Thursday 25 July 2013

Measuring progress, A long way from GM!

Whether it's the right thing to do or not, I am currently judging my progress by the way I play 15|10 games of chess. At least for the time being, as long as I can see results on it, that is what I will do. So below, is how I have progressed in the last month.

As you can see, I had a steep fall recently, where I could not seem to win a game, I really think this was a result of a little "tilt" phase, just like in Poker. However, I am recovering now and I am quite confident that I will stabilize at just above 1,500 sometime soon. I will make the next post once I can reach that level, so hopefully it won't take me a whole month ;)

I have tried to limit games with faster controls but every now and then I throw a few 2|1 and 10 minute games in there. I do seem to be doing better at those as well and my rating is increasing there too. I believe that playing those faster games is more fun, however, they are probably completely rubbish to improve your skills. I've read posts that argue you need to play OTB to get concrete results, but aside from my awesome brother, I have not found anyone to play regularly with.

I do not yet want to join a proper chess club, mainly because my German is not that great (chess is getting in the way of studying german!). Secondly because I believe club level chess will be just a tad too hard for me now. I like to set goals, achievable goals! Upgrading to club level chess now, could be a blow to my morale. I shall do so when I can reach 97% percentile on chess . com. However, if I am not able to reach 97% within 3 months, then I will join a chess club, because perhaps that will be  exactly the last missing piece of the puzzle!

Meanwhile, I will keep doing the mix of instructional videos, books, tactic puzzles and chess mentor courses that seem to be paying dividends. Hopefully, it will work!

Chess aside, I must admit that all the chess is getting in the way of everything else. I've started studying less and less German. I completely stopped Duolingo (but then again it was boring me!). I still practice on Memrise because it is awesome. I also resent going to the gym because it takes 2 precious hours of chess away but I think the mental health from being fit is probably reflecting well in my ability to bounce back from a fall.

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