My Hiatus

By big plans for Chess Boot Camp in the second half of 2024

First, a bit of background. I have been running the Chess Boot Camp YouTube channel since September 2020. In 4.75 years it has grown a subscriber base of 13,700 followers. Since I monetised it in April 2023 it has earned $2800 in revenue, an average of $49 per month. Revenue was never my main goal, though, Chess Boot Camp was always a hobby first and foremost, but after some major life changes it is hard to justify spending 2-3 hours per day on a hobby that will simply never pay the bills.

After the final breakup of my marriage in January 2024, I found an amazing new partner, which came out of the blue, and recently decided to move up to the North of Scotland to be with her. Going forward, my primary business is going to be advising individuals on how to build their own business by selling their knowledge, a project I created back in 2019, which will now be called Prosperous Mind.

Now, since I created the concept for Prosperous Mind, technology has moved on. Previously I advised a mix of blog, mailing list, YouTube etcetera, but now I am particularly drawn to this new platform, Substack, as it gives the aspiring content creator…

• blog

• mailing list

• podcast

• and video publishing

…all with a simple way to generate revenue from your content, similar to e.g. Patreon but far simpler and easier. It really does create a great win-win scenario for publishers.

And Prosperous Mind will need case studies that employ Substack. So my plan is to run several at once:

1. The Prosperous Mind Substack itself, which will combine free and premium content with a founder level that includes a coaching programme;

2. A previous Substack I started with a former business partner in December 2023, The Big Fat Substack, which talks about the benefits and how-tos of the carnivore/ketogenic diet;

3. My new food philosophy channel, Way of the Carnivore, which will also be a book in 2025. This features daily diary videos and occasional premium posts.

4. And of course this Substack, Chess Boot Camp! I’m passionate about chess and will always continue to play. And I love teaching, I love the research, and I have always been interested in the psychology of the game.

However, let’s consider Einstein’s definition of insanity, repeating the same actions over and over again but expecting a different result. My previous format of playing games and sharing info on gambit lines was fun, for me and for several thousand viewers, but (as I stress over and over in Prosperous Mind) a successful content business requires something unique, some aspect that sets it apart. So (as of today, June 5th 2024) here is my plan for running Chess Boot Camp on Substack:

Daily Position

For the last few years, I have been building a collection of tactical problems, gathered from my own games, so they’re real-world examples. I already have over 1800 of these saved in studies, organised by tactic type.

So I’d like to send every subscriber a very short lesson featuring one of these positions, with the solution and a simple explanation.

(e.g. Here’s one for Black under the tactical topic “Getting out of forks”.)

Solution: Ng5 defends against mate Qxf7#. After White captures the knight with Nxg5, Black has Qxg5, thereby giving the Black king an escape square on d8. The resulting position is actually equal.

Note: This comes out of the Göring Gambit, which is likely to be my primary recommendation for White, as it has a 54% vs. 41% win rate for White at 2000 level on Lichess. My puzzles will focus on real positions reached from the openings I recommend, which brings us on to…

New 2000 Repertoire

I’m keen to use my break from daily publishing on YouTube to reinvent my offering. I think it should have a specific goal, and the obvious one is to try to hit 2000 rating (rapid on chess.com). That is my personal ambition, and I see no reason why I can’t achieve it in the next few years.

So I’m putting together a substantially new repertoire, which may be called, “Surprise Weapon” as it will focus on offbeat openings which, like the Spanish Inquisition, no one expects.

My only criteria for picking the openings are:

1. They should be “best by test” effective at the 2000 level (without being ridiculous at the 1000 level);

2. And should be offbeat with some surprise value.

Here’s a sneak peek…

• White: 1 e4 (obviously)

  • Against 1…e5, go into the Scotch > Göring Gambit.

  • Against 1…c5, b4, the Sicilian Wing Gambit.

  • (and of course options for all the minor openings).

• Black

  • Against 1 e4, Nf6 (Alekhine’s Defence)

  • Against 1 d4, Nc6 (Mikėnas Defense)

These two openings for Black are mirror images of each other, and give Black excellent chances up to 2000 level, guaranteeing an imbalanced board from move one. Mikėnas Defense is more dubious, and refutable, but performs well with equal 47%-47% winning chances! And because it is only played 0.36% of the time, it packs the surprise factor.

Remember, my goal is not to make 2300 FIDE or Candidate Master, so a repertoire of goofy, arguably dubious openings that I enjoy should be sufficient for my purposes.

I will stick 100% to this repertoire until I reach my goal, drilling it using Lichess studies and Chessbook (my new favourite tool). So my new puzzles will all be drawn from real-world games in lines that anyone following the Surprise Weapon repertoire is likely to find.

My daily YouTube videos will feature me playing through my new repertoire, and building towards the goal of 2000, one step at a time.

Free subscribers to this Substack will get posts giving the basics on these openings.

Premium subscribers will simply get more in-depth info including more tricks and traps, middlegame plans, and even endgame positions.

Weekly Tactics Drill

I’m thinking of putting out another weekly bonus, for Premium subscribers only.

In addition to my free daily puzzles, this would be a series of 50 positions, working from easy to fiendish, presented in a private Lichess study. You can practice these tactics as many times as you need, to test and hone your awareness and sharpen your vision.

Again, the new positions would all be drawn from the Surprise Weapon repertoire. So overall, the idea is that anyone who wants to work from the low-1000s up to (ideally one day) 2000 with me can join me as a training partner!

I’d love to hear what you think of this plan, so please leave a comment!

Thanks,
Ben