If you want to succeed in any skill you need three things: generic skills, domain knowledge and domain skills.

Take, for example, football. You’ll probably require generic skills such as speed, strength, stamina, agility, as well as domain skills such as tackling, passing and shooting. You don’t need very much domain knowledge (the offside law, perhaps), so reading a book about football probably won’t do a lot to make you a better player.

What are the generic skills you need to play chess well? There are a lot of them: long-term and short-term memory, inductive and deductive logic, problem solving, intuition, critical thinking, concentration, focus, competitiveness, resilience, determination, research skills and much else. Young people who enjoy using skills of this nature should be directed towards chess.

Chess is far more knowledge based than most skills. Every time Magnus Carlsen, or any other top grandmaster, plays a game the moves will echo round the world, with chess enthusiasts in every country dissecting the moves to determine what extra knowledge his moves bring to chess. In chess, domain knowledge and domain skills are closely connected. For example, you might know that you can force checkmate with a king and a rook against a king, but you need to become fluent through practice to become skilful at this ending. Likewise, you might know the first few moves of the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Defence, but to be skilful at it you need to be able to play the opening well with both the white and black pieces. This requires a lot of practice along with feedback, perhaps from a combination of a tutor and an engine.

Which is why, even though you might be the most naturally talented player in the world, if you only play once a week and make no attempt to acquire knowledge you’ll make little progress. It’s also why Chess Heroes recommends a skills based approach rather than putting children into competitions before they’re ready.

How can you acquire chess knowledge and convert it into chess skill? When I was learning chess in the 1960s the only way was by reading books, which is what I did. You can still take this approach if you like, and the Chess Heroes books are specifically designed with this in mind. But there are very many other approaches available these days, and you can choose the mix which works best for you. Solving online puzzles, watching videos, completing interactive online courses, using online opening tools, watching live tournament commentary, playing out specific openings, middle game positions and endings against an engine, having lessons with a tutor. As long as you appreciate the difference between deliberate practice and random ‘fun’ activities, the more time you spend on chess the better you’ll get. And anyone who has a real passion for chess will want to spend more than an hour a week on the game. On the other hand, the more time you spend on chess, the less time you’ll have for other aspects of your life: family, work, study, other interests. Having a healthy and balanced lifestyle is vital, and you have to decide for yourself (and your children have to decide for themselves) how best to achieve that.