EP 445- “It Worked So Well That I Stopped Doing It”: Adult Improver Nicholas Sloan on Dealing with Burnout After a Rapid Rating Rise

Perpetual Chess Podcast

Perpetual Chess LLC

Leisure, Sports, Hobbies

4.8 • 706 Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nicholas Sloan is a Wisconsin-based Network Engineer, a dad of 4, and an extremely motivated chess improver. Usually. But after an incredible run of gaining 500+ rating points in two years, fueled by consistent hard work and a unique study approach, Nick hit a wall. He gave back 150 rating points, and lost his motivation to work hard on chess. That can happen when you are a family man who is working full-time, studying for multiple hours a day, and creating chess content on top of that. Nick took time away to read some quality chess books, and to recalibrate his chess improvement plans. In our conversation Nick tells me: Why, after reflection, he has decided that the lofty goal of earning the National Master title is still worth pursuing. How a few chess books opened his eyes to the work he still had to do What he intends to do next As a longtime reader of Nick’s blog, I was excited to finally chat with him, and I look forward to following his continued success. Thanks to our sponsor, Chessable.com! If you sign up for Chessable Pro in order to unlock discounts and additional features, be sure to use the following link: https://www.chessable.com/pro/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=benjohnson&utm_campaign=pro And you can check out their new offerings here: https://www.chessable.com/courses/all/new/ https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/partners 02:00- Nicholas joins the show- check out his rating graph here: https://www.uschess.org/datapage/ratings_graph.php?memid=12772484 05:00- What does Nick think contributed to his recent slump? 14:00- What effect did reading GM Jonathan Rowson’s books have on Nick? Mentioned: Book Recap #14: Seven Deadly Chess Sins https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2021/1/29/book-recap-the-seven-deadly-chess-sins Book Recap #32: Chess for Zebras https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2021/1/29/book-recap-the-seven-deadly-chess-sins 20:00- More book recs! Mentioned: Road to Chess Improvement Chess Improvement: It’s All in the Mindset 22:00- How did Nick adjust to being an emotional player? 24:00- How has Nick changed his approach? Mentioned: Pump Up Your Rating 27:00- What thought process is Nick using over the board? Mentioned: GM Alexander Goldin 28:00- What did Nick learn from the book Rapid Chess Improvement ? Mentioned: CT-Art , Chessking App 32:00- How Nick avoids burnout Mentioned: Episode 173 with NM Philemon Thomas, GM Johan Hellsten’s Mastering Chess Strategy 35:00- Why does Nick focus on local club tournaments rather than big weekend ones? Mentioned: Episode 346 with NM Todd Bryant 40:00- Does Nick play a narrow or wide repertoire? 44:00- How many tournament games does Nick aim to play per year? 46:00- Nick’s approach to game analysis 50:00- Thanks to Nick for joining! Here is his linktree that provides many ways to keep up with him: https://linktr.ee/HighgroundChess If you would like to join the Perpetual Chess Patreon community, you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/c/perpetualchess Check out special offers for free trials and/or discounts from our partner websites including Chessmood, ChessDojo, and Chess.com via the link below: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The stage is set. Another massive performance needed.
0:03.8	Look at this, Jason. They're outwarming up already.
0:07.6	Listen to that. Pitch perfect.
0:09.8	George, they just keep going.
0:11.4	The best fans in the world?
0:12.9	Probably.
0:14.4	Carlsberg. Proud supporters of Irish football.
0:17.2	Get the facts. Be Drinkaware. Visit drinkaware.com. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Adult Improver series of perpetual chess. We have a much-improved guest who I'm excited to bring in in a second.
0:34.3	Just wanted to give a shout out to our sponsors, first and foremost to chesible.com. They've got new courses from some of the best authors out there. Alex Astani has one on the London. I personally, I'd rather you don't play the London, but if you're going to, Alex's work is amazing. If you want to play the Real DeFriend of the pod, Grandmaster Irwin Lumey, one of the world's leading theoreticians now has a course out on D4, so check those out.
0:56.5	And if you do decide to sub-de-chessable Pro to unlock additional features, please use the link in the description.
1:03.5	Speaking of links in the description, we've also got discounts running from Friend of the Pod site slash entities like chess mood, chestdojo, chess.com.
1:12.5	So check out perpetualchest.com slash partners to have a look at those.
1:16.5	They do change over time.
1:17.8	So you can take a look periodically if you're thinking of trying something out or resigning
1:22.8	up for something like chess.com premium anyway.
1:25.8	And last but not least, of course, wanted to thank Patreon subs who help keep the lights on here.
1:30.1	This is perpetual chess, of course,
1:32.3	an individual entity going on 10 years,
1:34.7	and every little revenue stream makes a big difference,
1:37.5	and I really appreciate the people who join the Patreon community
1:40.9	and are able to submit questions or listen to ad-free pods
1:44.0	and all that good
	...

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