
"When playing Game 30, there is very little effort to think any of this through. They generally spend very little time thinking about their opponent's plan and impulsively make the first move that comes to mind. This is why I think young kids who play exclusively in Game 30 events are rarely competitive with those who play in open tournaments with the slower time controls. In fact when my players compete with the strongest young New York players who participate at the Marshall or another strong chess club nearly every weekend, my guys usually get blown off the board by kids their age."
From "A Happy Chess Student":
Dan, as I mentioned in the class, I found that chess learning has lot of benefits to m life So while I am still very bad as chess, I
just want to share two aspects of such benefits.
1, Perseverance in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Many STEM disciplines require vigorous mental training, I found that your Bain book training, which requires repeatedly doing tactical
exercises, not only improve my chess skill, but also give me mental stamina to tackle very difficult problems in machine learning. e.g.
I was able to finish 105 out of 412 exercises from a machine learning text book "Pattern Recognition Machine Learning", also known as PRML.
This tremendously improves my work and helps me to deal with many technical issues at work.
2, Slower Thinking
Before I played chess, I have problems to make deliberate yet wise decision. For most of us non-chess players, the seemingly smart
thinking strategies are fast, "slap-stick"-type of thinking. We love quick close to immediate reactions, and me, just like many, thought
that fast decision is the same as best decision. I cannot be more wrong. Your article "Goldilocks Principle" changes me. What I learn
by reading the article is that I should almost always take my time to make a decision, albeit to design a new feature, to reply a client, or
may be before clicking the send button on quickly-written email.
Email from student Emir (2024):
"Hello Mr. Heisman,
just wanted to let you know, that about a month ago I went above 1900 on chess.com. On November 18th, 2020, which was my 9th game played on the platform and about a week before you started coaching me, my rating was 854 :). I did have longer breaks where I played only blitz, or no chess at all, due to work, etc., but even then I tried to find a bit of time to learn something about the game every day.
Also my blitz rating of around 900 in spring 2021, is now above 1700 :).
You are a great coach, thank you so much!
Best, Emir"
A comment sent to Dr. Can on his podcast interview with me:
"For me, this one is the most interesting episode up till now! 30 years of wisdom by a great chess coach, he’s sharing the meta perspective (adult) chess improvement. It is AMAZING! Everyone who’s serious about getting better should watch this episode at least one time. Btw. Now I am even more sure about my decision to watch all your YT videos and buying your courses Dr. Can! I am on the right track. If you read this Dan Heisman, thank you for sharing your wisdom with people over the world. Very generous, thank you! One of the interesting insights shared: knowledge just being 33% of what is needed grow as a chess player. And pattern recognition is important, but just a part of being strong. And evaluating skills are underestimated in chess improvement. The part about time management, great great great! From now on I will write down my thinking time in my game annotation when it’s obviously more long than in general in that game. Thinking time says something about my insights and way of thinking. And the part about luck in chess haha, I never thought of that. It’s like life. You can do well and still be unlucky. And the other way around too. But it’s still smart to think ahead, improve oneself and do the best as we can. Now I am listening to this episode for the second time"
Dan, as I mentioned in the class, I found that chess learning has lot of benefits to m life So while I am still very bad as chess, I
just want to share two aspects of such benefits.
1, Perseverance in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Many STEM disciplines require vigorous mental training, I found that your Bain book training, which requires repeatedly doing tactical
exercises, not only improve my chess skill, but also give me mental stamina to tackle very difficult problems in machine learning. e.g.
I was able to finish 105 out of 412 exercises from a machine learning text book "Pattern Recognition Machine Learning", also known as PRML.
This tremendously improves my work and helps me to deal with many technical issues at work.
2, Slower Thinking
Before I played chess, I have problems to make deliberate yet wise decision. For most of us non-chess players, the seemingly smart
thinking strategies are fast, "slap-stick"-type of thinking. We love quick close to immediate reactions, and me, just like many, thought
that fast decision is the same as best decision. I cannot be more wrong. Your article "Goldilocks Principle" changes me. What I learn
by reading the article is that I should almost always take my time to make a decision, albeit to design a new feature, to reply a client, or
may be before clicking the send button on quickly-written email.
Email from student Emir (2024):
"Hello Mr. Heisman,
just wanted to let you know, that about a month ago I went above 1900 on chess.com. On November 18th, 2020, which was my 9th game played on the platform and about a week before you started coaching me, my rating was 854 :). I did have longer breaks where I played only blitz, or no chess at all, due to work, etc., but even then I tried to find a bit of time to learn something about the game every day.
Also my blitz rating of around 900 in spring 2021, is now above 1700 :).
You are a great coach, thank you so much!
Best, Emir"
A comment sent to Dr. Can on his podcast interview with me:
"For me, this one is the most interesting episode up till now! 30 years of wisdom by a great chess coach, he’s sharing the meta perspective (adult) chess improvement. It is AMAZING! Everyone who’s serious about getting better should watch this episode at least one time. Btw. Now I am even more sure about my decision to watch all your YT videos and buying your courses Dr. Can! I am on the right track. If you read this Dan Heisman, thank you for sharing your wisdom with people over the world. Very generous, thank you! One of the interesting insights shared: knowledge just being 33% of what is needed grow as a chess player. And pattern recognition is important, but just a part of being strong. And evaluating skills are underestimated in chess improvement. The part about time management, great great great! From now on I will write down my thinking time in my game annotation when it’s obviously more long than in general in that game. Thinking time says something about my insights and way of thinking. And the part about luck in chess haha, I never thought of that. It’s like life. You can do well and still be unlucky. And the other way around too. But it’s still smart to think ahead, improve oneself and do the best as we can. Now I am listening to this episode for the second time"