How to Beat COVID-19 Boredom

Unfortunately, now most of us are stuck at our homes, most of the tournaments are canceled. I see that many-many chess players are bored and don’t know what to do.
Before we speak about how we can use this time productively, let me tell a short story.

Many years ago, I was flying from Dubai to Jakarta. A very long flight, around 8 hours. I was sitting next to a man around 50, dressed in business attire with grey hair. During the whole flight, he read something and made some calculations on paper. I was impressed by how he used his time instead of killing it. I couldn’t keep it to myself and said that to him, adding the word “Respect!” in the end. He turned to me, smiled, and said: “My name is Joe. On the plane, I can’t do much. The only thing I can do is to become a bit better, Joe.”

Smart, isn’t it? 🙂
Now is March 2020, COVID-19... Most of us can’t get out of our places.

But sooner or later, this all will be finished. And when it is finished, we will be a bit different people, depending on what activities we do during this period.

If you are a doctor, a scientist, or someone who can impact this situation or help someone, that’s fantastic. But if you are stuck at your place and don’t know what to do, I hope after reading this article you will take action.

Whether you are a professional chess player or an amateur who wants to become better, this is a perfect time to work on your chess, improve your skills, and learn new openings.

If you are weak in positional chess, it’s an excellent time to explore Capablanca’s or Karpov’s books. Alekhine’s books are waiting for you if you are weak in aggressive chess.

If your tournament’s schedule was packed, and you had no time to explore new openings, why not do it now? If you used to play 1.d4 but always thought to learn 1.e4, why not do it now?
There will never be such a perfect time to do that.

Just don’t kill your time. And if you have some goals, some dreams, this is a good time for you to sit at your desk and start improving.

As Norman Schwarzkopf said:

Do you have any plans? Do you know what to do?
You can share your thoughts in our forum.

P.S. Send this to your friends who suffer from boredom.