Scientific studies have shown that writing with pen and paper is superior to typing when it comes to learning, generating ideas, and critical thinking. A study published in Psychological Science by Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014) found that handwriting notes lead to better conceptual understanding and retention than typing, as it encourages deeper cognitive processing. Could this be used to improve your chess as well?
I Bought Two Notebooks
With that in mind, enthusiastic about my chess experiment beginning, I started two physical notebooks for my Correspondence chess games on Chess.com and Lichess.
This approach isn’t practical for Rapid games. However, the Daily format provides plenty of time to not only record moves on paper but also document my reasoning behind them. Including alternatives I considered and ultimately rejected. I believe this will be a valuable tool for improvement.
Realistically, I can only do this for one game at a time (one on each site), even if I’m playing multiple correspondence games. However, I think it will still be beneficial to annotate my thinking behind each move. Especially when reviewing completed games to analyze what I got right, what I missed, and where my thinking went wrong. Identifying and correcting mistakes is crucial for chess improvement.
For this, I picked up two larger-than-standard notebooks, and I’m impressed with their quality given the price. Specifically, I bought the Amazon Basics Professional Journal (10.5 x 7.5 inches, Black, 2-Pack). I believe the pages are thick enough to handle fountain pen ink, though some ghosting will be there.
The two-pack is especially useful. I printed labels (as shown in the image above) and dedicated one notebook to Chess.com and the other to Lichess.
The only downside is that the smooth covers attract fingerprints, but that’s a minor issue. Do you use a physical notebook for your games? If so, how has it helped improve your chess?