tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86830946303054516612024-03-12T16:03:52.475-07:00From Unrated to GrandmasterA Chess & Life JourneyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11779142792442974461noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-18914857318345649052018-04-08T08:42:00.001-07:002018-04-08T08:46:04.673-07:00April 2018 Update: Defensive woes, I could be +8 and if my opponent gets any chances... I often implode!<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
When <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" data-qt-tooltip="blogspot.co.uk" href="http://unratedtogm.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/february-2018-improvement-update.html" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("//qsf.ec.quoracdn.net/-3-images.new_grid.external_link.svg-26-aef78ead48f1f1e2.svg"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">I played Hampstead a couple of months ago</a></span>, I dropped a won game against a higher rated opponent. I have not had the chance to play another congress, but I decided to play some Rapid games online and take them <b>extremely seriously.</b></div>
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Out of 6 rapid games, I won 3 (vs average rating 1700) and lost 3 vs average rating 1860 or so. Two of my lost games happened due to mishandling pressure by my opponent. As soon as my opponent gets any sort of serious counter play / pressure, i crumble - i seem to misjudge positions where my opponent is getting any sort of active play.</div>
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After taking that knight with my bishop, my opponent had the initiative and i slowly, failing to find good moves... lost the game.</div>
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A few moves earlier I could have won a second pawn and had a great position, but I didn't go for it even though I saw the line seemed good for me, I thought it'd be greedy and I should consolidate what I have, but dxc5 was the best move and I had two or three moves to take it!</div>
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Before analysing with a computer i annotated the games and caught all my mistakes... so i know... i know what the problems are, and despite practicising calculation... I go wrong!</div>
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I'm thinking of working through the following books (once I can get them on Chessable)</div>
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Grandmaster Prep Attack and Defense by QC.</div>
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Practical Chess Defense by QC.</div>
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Secrets of Chess Defence by Gambit.</div>
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If any one has any recommendations on a set of exercises that can teach me to withstand pressure I'd gladly take some tips and try to bring it to life at Chessable! :) I've dropped countless games from +1, +2, +3, and sometimes even more, simply because my opponent is getting play and under pressure , despite calculating some lines, i fail to go for the best defence!</div>
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I am aware of trading pieces, removing my opponents best piece, and other principles, but sometimes that's not possible and I guess I just don't have enough experience when my opponent applies such pressure. If the pieces could be traded, I'm good, but what if they can't!!</div>
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I need more defensive calculation, desperately. Am i missing any other books? Looking for some advice, and once they are on Chessable, I'll get to it.</div>
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My other plan is to solve more tactics, simple tactics, complex tactics, work on my calculation. Of course, all within Chessable. Currently I'm working through:</div>
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<span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" data-qt-tooltip="chessable.com" href="https://www.chessable.com/tactics-book/improve-your-chess-tactics-700-practical-lessons-exercises/8527/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("//qsf.ec.quoracdn.net/-3-images.new_grid.external_link.svg-26-aef78ead48f1f1e2.svg"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://www.chessable.com/tactic...</a></span></div>
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Oh, and here is that woeful game... yuck!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-91501671899148030612018-02-25T05:53:00.000-08:002018-02-25T05:53:23.503-08:00February 2018 Improvement Update<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
It's been three months since my last progress update, so it's time for a new one. Progress? There is no progress! At least in rating. However, I feel that I am slowly identifying the weaknesses in my game better and coming up with stronger study plans. It may just be that one day everything will click together and all my hard work will have paid off with a meteoric rise? Who knows? Typically, I don't have enough time to work even harder (although I'd like to), so I really got to make sure my one or two hours a day count.</div>
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I have almost completed my entire black opening repertoire. I have some 200 out of 800 variations to go. I feel like I have to learn these last variations, at least the mainlines missing, (100 or so). However, I am taking a break from learning new lines for at least ten days to prep for the Bristol Spring Congress with a different kind of training as much as possible. I want to study more tactics because both tactics books on Chessable are awesome. I've begun with <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" data-qt-tooltip="chessable.com" data-tooltip="attached" href="https://www.chessable.com/book-content/8527/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("//qsf.ec.quoracdn.net/-3-images.new_grid.external_link.svg-26-aef78ead48f1f1e2.svg"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Improve Your Chess Tactics by GM Neishtadt</a></span>. I felt like I was missing out. I have been dropping too many blitz, rapid and classical games in time trouble missing simple one move blunders! Always in time trouble, but this is no excuse. I even lost one completely won game in time trouble last weekend vs a 1915 player. Ahh! I have to work on my time management and will adopt GM Colovic's ideas of a game plan. Where you limit the time, you give yourself per move, purposefully. Let's see how that works!</div>
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I've also been playing a bit more blitz and being massively frustrated that my rating hovers around 1,800. It seems that I have forgotten what I said in my last post, that I need to slow down my Blitz controls and play 5+5... at least once and for all I know that my ELO is 100 points lower if I play 3+2 as opposed to 5+5. After a week of study, preparing for the <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" data-qt-tooltip="bristolcongress.co.uk" href="https://www.bristolcongress.co.uk/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("//qsf.ec.quoracdn.net/-3-images.new_grid.external_link.svg-26-aef78ead48f1f1e2.svg"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Bristol Chess Congress</a></span>, I will treat myself and allow myself to play a few more 5+5 games and see how that goes. Maybe I'll finally break and settle above 1,900.</div>
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I played the <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" data-qt-tooltip="blogspot.co.uk" href="http://hampsteadchess.blogspot.co.uk/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("//qsf.ec.quoracdn.net/-3-images.new_grid.external_link.svg-26-aef78ead48f1f1e2.svg"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Hampstead Chess Congress</a></span> a week ago, and I found the time control really hard, 60 min + 30 sec per move. I blundered in time trouble (pawn move in a K+P endgame), vs a young kid rated 1,500. That was tough! I am very much looking forward to getting back to 90 min + 30 sec. Alright, I will keep working hard and smart, and hopefully, in the next update I can show something for my hard work :) After all, it's now a year where I took two 2,100 ELO scalps in a single tournament. It's about time I start showing that strength regularly and my ELO should follow!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-76532831491872941902017-11-18T08:29:00.000-08:002017-11-18T08:29:02.713-08:00Winter 2017 Chess Improvement UpdateBack in June I mentioned <a href="http://unratedtogm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/hmm-will-have-to-play-less-tournament.html">how tiring it is to be playing regular tournament chess</a>, when so many other life responsibilities seem to be there, waiting for your attention. However, that specific tournament I made a fatal mistake. I refused to take a bye and tried to play all 3 days, despite the Friday game being very challenging, you really have to be local to play a 4 hour game at 7PM as driving either side of that tends to be pretty bad. On the way there it's traffic, on the way back it's diversions, Friday night's party traffic! That night I ended up getting home way past midnight, shattered and that resulted on me trying to play less OTB chess, I even withdrew on Sunday. Ouch. Well, I think I learned my lesson and I am finally ready to get back to OTB classical time congresses. I am playing one next weekend and I am looking forward to it. I'll control my eagerness and take that first round bye... 4 games is enough. Even that is a lot. I got greedy when I tried playing all 5 and was rightly punished by Fortune that night. I think I was simply too eager to replicate <a href="http://unratedtogm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/new-accomplishments-winning-at-2000.html">my Frome Congress success</a>.<br />
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Earlier in the year I also questioned <a href="http://unratedtogm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/spring-2017-chess-update.html">why I hadn't learnt John's Scandinavian repertoire yet</a>. I set this right and have picked up <a href="https://www.chessable.com/opening-book/im-john-bartholomews-scandinavian/79/">IM John Bartholomew's Scandinavian</a> repertoire. I think I can play 90% of the lines with confidence, and this is an IM level repertoire so these days I really look forward to facing 1.e4. The more I play it, the more I study it, the happier I am that I finally learnt it. Based on this, my opponents would do well to take notice and play anything else really. However, I am also slowly picking up a GM level repertoire for Black against everything else. My goal here is to fully sort out all my openings as Black and really really learn them well. Then I can compare my results as White versus my results as Black where I know the openings. This would finally settle the debate about how important it is to know or not know the opening at our level of chess. Honestly, I might be biased, but whenever I play within the opening I know it's just so much more joyful. I faced an IM in my first ever rapid chess event and he struggled so much because I blitzed out 18 moves of theory that led to a drawish position. Yes, he did win in the end, after 70 moves in my heavy time pressure, but since he was 500 points higher than me I consider this a big result. He even thought he was losing at one point where he went a pawn down. Unfortunately, he had more than enough compensation and in the complications my time pressure was the most telling factor.<br />
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Aside from finishing up my Black repertoires, I want to note that I did have a complete repertoire as Black and White before, but it was very shallow, without going into too much detail and this was often telling. I got tired of being outplayed by people who knew a bit more theory, a few more plans, which is why I am putting the work of learning 300+ variation repertoires instead of the 100 lines I used to know. I think 100 lines is useful up to 1,800, but playing at 2,100+, or higher, people just know theory, whether they read it, or figured it out through self study, they are aware of the best moves and if you go off they punish you. My game against Koby Kalavannan in the Bristol Summer Congress, showed that clearly. I played a normal looking move which 4-5 masters have previously played (in the database), and it just turned out to be giving White a seriously big advantage... which my 2300+ rated opponent pounced on.<br />
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Once I sort out my Black repertoire, my plan is to focus on tactics and strategy only and see if my results as White catch up too. I might also try various <a href="https://www.chessable.com/chess-openings/s/short">Short & Sweet</a> repertoires as White, maybe the London System, to try and find what openings I actually enjoy playing as White. I do love the Italian Game but most people will play the Sicilian against me, so maybe the London System would be good to avoid those sharp Siclian lines.<br />
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Another thing I've done lately which I feel has improved my game is to slow down my blitz time controls. I was playing 3|0, then 3|2 and struggling, getting frustrated, timing out. I had not time to think ever. I switched to 5|5 and really enjoyed it. My Blitz rating went up and the games I lost had clear reasons why, reasons I could work on. I think my rapid has benefited from that too and I am on my all-time high at chess.com. I honestly think I'll hit a 2,000 rating somewhere. The goal I set myself, but maybe, it will happen sometime next year :)<br />
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Of course, I'm also somewhat of an endgame Master and can mate with Bishop & Knight! This is thanks to <a href="https://www.chessable.com/endgame-book/100-endgames-you-must-know/5193/">completing 100 Endgames You Must Know</a> on Chessable. It's awesome, but in my games I don't get to benefit enough, or at least I don't think I do. Not too many endgames yet, but when one happens, my opponents usually pay... I had several games where I rescued them and won in the endgame.<br />
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Alright, I just wanted to log some of my progress and plans, so that it's there in writing documenting my chess improvement. See you soon!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-64661306699350638702017-06-11T02:17:00.001-07:002017-06-15T03:14:47.171-07:00Hmm, will have to play less tournament chess.So this is an entry to log the fact that I plan to play less tournament chess. I entered the Bristol Summer Congress 2017, but I had to withdraw for the last day. It's simply humanely impossible to raise a kid, grow a start up and make time for monthly tournament chess.<br />
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Due to my last awesome performance, I really wanted to play. However, each of my games took four hours, and after the second game (4 hours and 30 minutes) I was absolutely knackered. Not to mention I only had 3 hours of sleep that night (driving to the tournaments is quite the extra energy sink, especially due to bloody diversions!). I messed up a won endgame and gave my 2,100 rated opponent the draw. Shame. I think having a won position got to my head; I got over-excited. Good for my opponent though as to be honest, I miscalculated in the early middle game and only got an advantage due to a cheap-shot tactic (due to a mistake by my opponent!). Would have been nice to bring home the win. I also drew with black vs. an opponent rated 1630, again I felt like I messed up the endgame. I had a good knight vs. bad bishop which quickly due to my mistakes turned into a good bishop vs. bad knight. How ironic. Held the draw.<br />
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Finally, for my third game, I think I must have had a mating combination somewhere, but honestly, all I wanted is for the game to be over quickly and messed it up along the way. Ironically it still took 3 hours.<br />
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So this entry logs my intention of abandoning my 2,000 rating goal this year, seeing as that would take at the very least three more five game tournaments for which I currently do not have the energy. Instead, I will change my goal and aim to improve my online rating and play some online games again. Maybe one serious game once a week recorded and straight away analysed on youtube. Analysis is important, and after playing for 4 hours, I admit I have not analysed any of my last 10-12 tournament games... shame on me. I think it's a good goal and definitely possible. I'll do that instead! Then, if my online rating increases I'll go for some OTB tournaments next year and hopefully finally hit 2,000. The problem with that is I need 10 wins vs 2,100 opposition which is tough; then I'd hit 2,000. The time commitment is just pretty big, 4 hours per game x 10 games (at least...), more like 15-20 games... and you can start to see why I am hanging up the gloves for this year!<br />
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Its not like me to withdraw or give up. Hence I will start posting videos on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChZh4ew99zDWs7LUocPknpQ">my Youtube channel</a>, and of course, I will continue to study on <a href="https://www.chessable.com/">Chessable</a> where my streak is looking pretty impressive. Fortunately, pretty soon we'll offer some serious endgame study on Chessable so as to broaden our offering, I can really use studying some endgames. :)<br />
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Sorry if this post doesn't read well, I'm too knackered to refine it :D Just wanted to log what's happening and my plans so that I can refer to it in the future when I look at my path to <a href="https://www.chessable.com/blog/2017/05/02/how-to-improve-at-chess-user-gains-300-uscf-points/">chess improvement</a>.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-69643790872713719262017-05-16T08:48:00.004-07:002017-05-16T08:55:05.401-07:00New accomplishments, winning at 2,000+ level regularly, rating to follow?<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
So I played the Frome Chess Congress 2017. I took one bye and had four games. I won 2 vs opposition rated nearly 2,100 FIDE and drew one vs a 2,000 FIDE. I lost the last one vs a 2,100 FIDE because I played out of my knowledge, instead of sticking to my <a href="https://www.chessable.com/chess-openings/">chess openings</a> going for an attack completely out of my book. Serves me right, for getting to greedy.</div>
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Pretty proud of my other games though:</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
As white with the <a href="https://www.chessable.com/opening-book/ables-repertoire-white-with-1e4/2/">Bishop’s Opening</a> at I played a lot of “Excellent” moves. It was a difficult game, to see the full game please scroll down.</div>
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<canvas class="qtext_image_placeholder landscape qtext_image zoomable_in zoomable_in_feed" height="173" style="border-radius: 3px; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in; display: block; left: 301px; margin: initial; max-height: none; max-width: 100%; position: relative; transform: translate(-50%, 0px); vertical-align: baseline; visibility: hidden;" width="311"></canvas><img class="landscape qtext_image zoomable_in zoomable_in_feed lazy_loaded lazy_loading" master_h="173" master_src="https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-40814024279182c4afbeffb9a71d86b0" master_w="311" src="https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-40814024279182c4afbeffb9a71d86b0.webp" style="animation-duration: 0.001s; animation-name: insQ_100; border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in; display: block; float: none; left: 301px; margin: initial; max-height: none; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: translate(-50%, 0px); transition: opacity 0.5s linear;" /></div>
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" border="0" frameborder="0" height="465" src="//www.chess.com/emboard?id=3450782" width="603"></iframe>
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My other win seems even more impressive to me considering I was playing an opening I don’t know very well (and hate). However, I had previously lost by pushing d5 so I was keen not to repeat that and came up with a funky imbalance that the PC doesn’t mind too much. I think black does have the advantage at one point but once I get it back I don’t let go. Really happy!</div>
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<canvas class="qtext_image_placeholder portrait qtext_image zoomable_in zoomable_in_feed" height="338" style="border-radius: 3px; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in; display: block; left: 301px; margin: initial; max-height: none; max-width: 100%; position: relative; transform: translate(-50%, 0px); vertical-align: baseline; visibility: hidden;" width="308"></canvas><img class="portrait qtext_image zoomable_in zoomable_in_feed lazy_loaded lazy_loading" master_h="338" master_src="https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-ca07cb467787ad1f54abfc972109d6ee" master_w="308" src="https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-ca07cb467787ad1f54abfc972109d6ee.webp" style="animation-duration: 0.001s; animation-name: insQ_100; border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; display: block; float: none; left: 301px; margin: initial; max-height: none; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: translate(-50%, 0px); transition: opacity 0.5s linear;" /></div>
<iframe allowtransparency="true" border="0" frameborder="0" height="465" src="//www.chess.com/emboard?id=3450802" width="603"></iframe>
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The other two games are not that noteworthy, I am sure I made some mistakes and missed winning chances in the draw. The loss, well, don’t play out of your opening repertoire as much as I did. For some reason i went into a Stonewall Dutch… never played it in my life, misplayed it. Blundered, lost.</div>
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All in all my two wins should spice up my ELO but one of the players was only ECF rated. Still, this is my third 2,100 scalp out of the last 4 2,100 players I faced. I need to face some more and my ELO will follow. The 2,000 goal seems closer, i just need to maintain this form.</div>
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Will try to play some more OTB chess soon so I can update you all on my progress :)</div>
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By the way, the only studying I’ve been doing is Chessable, so something must be going right :)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-15800175570886875772017-04-30T01:57:00.001-07:002017-05-01T03:32:53.662-07:00Spring 2017 Chess UpdateIt's been a while since I posted so I thought I'd write a quick update to keep this blog alive and well. The main reason I've been so inconsistent is that I have not been able to make much time for learning chess. Instead, I have been busy raising funding for my start-up, Chessable. We just completed our first round of funding, so even though it took a while, we got there!<br />
<br />
Regarding learning, despite not having much learning time, I have kept a 100+ day Chessable streak, so I am very sharp on my openings. I have made some time for some endgame studies and am also pretty sharp on tactical patterns. Lately, I've been trying to pick up an improved French repertoire as White, although I have been questioning the reasons why I never decided to learn the book by Chessable co-founder <a href="https://www.chessable.com/opening-book/im-john-bartholomews-scandinavian/79/">John Bartholomew</a> on the Scandi!<br />
<br />
I am playing a congress next weekend, and hopefully, after that and after a few things post-investment settle down I will be able to dedicate more time for improvement. Nonetheless, I feel that at long time controls I am currently under-rated at 1,817, after all at a tournament I played a few months back, I beat a 2,100 FIDE rated player as black. Except, he was only ECF rated, so I didn't gain any rating for that. I hope to continue such performances, and hence my rating should stabilise around 1,900.<br />
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2,000 is still my goal this year, although it does seem somewhat remote.<br />
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Stay tuned :)<br />
<br />PS.- Here is a game, just because.<br />
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<br /><iframe src="//www.chess.com/emboard?id=3420050" width="560" height="465" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-46258873573585288532016-10-28T00:42:00.001-07:002016-10-28T01:01:28.179-07:00I used to suck at chess openings, now I just suck at the other bits (at least my openings are awesome!)<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
It’s been a long while since I have updated everyone on my own chess improvement. This is mainly due to bootstrapping our startup Chessable and a little secret I seldom mention, having a sleepless baby in the house! Therefore my daily life can be summarised by:</div>
<ol style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 2em 1em 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="left: 2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">Wake up very early (3–4am) to help with baby (work/study/read if she sleeps further)</li>
<li style="left: 2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">Study on Chessable about 15 min/day</li>
<li style="left: 2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">Work on Chessable about 10 hours/day</li>
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Anything else fits around that schedule, including playing chess. This is a shame because to get better you need to be playing at the longer time controls. Hence, last month I started making more of an effort, sleepless or not, I want to keep improving.</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
I started playing a few 15 | 10 games on the chess server, and I am happy to say that my rating holds at a very pleasant 1,850ish, with a new highest at 1880 (Sep 23, 2016). I am very happy with this as you can see <span class="qlink_container"><a href="https://unratedtogm.quora.com/Measuring-progress-A-long-way-from-GM" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #2b6dad; text-decoration: none;">just around 3 years ago I just started making my way from 1,250</a></span> and it took some work to get to 1,400! It has always been a challenge to consistently perform above 1,800 but I think I am finally part of the club! :) My own self-analysis of these online games shows that my <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" data-qt-tooltip="chessable.com" href="https://www.chessable.com/chess-openings/all/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">chess openings</a></span> have stabilised and I almost always get a playable and/or great position out of the opening. I have also begun exploiting my opponents weak opening moves as I can now recognise they have played a sub-optimal line and I then opt for more active/aggressive continuations.</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
Of course, a few 15|10 games (must be 10–12 in a month) is not enough to improve. One of the best correlations obtained by scientists interested in chess is that the more OTB games you play, the higher your ELO gets. Really you should be playing at least 50 quality OTB chess games yearly if you hope to get to master level. While 2015 (and the first part of 2016) lent itself well for that and I even went above 1,900 FIDE, lately I haven’t had the energy and time to play OTB!</div>
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Nonetheless, for diary logging purposes I will relate that I gave two OTB games a try recently (90 minutes no increment)! Again using my <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" data-qt-tooltip="chessable.com" href="https://www.chessable.com/chess-openings/all/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">chess opening</a></span> knowledge, I sailed through the openings and build a 30 minute time advantage. This should be enough to win, just keep the position solid and your opponent will blunder under time pressure or time out. I am sad to report I gave both winning positions away. But hey, at least the problem is no longer the opening?</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
Yesterday I spent 3 hours driving (total) to make this ECF league chess game, and I was up way past my bedtime. I put the loss to a lack of concentration at a crucial moment where I thought I had the game won (I was at +2), all I had to do is trade Queens. My opponent correctly avoided a Queen trade and made life difficult. Wanting to get on with the drive home, I got frustrated, I did not check for opponent counterplay after I compromised my King Safety a bit and boom, enormous blunder, game lost.</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
Now being a trained psychologist who has read plenty around expertise, learning and also chess performance, I am happy to say I have some awesome ideas on how to stop these kinds of errors from occurring in the future. Obviously, not being exhausted is one of them, maybe drinking a coffee would have been another one, but I am of the belief that once you get a process from conscious to subconscious routine then those things don’t matter. This is why a GM would never make such a blunder, they’ve trained so well that even when they are exhausted they would automatically check for counterplay and convert the win. My conscious overlooked that for a second and my subconscious has no clue about that stuff yet, hence, the blunder!</div>
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Fortunately I am also a computer scientist so I look forward to implementing some novel ideas that will help us all (or at least myself ;-) ) to improve and cut these kind of errors out of our games. I can happily say that I am always happy with how I play the <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" data-qt-tooltip="chessable.com" href="https://www.chessable.com/chess-openings/all/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">opening</a></span>, and I know that a few months back I still suffered during openings and got sub-par positions. Since that doesn’t happen anymore, it’s time to focus on the other bits! Stay tuned.</div>
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Here are the pictures of my performance over these last 2 OTB games. I played White on both. Both games against stiff opposition ECF 160ish (1900 FIDE). Game 1 I blundered after squandering a 30 minute time advantage. Game 2 I blundered after having a won position and a 40 minute time advantage. Oh the shame. Good material to improve on ;-) Again, at least the opening went well huh? After all, that is the sole thing I have been having a chance to study. Time to build some more kick ass chess tools :D</div>
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Game 1:</div>
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Game 2:<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-75640994983876016152016-07-15T01:02:00.001-07:002016-10-28T00:59:31.440-07:00How studying the opening with Chessable can help you easily win a game in 14 moves and become a Chess Master.<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
A few weeks ago I posted my take on scientific research that argued for the importance of learning chess openings, see <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" href="https://www.chessable.com/blog/2016/06/28/8-reasons-for-learning-openings-now/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">8 Reasons for Learning Openings Now!</a></span> Some comments I received showed that some people did not like the article too much. They argued that “memorising” opening lines is a waste of time. Really?! Let’s take a look at one of my recent online games:</div>
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<b>1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. d3 Nf6 6. a4 e6</b></div>
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So far, all these moves stem from my <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" href="https://www.chessable.com/book/ables-repertoire-white-with-1e4/2" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">very basic opening preparation on Chessable</a></span>, all memorised and played very quickly. Why should have I stopped at any point before now? I shouldn’t have; memorisation is working perfectly up to this point! However, now we are getting to a point where more complex decisions have to be taken. <b>What’s the plan?</b></div>
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People who argue against “just memorising” openings keep saying that “just memorising” doesn’t help you understand the plans in the structures, where the pieces should go, etc. In my opinion, they must be memorising things completely the wrong way because <b>memorising these lines is exactly what helped me figure out a plan in this position</b>… b3 and then Bb2, Nbd2 and Nc4 were all in my head immediately, saving me time and giving me a concrete plan.</div>
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Granted we are at a point where if the position should change drastically, White should re-assess. For instance, if Black started playing out of the ordinary, e.g., h5, I’d have to stop and consider whether I still wanted to pursue the moves I’ve just described. However, when you are playing confidently, it’s easy for your opponent to go wrong:</div>
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<b>7. b3 Qc7 8. Bb2 Bd6??</b></div>
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I’ve played 8 logical moves from a plan I picked up while studying on Chessable. My opponent was probably trying to keep up with me on the clock, not knowing that I am very very familiar with the structure he has driven the game to with 3…a6 and therefore, quickly blunders a whole piece. Can you see the tactic?</div>
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Of course, as is often the case, when you make one mistake, quickly others follow:</div>
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<b>9. e5 Nd5 10. exd6 Qxd6 11. Nbd2 b6? 12. Nc4?!</b></div>
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Okay. Inaccuracy. Best move was Bxg7. However, I saw it but did not play it because I did not want to give my opponent counterplay with an open file against the side I was about to castle on.</div>
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<b>12... Qc7? 13. Be5?!</b></div>
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Another inaccuracy. At this point, it doesn’t even matter, though, again the best move was Bxg7, but I prefer to harass his Queen a bit as is done in certain positions in the Rossolimo. I picked this up by studying these lines more in depth, on Chessable, by importing lines from a book on the Rossolimo that I own. A move like Be5 is not a move I’d normally consider, it looks odd. Had it not been for opening lines memorisation this sexy move may not have happened. Of course, it leads to the final blunder.</div>
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<b>13... Qb7??</b></div>
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Find the last move to finish the game:</div>
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I have many more games that follow the same pattern. These games usually I end up with very low centipawn losses and great play. Sometimes my opponents get angry and accuse me of using a bot or cheating because my play ends up being so perfect. It’s not cheating; it’s learning openings in an efficient way.</div>
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Obviously, my rating is only around FIDE 1800, so I am by no means an expert at chess openings yet. In certain other games, I quickly sink. I won’t go over those until I get a chance to study them a bit more ;-) To improve in those openings, I need to take my Chessable depth level from 5–7 to 12–16 as I’ve done for certain parts of the Rossolimo.</div>
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So how do I go about studying openings? What I’ve done is I’ve learned some openings very superficially which is NOT enough for high-level play but good enough to get a decent position out of the opening. This means if I have time, for example, in an over the board game, I can sit down and find the good moves after these first few solid moves.</div>
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However, now that I’ve got those basic repertoires as a base, I delve deeper into some openings I like. 12–16 moves deep. By memorising lines this long, it helps me understand concrete ideas and middle game plans. I identify weak squares, outposts, typical tactics, good piece placement and a lot more by studying lines more in depth. Slowly, as I do this for every single part of my opening repertoire, my game should become solid in all areas, and I will improve.</div>
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This approach has its scientific foundation in the seminal work of Simon & Chase decades ago. It works for me, and it should work for you. Moreover, Chessable offers discussion tools that help you clarify and understand any position in your repertoire by getting the help from our active community. Do give it a try, it’s great to bounce ideas off other players and develop that deep understanding we all seek.</div>
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Lastly, today I am happy to post a case study of a Chessable power user who has used opening study on Chessable to <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" data-tooltip="attached" href="https://www.chessable.com/blog/2016/07/15/how-chessable-can-help-you-become-a-chess-master/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">achieve his lifelong ambition of being a chess master</a></span>. It’s a great interview, well worth reading. Do check it out.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-8295063698543749192016-06-16T23:43:00.001-07:002016-10-28T01:03:01.188-07:00Clear learning path and no time.<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
I remember the days when I made my first leaps in rating learning chess, I had a ton of spare time. I was living off savings, enjoying life to the most. A thought crossed my head. If you achieve chess master level, some might put it down to me not have a “real” adult life! (I really did have that much spare time!). Well fast forward a little bit and sparing you all the details, today I hardly have time to have a break. I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum now.</div>
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If I had to estimate my chess study time since 2016 begun? I’d say 50 hours in total in almost 6 months, most of that in <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" href="https://www.chessable.com/?r=pbp" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Chessable opening study</a></span> (which has paid off its dividends!). Contrast that to the 50 hours I’d put in just one month before when I made quicker gains in chess performance.</div>
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On a positive note, I have been improving my chess-meta-learning skills. Due to writing my MSc Psychology of Education (BPS) dissertation (it has to do with chess), I’ve been picking up ideas and direction on the most optimal way to improve. What does this mean? Well, once I can make the spare time and put in the hours, improvement should happen! Here are the important points (not all, I'm saving a few sweet details for perhaps, a future publication):</div>
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1. No Blitz: Blitz only helps once you’ve improved a lot on slow time controls. Until then, it can be but a disheartening confirmation of your lack of improvement. I’ve endorsed Blitz for opening repertoire “hole” finding before. I still do, but only at the early stage of your repertoire building. Thanks to opening study on Chessable, I am now at a stage where most Blitz openings I get right, and there are few surprises. The problem comes in the first few middle game moves, or last few opening moves when you really need to have a good plan, recognise the pawn structures, and play accurately. If you don’t, and in Blitz you often don’t, it's a gamble, whoever makes the first mistake is on the back foot, defending an often unpleasant position. This can happen in ‘slow’ time controls also, when a couple of logical looking moves got me into trouble resulting in my last tournament being a flop, 2/5, 1700ish performance rating. Ouch. So how do we get these last few opening/middle game problems sorted? See 2.</div>
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2. Play more slow games. If I could play one classical FIDE/BCF rated game a day, that would be awesome. Of course, they can last over 3 hours. I’d happily put in the 3 hours 5 days a week, but there are no FIDE/BCF games daily, and right now I don't have the time anyway. So I have to go back to serious online time controls again, at some point, when I have the time. Perhaps my <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChZh4ew99zDWs7LUocPknpQ" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Youtube 15 10 rapid games</a></span> will do? We will see, I'm currently playing none of those anyway. I have to figure out the best approach, but the goal is to make sure that you are comfortable in all the positions that arise from your opening repertoire. If you are not, you better do some studying to make sure you are. It's important. I have a few ideas on how to go about this which I will try and if they work out well, you can expect them to be part of Chessable in the future.</div>
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3. Make sure you review the games where you've felt uncomfortable so that next time, you do better (and by playing slow games, this will hopefully give you more material for this point!). Very often we just go through the computer eval without figuring out why. If the opening is part of your repertoire, you really should know why. I know I haven't done so always, but from now on I will, and I've got some great plans on how to do this. I will let you know how it went.</div>
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4. Endgames. Really. No matter how good you think you are at endgames you need to be better to the point you are confident of converting and endgame against a GM. That's the end goal anyway, isn't it? Chessable has a few end-game repertoires, <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" href="https://www.chessable.com/book/essential-rp-vs-r-endings/90/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">this one by John being particularly good</a></span>, and thanks to Chessable I've mastered them, but this point is about more complex endgames. Mastering the simple ones is a great first step, but not enough.</div>
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I don’t know how much time I will be able to devote to studying chess in the near future, Chessable is a big priority (and of course, finishing my dissertation!). However, as soon as the spare time becomes available, I will have a concrete plan to follow, and I do expect 2,000 FIDE to be an achievable goal pretty soon. I look forward to referring back to this post when I get there!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-33129687322681817942016-06-03T01:20:00.001-07:002016-10-28T01:05:12.411-07:003 ways to study chess when you are knackered: between 5am and 8am.<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
So lately, I’ve been having 5am to 8am as some of my ‘spare hours’. Perhaps yours are different but also during times when you really can’t be bothered to do anything else, maybe midnight to 3am? It’s too early (or late) to do any work. It’s too early to do any serious studying or writing. So I’ve been putting most of that time onto Blitz chess, it’s ‘easy’. However, my rating and confidence are suffering as a result. No surprise there, most of the time I end up in time trouble and wonder where my time has gone. I move at the speed of a Galapagos tortoise. Blitz chess should not be something you do when you are tired and can’t find anything else to do. Definitely, definitely not!</div>
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In fact, anything that can win/lose you rating, is probably better left for when you are fully alert and can concentrate, after all, losing rating can hit your confidence and motivation if you don’t recognise that you are not playing like yourself. So don’t, don’t do it. I myself, will stop, what can you do when you are so tired you say? Here are 3 things that you could do and I will focus on more myself:</div>
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<li style="left: 2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">Tactics Trainer<br />Doing tactics when you are tired and not as sharp as you usually are can improve your “bad game”. The game you bring when you are tired or lost concentration. Therefore, this would be a productive use off these ungodly hours as in a normal tournament you may enter this state due to a bad loss or other reasons.</li>
<li style="left: 2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">Openings Training<br />Review your opening lines. I do this using <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" href="http://chessable.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Chess Openings Mastery - Chessable</a></span> and I get the lines correct most of the time regardless of whether I’m tired or not. Very productive use of your time. I will probably increase my time on the site at these hours.</li>
<li style="left: 2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">Review light chess material<br />Reading, certain kinds of videos, famous games. Perhaps this is the least beneficial of the three as it will provide the least retention of knowledge or practical memory than the other two, but nonetheless, probably better than playing Blitz and killing your motivation and confidence.</li>
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Granted, I must admit any of these options are hard to muster motivation for when you are so tired and at weird off hours of the day, however, no one said the road to chess mastery was easy. What do you do when you are tired (sleep, right? haha!)? Do you play chess? Do you generally tend to do worse than during your best time of the day?</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-4610613935098979322016-05-21T01:49:00.001-07:002016-10-28T01:05:50.807-07:00New all time high ratings and a busy-busy schedule.<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;">
I’ve meant to write this post for five days. Finally, today I have time to get around to it. The point is not so much to say how busy I am (ok maybe a little bit), but rather to document well what is going on with my chess progress. I have been working on a business plan for Chessable, so as to raise investment and bring the chess community even more kick-ass learning tools. I have been working on my Master's dissertation and a few essays. Tried sneaking in a few programming updates onto Chessable when I could. And other than that, a bunch of personal life stuff has kept me busy. Regardless of all that, chess remains an important priority, and I’ve tried to do what I can to maintain my chess skills. Time to report on what has happened:</div>
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In the last two weeks, I achieved a few chess milestones, with no studying aside from practicing openings (and a few endgames) on Chessable. I would say, averaging 5–10 minutes a day at most. This has helped me reach a rating of 1,854 in Blitz chess online. To put things in perspective, exactly three years ago I one day clocked in at 1,131. That is a 700 points rating difference! I was euphoric, and then I got matched up with a WFM on blitz chess. Her FIDE rating about 2,100. I lost my games against her and went on a bad run, stabilizing around 1,750. Regardless of the slight loss (due to focusing on rating and not playing well), I was very happy with my on-line Blitz rating and went onto the 39th Hampstead Chess Congress with confidence.</div>
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<img class="qtext_image_placeholder landscape qtext_image zoomable_in_feed" height="248" src="data:image/PNG;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAGCAIAAAB1kpiRAAAAg0lEQVR4nGXGMQ7CQAwEwLXXviNCvID/v4smSBRpIiUkJHc2DR1TjUzT5O4iAiAzfwGc0loYSfyplHHeX2u3jFCqCjITgkT2yHHtz6NwMHtsLHt3Mmlsn3doFy7d6uCGsC1ZFdoOnNsidUYpSrdsEQDsfnOF9QPkpdKvZ1OFKiMzW/sCrUNCfHy7GOUAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" style="animation-duration: 0.001s; animation-name: insQ_100; border: 0px; display: block; float: none; max-height: 100%; max-width: 545px; position: relative; visibility: hidden;" width="386" /><img class="landscape qtext_image zoomable_in_feed lazy_loaded lazy_loading" master_h="248" master_src="https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-413ad29f936065e69dccd758d25f6323?convert_to_webp=true" master_w="386" src="https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-413ad29f936065e69dccd758d25f6323?convert_to_webp=true" style="animation-duration: 0.001s; animation-name: insQ_100; border: 0px; display: block; float: none; left: 0px; max-height: 100%; max-width: 545px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.5s linear;" /></div>
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I finished the Congress with a performance rating of 2,023. My highest as of yet. This means that my FIDE rating will break 1,900 for the first time, it should be a shiny 1,913. For a breakdown of my games on the tournament, see the FIDE tournament card here: <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" data-tooltip="attached" href="http://ratings.fide.com/individual_calculations.phtml?idnumber=448680&rating_period=2016-06-01" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Kramaley, David June 2016 FIDE Individual Chess Calculations</a></span></div>
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Obviously, I have failed to reach the goal I set myself, 2,000 FIDE by April 2016. However, considering how busy I have been, I am happy enough with 1,900, it's a step closer to 2,000. Where to next? Well, studying the openings further with Chessable is definitely something I will maintain. Other than that, I really think it is time to improve my endgame technique. How exactly that will be achieved is still a mystery. I will either use Chessable to memorise De La Villa's 100 Endgames you must know or find another way that perhaps is more useful to me right now. Or maybe both, needless to say, the endgame is what I should be focusing on and I will try to make time for that before the next tournaments.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-61930088495998240682016-04-01T06:00:00.002-07:002016-10-28T01:06:27.226-07:00Settling into 1800-1900 FIDE rating: an update on my chess progress.<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
My last blog post about my chess progress was in October 2015, it's been quite some time. I set myself a goal to reach 2,000 FIDE by April 2016, and today being the 1st of April I can report that I am still not there! Why? If you are curious, read on, I've got good reasons why, and I still plan to get to 2,000 FIDE asap!</div>
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<b>Chess wise, what has happened during this time?</b></div>
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<li style="left: 2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; position: relative;">I played two more OTB tournaments, on one my performance was shocking and I went down to 1,844 FIDE, on the second I played pretty well and I've risen back up to 1,869. It's safe to say, the 1,800-1,900 range is an accurate reflection of my play, since I have got around 20 rated FIDE games at that performance and more in the BCF as I played for Bristol University Chess. Considering I haven't studied chess all this time, putting in a 1,950 tournament performance rating is impressive.</li>
<li style="left: 2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; position: relative;">I released the chess web site I announced back in <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" href="http://unratedtogm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/my-first-tournament-and-more.html" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">early October 2015</a></span>, which is something I have been working on since mid 2013 (first for personal, private use), and now it is available to everyone: <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" href="https://www.chessable.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Chessable</a></span>. This is a great achievement because it took a lot of work to get it from private use MVP stage to public open beta MVP stage. We are now working on getting it out of open beta converting it into a stable, awesome product. I've hardly studied a drop of chess since October 2015, the main culprit is really all the work that has gone into Chessable. It has been worth it though and the value it will provide for future tournament prep and chess education, will be invaluable. Of course, anyone who wants to play the same openings I play in my OTB and on-line games, now can do so by learning the <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" href="https://www.chessable.com/book/ables-repertoire-black-vs-1e4/1" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Able's repertoire on Chessable</a></span>!</li>
<li style="left: 2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">I realised once again how important it is to <b>stick to a repertoire you know well</b>, it helps tremendously in Blitz chess. For instance, last FIDE OTB tourney I played an awesome game that while perhaps wasn't 100% accurate it was intense enough to beat strong opposition under a one hour clock, it was even <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" href="http://www.hampsteadchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/prizes-and-results-for-37th-hampstead.html" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">shared by the TD</a></span> on their official web blog. I came across a very similar looking position in a 1 min lightning game I played the other day and was able to employ a similar strategy, with devastating consequences to my opponent who got checkmated in 12 moves, he did not have the luxury of an hour to find the best defense! Of course, this wouldn't work against the computer! Find the mate:</li>
</ol>
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<b>Chess wise, what should I do to get to my goal, 2,000 rating?</b></div>
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Okay, so I've admitted to not studying and perhaps I am lucky to maintain my respectable 1,850 FIDE rating, perhaps it is all the ground work I did before October 2015. However, 2,000 remains one of my main goals and I know I can get there. I do need to start making time for chess and at the moment it is unclear how that I will happen. I maintain, the reason adults can't learn skills (and chess) as impressively as the younger generation, is simply because we are multi-tasking so much, and multi-tasking is one of <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" href="http://www.hawaii.edu/behavior/306/downloads/Multitasking%20-%20Dzubak.pdf" rel="noreferrer" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the worst things you could do if you want to have optimal performance</a></span>! We have to earn our own money, feed ourselves, develop our careers, etc, etc. I am working full time and studying a taught MSc degree full time. How could I possibly make time? Well, it will have to come from somewhere at some point because to get to 2,000 FIDE here are all the things I need to do:</div>
<ol style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 2em 1em 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="left: 2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; position: relative;">Familiarize myself with the common middle game structures in the openings I play most commonly. I have done this with the Italian Game and I feel very happy and good playing those positions, however, I rarely get them. I need to learn more about Ruy Lopez middle game plans, Rossolimo Sicilian middle game plans, French, Caro kann, etc etc! This will take time.</li>
<li style="left: 2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">I need to work on my endgame, I still have not had much time to improve this area of my game and since the middle game plans are closely linked to the kind of end game you want to reach, this should be prioritized. Luckily, we are working on bringing efficient end game study to <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" href="https://www.chessable.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Chessable</a></span>, so perhaps, while working on that I will make this task easier for myself!</li>
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Signing off for now, I hope this post is useful for someone also trying to improve their chess rating as an adult. We can do it, that's for sure, you've just got to make consistent study time!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-25796054877377469172016-02-01T04:13:00.001-08:002016-02-01T04:21:41.933-08:00<table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<tr><td style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Your Chessable: Newsletter #1</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Sorry it has taken us so long to get in touch, we've been busy making Chessable awesome so that you can soon enjoy it.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">John briefly introduces one of the key features of Chessable in today's video.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Meet Able. Our official Chessable mascot. He will make a few appearances around our site, let's just hope you don't have to play him, in the ape world he is a GM!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">When will we open to the public?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">We are hoping to finish up some key features and polishes by mid February, at which point we will launch the web site in 'Open BETA'.</td></tr>
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</tbody></table>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-17844216991958792392015-10-26T05:34:00.000-07:002016-04-01T05:34:21.881-07:00Second Tournament Report & Actionable Points<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">So I returned from my 2nd FIDE rated tournament yesterday, which means I have completed my 10th game. I have heard it takes about 25 games to get an accurate FIDE rating but based on my own analysis I think my rating of around 1850 FIDE is pretty accurate.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-top: 0px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">This rating is based on my performance vs similarly rated players, a recent victory in a ECF game vs someone rated approximately 2000 FIDE and the relative ease with which I can handle players rated around 1600 FIDE (not that they aren't dangerous players!).</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">A quick summary of the tournament would be that I should have scored 2.5/5 points but after refusing a draw in my last game against an opponent rated 1915 FIDE I only secured 2/5 points, giving him a performance rating of 2000 and lowering mine to about 1770, instead of maybe keeping us both at an even 1900! Lesson? Take time left on the clock extremely seriously when considering a draw and forget 'what should have happened if time was infinite!'. I knew I had winning chances at a few points of the game and computer analysis agrees and could obviously not let this go. When I was under 10 minutes and my opponent still had 30, I started making questionable moves giving black an advantage!</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">See the position below, I did seriously consider Bf1 and was going to play it, but after considering his rook gets quick access to a2 and I didn't have enough time to calculate the ramifications of that, I decided to just 'push the pawn'. It was all downhill from here really, keeping my bishop out of the game and even so the draw offer came about 5 moves later, with my opponent missing a blunder the computer did see.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br />
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<img class="portrait qtext_image zoomable_in zoomable_in_feed" master_h="748" master_src="https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-e57208b6eaf426456573b7826ee4fcb5?convert_to_webp=true" master_w="524" src="https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-1c13893af6c11fa2e277a4cf9b2525ff?convert_to_webp=true" style="animation-duration: 0.001s; animation-name: insQ_101; border: 0px; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in; display: block; float: none; max-height: 100%; max-width: 545px; opacity: 1;" /></div>
<br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Sad state of affairs towards the end-game but I can be somewhat proud of my overall opening and mid-game play, aside from the time it took I guess!</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">So what did I learn, what are my actionable points to improve? What are my next goals?</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Actionable points:</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br />
<ol style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 2em 1em 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="left: 2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; position: relative;">Continue studying the end game (I must have done about 6 hours of end game study the last month, not good enough. Recalling the principles now, I know i should have pulled my bishop back to provide the support from long range, horrible move, b5!</li>
<li style="left: 2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">Close the holes in my opening repertoire so I can remain competitive longer against players who know opening lines I don't and thus save time. The way I will achieve this is by playing more 20 minute games again (have hardly had any in the last month!) and perhaps even Blitz could help, and every time I am not happy with my opening performance, study the line using the tool I've developed. Eg, I got destroyed by not knowing some fundamental differences between a Dragon setup and an Accelerated Dragon, ouch! I want to get to a stage where no matter what reasonable opening my opponent choose I can feel comfortable for at least 10-15 moves. I am not sure correspondence chess can help patch up my opening repertoire as the flow of games isn't anywhere near as fast to find the gaps that exist. The correspondence games mainly help with middle game positions, finding plans.</li>
</ol>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The positives of my actionable points are that they are fully in line with the Russian school of chess which often backs the study of chess from the opening and the end game first, leading towards key middle game positions later.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Aims? </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 0px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I am not sure I will play the next FIDE chess event in London, as I feel I have some improving to do before I can go there and seriously challenge the players on the 2000-2100 band. However, I think I can really kick their ass next year, perhaps by April, so let's make that the goal. 2000 FIDE by April 2016. Here i come!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-35992896569209857582015-10-16T05:33:00.000-07:002016-04-01T05:33:43.032-07:00The reason I memorise opening lines. Does it make us robots?<div class="qtext_image_wrapper" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 8px auto; position: relative; width: 744px;">
<img class="landscape qtext_image zoomable_in zoomable_in_feed" master_h="1333" master_src="https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-67a49ece128e098f99362c2eeee2af4f?convert_to_webp=true" master_w="2000" src="https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-8548ef10e4326fd2be9109a93c91c36a?convert_to_webp=true" style="animation-duration: 0.001s; animation-name: insQ_101; border: 0px; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in; display: block; float: none; max-height: 100%; max-width: 545px; opacity: 1;" /></div>
<i style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Is memorising opening lines worth it?</i><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">So yesterday I played my second league game for the University of Bristol. I was slightly familiar with the position my opponent, rated ECF 176 (about FIDE 2020) chose with the white pieces. Perhaps a better description is, it's not like I have never seen it before; however, I haven't played it all that much at all, moreover, I definitely haven't studied any opening lines for it.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">This quickly lead to a big time advantage for my opponent who obviously plays this line all the time as white. Unfortunately I did not know who I was playing beforehand so preparation was out of the question. So despite having about 40 minutes left once we got into the middle game, playing against someone with half an hour more than you and no time increment is pretty challenging.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br />
<blockquote style="border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 1em;">
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<blockquote style="border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 1em;">
"memorising doesn't make us machines, it just helps us get an even footing versus players who have played a lot longer than we have"</blockquote>
<br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I kept going, I managed to finally get a good position and perhaps at some point a good advantage (with equal material), however, time became more and more of a factor leaving me with 7 minutes vs. my opponents 15-20 (I managed recover some time!). Eventually, I was forced to make my moves in under 30 seconds (since there was no time increment!) and this led to an unfortunate move giving my opponent easy targets. The extra pressure resulted in an eventual blunder by me. So what are the lessons to take home from this game?</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Basically, any rated league/tournament game I play where I am familiar with the opening lines, I manage to go out of the opening with a time advantage and put all the pressure on my opponent. Making moves so confidently definitely gives you a psychological edge, so, I need to make sure my repertoire has no gaps. It almost doesn't, there are only a few lines where I need to brush up. Soon, I should have a good idea of what to do regardless of my opponent's first moves.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">So despite anything negative anyone might say about memorising opponents, claiming its all about understanding the position, well, it's all fine to go about it that way when you are already a master or have limitless time available to you, or a great teacher perhaps. However, if you don't, surely it is a lot quicker to memorise the lines and get good positions out of the opening so you can play on an even ground where both players need to think! Eventually, by memorising you will also build an understanding of the positions.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 0px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">So I will go on memorising more variations, it's pretty quick I find, and very very useful thanks to a software tool I developed (name to be revealed very soon!). Time to learn some Catalan lines. If anyone is interested in memorising lines with me, contact me and perhaps you can gain some early BETA access! Oh, and no, memorising doesn't make us machines, it just helps us get an even footing versus players who have played a lot longer than we have!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-90919263856678151882015-10-09T05:30:00.000-07:002016-04-01T05:30:24.696-07:00My first tournament and more!<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">In my last </span><span class="qlink_container" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://unratedtogm.quora.com/Update-on-Improvement" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #2b6dad; text-decoration: none;">post</a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> I talked about moving to Europe, having less chess study time and my goal of getting above 1850 FIDE in my first chess tournament. Well time has passed, I am in Europe, I have played my first tournament and was slightly disappointed with my result, although, I am probably being harsh on myself as my current FIDE rating is 1873!!!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I played in the </span><br />
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background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"></a><a class="external_link tooltip_parent" data-tooltip="attached" href="http://hampsteadchess.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/final-results-and-prizewinners-for-this.html" rel="noreferrer nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Hampstead Chess Congress on the 26-27 September 2015</a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">, and for my first game I got white vs. Jake Hung (1708). I made a point of not looking at my opponent's ratings, so when I played Jake I did not know what his rating was. I knew the player pool was mostly above 1900 and 2000 so I assumed Jake to be the same. I was pleasantly surprised after the first few opening moves when my opponent played 8..e4, which seemed overly aggressive to me and dangerous for him considering his king side was so underdeveloped.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">You can see from the analysis that after this move my advantage in the game rose steadily without much difficulty and the game was finished pretty soon. I doubt I played a splendid game and some inaccuracies got me in slight trouble later on giving my opponent counter-chances, but I managed to finish with a nice mating pattern. Here is the </span><span class="qlink_container" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><a class="external_link" href="http://en.lichess.org/grKtl9h1/black" rel="noreferrer nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">full game</a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Having started on the right foot, I knew my opponent would be better in the second game as he also, had won his first game. I played Zoltan Kovacs (2009) as white and neither one of us managed to get a large advantage as we both missed good chances. In the end, we agreed a draw as the position was overly complicated and neither one of us wanted to take many more risks than necessary. I had a good time advantage takes to my opening preparation as I caught my opponent in lines he was unfamiliar with while I executed the first 12 moves very quickly, I should have slowed down for the 14th move though...!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">In this position after 13..gxf6 white has a considerable advantage, but I go on to mess it up and give black a decent yet complicated game. You can find the </span><span class="qlink_container" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><a class="external_link" href="http://en.lichess.org/9wA5Gkhl" rel="noreferrer nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">full game</a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> here. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I will be brief about the last three games, which you can find on the same lichess page, but I went on to win the third game in spectacular fashion after over 60 moves, I clinged to a draw for a while as black and eventually got my chance to go for the kill. This allowed me to go into the second day as one of the tourney leaders with 2.5/3 points. I was in dreamland!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">On the final two games of the tournament, first I played Koby Kalavannan (1989). In this game I had the pressure of being one of the tourney leaders, I was in contention of the prize money and moreover, Koby decided to reveal to me that he was rated 2170 just a month ago. This probably influenced my game at some points. I did compose myself and gave Koby an extremely good game, he ended up in time trouble first but I quickly joined him as we both lived off 30 second increments. I managed to get a good advantage with a winning position just to eventually leave my knight hanging in the most obvious of fashions! This brain dysfunction (let's call it that) destroyed me emotionally and I never recovered for the next game where I just wasn't myself. Of course, the game against Koby also lasted a full 3 hours so I did not have more than half an hour to recover for my game with James Golding. I probably need a full night's sleep!!</span><br />
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<img class="portrait qtext_image zoomable_in_feed" master_h="361" master_src="https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-d411429868c269dee1d9e2e7e1ed7cbb?convert_to_webp=true" master_w="258" src="https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-d411429868c269dee1d9e2e7e1ed7cbb?convert_to_webp=true" style="animation-duration: 0.001s; animation-name: insQ_101; border: 0px; display: block; float: none; max-height: 100%; max-width: 545px; opacity: 1;" /></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The picture above shows the position after move 38 against Koby, black has enough of an advantage to play for a win but I completely forget my knight is hanging (although I was aware of it) and give Koby the game.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">So that was my first tourney, a great first day and a terrible second day for a total score of 2.5/5 and a performance good enough for a FIDE rating of 1873! Above the target I set myself nonetheless. However, after this tournament I left with the strong feeling I can definitely play at a 2000 FIDE level and hence my disappointment to not have scored at least one more point.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I took this confidence into my on-line correspondence games and managed to climb to 1906 rating on chess [dot] com, still not good enough for the 99th percentile, leaving me at 98.2%! I also played confidently an English Chess Federation league game representing the University of Bristol, taking down an opponent rated approximately 2100 FIDE with the black pieces!!! I imagine my ECF (BCF) rating is going up!!! For more details on that victory check out my opponent's match report here '</span><span class="qlink_container" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><a class="external_link" href="http://downendchess.com/index.php?page=report&subpage=60" rel="noreferrer nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The luck of the draw</a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">'.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Oh, to conclude, if you noticed the University of Bristol mentioned, it's because I am now studying a taught Msc there, it's really time consuming!!! Hence, the lack of blog posts, the lack of chess study and youtube chess videos. Nonetheless, my game is improving with the limited study I do and especially so thanks to my opening preparation, which is done via a web site I will soon release to the world!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-71377195709543846682015-09-13T05:28:00.000-07:002016-04-01T05:28:54.926-07:00Update on Improvement<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">It's nice to have constant improvement, but often in chess plateaus are reached. Sometimes you don't understand why, but if you do, then you can make a plan to break the plateau and progress. Luckily, I have plans.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-top: 0px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">First, I have reached a plateau in Tactics Trainer, I cannot seem to get above 2,000 rating points, I believe the problem to be mostly psychological, whenever I am close to breaking 2,000 I solve tactics faster to get more points and then after getting a few wrong I get into a bad emotional state that make me spiral down. I have recently decided that I no longer seem to be losing games due to missing tactical patterns, in fact, my tactical awareness seems pretty strong, so I am going to cut down on tactics. However, I am not sure how much yet, maybe I will only do 5 TT problems a day and any others on other sites or books, but definitely no longer 30. To get 30 mostly right is just frustrating! For now, I am doing none as I am moving back to Europe! Here is a photo of the last set of 30 TT/day. (the last week was 20p.d.)</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br />
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<img class="landscape qtext_image zoomable_in zoomable_in_feed" master_h="783" master_src="https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-55811a88aabbd9a86219e8896cabd851?convert_to_webp=true" master_w="853" src="https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-8325bc76401a3956a94e54f92679f986?convert_to_webp=true" style="animation-duration: 0.001s; animation-name: insQ_100; border: 0px; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in; display: block; float: none; max-height: 100%; max-width: 545px; opacity: 1;" /></div>
<br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Second, I have kept in touch with an IM chess coach and have had a few lessons. It has mostly been about changing my opening repertoire and playing 1.e4 as well as 1.e4 e5. Before this I used to play mainly the 1.d4 and 1.e4 c5. The idea is that by changing my repertoire I will be able to improve some weak areas of my game, specifically dynamic play as well as become comfortable across a wider range of openings and positions. My </span><span class="qlink_container" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><a class="external_link" data-tooltip="attached" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChZh4ew99zDWs7LUocPknpQ" rel="noreferrer nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20width%3D%2214px%22%20height%3D%2214px%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2014%2014%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20xmlns%3Axlink%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxlink%22%20xmlns%3Asketch%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%2Fns%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C!--%20Generator%3A%20Sketch%203.5.2%20(25235)%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bohemiancoding.com%2Fsketch%20--%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ctitle%3Eexternal_link%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdesc%3ECreated%20with%20Sketch.%3C%2Fdesc%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cdefs%3E%3C%2Fdefs%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22Page-1%22%20stroke%3D%22none%22%20stroke-width%3D%221%22%20fill%3D%22none%22%20fill-rule%3D%22evenodd%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSPage%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22external_link%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSLayerGroup%22%20fill%3D%22%23ccc%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M10%2C8%20C9.447%2C8%209%2C8.448%209%2C9%20L9%2C12%20L2%2C12%20L2%2C5%20L5%2C5%20C5.553%2C5%206%2C4.552%206%2C4%20C6%2C3.448%205.553%2C3%205%2C3%20L1%2C3%20C0.447%2C3%200%2C3.448%200%2C4%20L0%2C13%20C0%2C13.552%200.447%2C14%201%2C14%20L10%2C14%20C10.553%2C14%2011%2C13.552%2011%2C13%20L11%2C9%20C11%2C8.448%2010.553%2C8%2010%2C8%20L10%2C8%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M13%2C0%20L8%2C0%20C7.447%2C0%207%2C0.448%207%2C1%20C7%2C1.552%207.447%2C2%208%2C2%20L10.586%2C2%20L4.293%2C8.293%20C3.902%2C8.684%203.902%2C9.316%204.293%2C9.707%20C4.488%2C9.902%204.744%2C10%205%2C10%20C5.256%2C10%205.512%2C9.902%205.707%2C9.707%20L12%2C3.414%20L12%2C6%20C12%2C6.552%2012.447%2C7%2013%2C7%20C13.553%2C7%2014%2C6.552%2014%2C6%20L14%2C1%20C14%2C0.448%2013.553%2C0%2013%2C0%20L13%2C0%20Z%22%20id%3D%22Shape%22%20sketch%3Atype%3D%22MSShapeGroup%22%3E%3C%2Fpath%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Page on youtube.com</a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> has videos of me mostly playing these new openings and I am finally feeling comfortable on those lines. Other than changing the opening repertoire my coach is helping me analyse my own games and correct some faulty positional decisions taken every now and again, example, which pieces are correct to swap and which aren't, correct plans in certain positions, but mainly most of my mistakes have come from not correctly defending or taking over the center. Either way, with a coach, it is nice to be able to improve this part of my game.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 0px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I am in a transition period of moving back to Europe, which has reduced the amount of chess study I have been able to do (I still did some! ;-)) but it also means that soon I will be able to play a tournament and get my first FIDE rating. I am really, really, hoping for 1850+ FIDE based on my chess . com ratings compared to other players who seem to have a FIDE rating of around 1800. I also have been getting to play more National Masters lately on ICC hence I really think I may be able to come up even with 1,900. That would be great, but of course, 2,000 will be even better. I plan to make it happen. Wish me luck!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08493220109227714177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-285621961472267652015-08-08T07:14:00.001-07:002015-08-08T07:14:51.609-07:002000 Tactics Fever & YouTube channel.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Quick little update, I seem to have settled into the 1,900 tactics rating level on</span><span class="qlink_container" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><a class="external_link" href="http://chess.com/" rel="noreferrer nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 12px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://chess.com</a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">, recognising the problems more and more often and thus increasing in rating.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Solving problems even if it takes 8 minutes per problem definitely helps remember the pattern, as opposed to failing it and then just seeing the solution. I am really striving to get at least 80% right each day. Some days I manage to do so really well but other days like today I get too focused on reaching a rating goal and fail. I really wanted to just hit 2,000 but after getting to the 1,980's multiple times I'd act too fast (to gain rating points) and instead end up losing points in problems I may have managed to solve.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">This rating hunt needs to stop, of course, but I won't be too harsh on myself and aim to be a stable 2,000 in a month instead of in a day as I have been trying! Today, is a perfect example on how not to solve tactic problems as I got 11/30 wrong vs my usual 5-6/30 wrong, all to try and hit 2,000! All in all, I need to remember I could hardly leave the 1,800's a couple of months ago before I started this new way of looking at tactics. This month I almost hit my 40 hour target, and I would have, but for a week I had away exploring Huaraz in Peru!</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">In other news, I've launched a video channel on </span><span class="qlink_container" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><a class="external_link" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChZh4ew99zDWs7LUocPknpQ?view_as=subscriber" rel="noreferrer nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 12px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">youtube.com</a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> with the goal of improving on slower time controls. How will I achieve that? Well, If I know I am recording I try and take the game more seriously, I try to calculate better, I try to practise prophylaxis better, and in general, I just play better. Usually I'd get bored of slower time controls on-line and get distracted. This way hopefully I will build good habits, one in especially, always checking what my opponents best response to my move is before I make it, as I very often catch myself not doing that.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">What else am I up to in chess?</b><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I'm also studying openings still, getting pretty knowledgeable in the Najdorf but the opening is so complicated I reckon I need at least another whole month to learn all the important variations, but I am going to go for it, it's nice to be well versed in the Najdorf, such an exciting opening!</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11779142792442974461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-37107149523775072172015-07-08T07:14:00.000-07:002015-08-08T07:14:30.144-07:00Progress Update: June to July 2015<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">A quick progress update based on my last set of resolutions.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">What worked?</b><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">#2) Deciding to stay in Ecuador for a while has given me more stability to take chess more seriously, it helped me achieve a few goals such as improving a lot in rock climbing and the next resolution:</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">#4) After being stuck in the upper 1700's and mid 1800's in Tactics Trainer, with a 55% successfully solved rate, I found myself depressed about my tactician skills. I resolved to solve for accuracy rather than speed and now I have stabilized at a 1900 rating with a peak of 1960! I could have probably hit 2000 but I got a bit too eager when I approached it and fell back down. This new approach has yielded almost 3 out of every 4 solutions correct (approximately 75%) and I do feel like I am progressing again. I will maintain this approach and hoping to update you from a stable 2,000 next month.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">#6) I finished Pawn Structure Chess and a tiny bit of endgame study (got good at opposition, distant opposition, breakthroughs, mined squares, key squares in the endgame). I feel like this new chess knowledge will serve me well but I am well aware that any rating increase I will get will be mostly from eradicating bad habits, and creating good new ones. To this end, I am re-reading Chess for Zebras (the first time I only read about 30%) and hoping to find some nuggets that will help me get the next big rating jump. I imagine, I will just have to do more tactics or maybe opening guess the move and middle game guess the move kind of problems.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">What didn't work?</b><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">#1) Planning each and every day, it's just next to impossible! I have however got a good solid morning routine so that by 11am I feel like I have done a lot of my chess things and I am free to do everything else that needs doing. Then if I can fit another 2 hours somewhere in the day my chess studying day has gone extremely well.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">a) Also, I've played too much Blitz,</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> and I feel like it is no longer benefiting me, my rating soared but it has reached a cap again. Once again, I believe playing slower games maybe including correspondence is the answer. So this next month, that is the goal. Correspondence chess!</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">New Resolutions</b><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Finish Chess for Zebras</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Continue training tactics as I have, solving for accuracy. Recently I saw a video where IM Bartholomew backs the approach as well, solving for accuracy!</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Increase the amount of tactics I do by solving some paper booklets I have, or perhaps try and find a way to solve for opening moves or middle game moves to improve my strategic habits.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Ponder on other ways to improve my "skill" rather than my "knowledge" (see Chess for Zebras).</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Here are some screenshots of my Tactics Trainer work during the last month, only around 18 hours, I think I should be doing at least 40 hours a month? Hmm.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br />
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<img class="landscape qtext_image qtext_image_large zoomable_in zoomable_in_feed" master_h="787" master_src="http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-47ffdfb6367777688c4913f761fce6bf?convert_to_webp=true" master_w="954" src="http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-955ffb70d4770d4efa197d2cf32a33e8?convert_to_webp=true" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: none; display: block; float: none; height: auto; margin: 8px auto; max-height: 600px; max-width: 100%;" /></div>
<br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Rating Progress: </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Correspondence 1856 (97.4%)</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Standard 1753 (97.4%)</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Blitz 1714 (96.8%)</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Bullet 1581 (94.4%)</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Got extremely frustrated in my standard games, I think I am not very good at that time control, need to learn better time management for it is most likely to resemble real FIDE tournaments. Quite pleasant to be getting better at Blitz though, both at 10 minute and 5 minute time controls. For Blitz, I feel like my opening preparation is paying off, for slower time controls, it feels like it is not so much the opening that is affecting my play but other factors like double checking your moves and your opponent's best response to them as well as remaining patient throughout the whole thing.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11779142792442974461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-20839748096535055792015-06-08T07:13:00.000-07:002015-08-08T07:13:40.726-07:00Now that I'm a stable 98th percentile, it's time to step up my game. Here is the plan.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">3 months ago I set myself a goal to hit the 99th percentile by basically, today. I had some concrete goals and plans set and now is the time to reflect on them. The benefit when you aim high and fall short is that, if you do fall short you can still achieve something you are proud of. Well, I am stable 98th percentile player now! That means on 15|10 chess I am ranked #14,044 of 817,724. That's and improvement of about 50,000 ranks in 2 years! Considering my studying has been all over the place at points, with many months where I did not study at all, I think this is great! Now, I am going to take studying chess seriously, since I no longer have to study my Masters in Psychology, but that's another long story.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br />
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<br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">It may not seem like much of a difference going from the 97th percentile to the 98th, especially when I was already </span><span class="qlink_container" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://unratedtogm.quora.com/Flirting-with-the-98th-percentile" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #2b6dad; text-decoration: none;">flirting with the 98th percentile</a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">, but at this point every 0.10% I can go up matters to me, a lot, and I definitely managed to remain with my head above 98th and right now I am at 98.3%. In rating terms it means I went from being a high 1,600 to low 1,700 player on Standard to a stable 1,800 contender. Big difference </span><span class="qlink_container" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://unratedtogm.quora.com/Measuring-progress-A-long-way-from-GM" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #2b6dad; text-decoration: none;">compared to 2 years ago when I was stuck at the 90th percentile</a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">, happy if I managed to hit 1,500. Back then my goal was to get to the 97th and join a chess club. Well, I guess reflecting back on that goal, I have managed it, and I am now attending a small chess club in Cuenca every Saturday!</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">So what went wrong? Why did I not reach the 99th percentile over the last 3 months?</b><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Well actually, I followed </span><span class="qlink_container" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://unratedtogm.quora.com/Flirting-with-the-98th-percentile" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #2b6dad; text-decoration: none;">the 4 goals I set myself </a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">without even realising, almost to the letter. But things did go wrong, here they are:</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">1) I did not work with any form of schedule, aside from doing tactics mostly every morning, everything else was done at random times without any planning. This meant that if my mood was low (and in the last 3 months due to personal circumstances that happened often...!), then some things didn't get done or time simply flew away with random things.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Resolution:</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> For the following 3 months, every night I will plan my next day's study & work schedule, including meals, this way, I make the most of my days.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">2) A lot of life things got in the way of chess. Mainly making some complicated decisions, for instance, about where to live for the next 6 months (or longer). Would I travel? Would I settle down somewhere and get a job? Would I give my own business ideas a spin again? Difficult decisions, and when you feel like you will leave the country any day bound for an unknown destination sometimes it is hard to get a good study routine going.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Resolution: </b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">A couple of weeks ago I decided I would stay in Ecuador for at least 6 months and give a few of my business ideas a spin. This will provide a 6 month "stability" window to improve at chess and to try and generate an income again. I put stability in quotes because I still plan some weekend getaways, camping trips, mountain ascents, and perhaps even La Cordillera Blanca in Peru! Heck, this counts as stability in my life though! :)</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">3) To summarize (TLDR!), point 2, I let a lot of things interfered with my studying which meant my studying was all over the place.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Resolution: </b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Try to write shorter paragraphs.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">4) My tactics training was suboptimal. Although I managed to stay around 1,800 and hit 1,900 for a short period, the overall feeling was that of being stuck at 1,800 and not making any progress. After thinking about it, this was because the tactic problems that were hard for me I would consistently get wrong, and due to rushing because of the time vs. point dilemma on</span><span class="qlink_container" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><a class="external_link" href="http://chess.com/" rel="noreferrer nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 12px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Chess.com</a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> , I would always rush. This rushing would make me get the problems wrong, again and again and not improve.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Resolution: </b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Today, I reset my tactics training stats after almost reaching 100 hours (97.8 hours I believe!), I had about 55% problems right and 45% wrong in almost 7,000 solved tactics. More than half in the last 3 months I believe. I reset my tactics because my goal is to update you next time on my tactics and report at least 70% of tactics solved correctly as opposed to just 55%. I will no longer care whether I lose or win rating points while solving tactics, I will care about the percentage I get right. Period. I strongly believe this will allow me to familiarize myself with more patterns and eventually be able to stabilize my tactics rating at around 2,000 or more. Let's see!</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">5) My opening theory preparation was suboptimal. I attempted learning all the lines to an opening which took forever. While I am proud to report I am somewhat of a Nimzo expert as white, I found that people stopped playing the bloody Nimzo almost as if by chance and I hardly get to use my knowledge. Instead I often get lost in some obscure line of the King's Indian, Benoni, Slav, openings where I lack knowledge. In the rare case someone plays a Nimzo, they go off the book and I do not immediately know how to punish them. Hence many hours of learning opening theory have not yet reflected themselves on my rating, but maybe it has somehow improved my play by helping me recognise certain plans in certain pawn structures, maybe.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Resolution: </b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I want to memorize shorter lines, instead of knowing an opening 20 moves down the opening lines, I am going to try to prepare my repertoire to 10 moves or so across a wider variety of openings. I also would like to study the book Pawn Structure Chess as I have noticed how important it is to recognise plans based on pawn structures, when your opponent is not giving you anything else.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">6) I did not add any new chess knowledge. While I am very familiar with the strategic concepts of positional chess talked about in Simple Chess, I thought I would learn something new in the book "My System" which I did finally finish. It turns out, Simple Chess recycled everything My System talks about, and I must say, Simple Chess is easier to read than My System. Therefore, I did not learn anything new, which got me wondering, is there anything new to learn? While watching IM and GM videos it seems I am extremely well versed in any strategic concept they talk about, but indeed, some areas I have recognised I lack knowledge in are pawn structures and their according plans as well as perhaps some imbalances that IM Silman talks about, although I think Silman probably mostly talks about the same stuff as the author of Simple Chess and Nimzowitsch. I also lack a lot of endgame knowledge.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Resolution: </b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Study the endgame, study pawn structures.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Having now completely recorded my progress and reflected on my weaknesses, I will set a new goal. My goal is to hit the 99th percentile on Standard Chess 15|10 within 3 months and be able to remain there without dropping below it. I also want to hit the 99th percentile on on-line chess. I have a lot of motivation to achieve this goal as there is a FIDE rated tournament coming up and If I can reach the 99th percentile, I may play it. I say may, because I really wanted to be closer to 99.9% before doing so, but heck...!</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Just for recording purposes, here are all my ratings:</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Correspondence 1839 (97.1%)</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Standard 1814 (98.3%)</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Blitz 1603 (94.4%)</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Bullet 1503 (92.4%)</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Two things stand out, I managed to really pick it up on Bullet chess by getting a lot of games and thus practise in, before this I used to play at 60th percentile level on Bullet, it was almost shameful. The second thing is the lack of progress on Correspondence chess, but this is because I got caught up playing a lot of Standard, Blitz and Bullet games. Time to go and sort this out. 99th percentile, here I come.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11779142792442974461noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-38723850288039940852015-03-05T07:12:00.000-08:002015-08-08T07:13:03.976-07:00Flirting with the 98th percentile.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">On both turn based chess and live standard time controls I have managed to hit 98th percentile very briefly. Then back down to 97th I went! I have not had a plan or discipline studying chess for a while now. Taking a step back, here is what I need to do to hit the 99th percentile. Hopefully, next time I write, thats where I will be on both 15|10 and turn based chess.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br />
<ol style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 28px; padding: 8px 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;">Play a max of 4 turn based games of chess at a time. Any more and I don't take them seriously enough because I get tired investing the mental resources required on every single game (I had like 14 going recently!).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;">Take every live standard game I play seriously.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;">Do tactics every day without failure for at least 60 days.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;">Study more opening lines, it really helps knowing the book moves for the most common openings I encounter, as it helps save prescious mental resources for when the oponnent leaves the book.</li>
</ol>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I am going to try and put together a disciplined plan to achieve this 99th percentile goal within the next 3 months. Hopefully, the next will be a positive update. Regardless, I am pretty proud of my playing level considering the lack of time investment into chess, as even when I am at my worst I no longer seem to drop below the 96th percentile, ever. Woop!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11779142792442974461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-70099436499203180852015-01-30T07:12:00.000-08:002015-08-08T07:12:30.552-07:00Still Unrated<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">While I have successfully resisted the urge to play blitz games, I have also allowed all my chess efforts to stop for the past 8 weeks. Too much travelling about, celebrations, seeing friends, family, studies, all of that left little time for chess.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">This is a big hint towards the reason few people manage to become grandmasters as adults: it appears that it takes more than just discipline as you juggle all of your wants, needs and obligations. It may take superhuman discipline (after all I consider myself a pretty disciplined person!)</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">If you have many needs & obligations, little time is left for chess, and the little time left you may just spend playing rather than studying the subject!</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">If you have many wants, like me, juggling priorities may leave you achieving little in one of the fields you are really interested in. I want to travel more, I want to learn more languages, I want to learn psychology, I want to read more books, I want to learn chess, I want to keep friendships & family close, I want to rock & mountain climb, I want to snowboard more, oh, and I want to make money again! As a kid, you don't question all your wants and just go for one of them. As an adult, I seem to be wanting to perform the most complex balancing act to make sure I get ALL of them. Is this realistic? Only time will tell.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">When you combine all of it, eventually one of these ends up taking a back seat. This last 8 weeks, that happened to my chess progress. Luckily, today I've resolved to get back to it. Today I'm warming up to get back into action, I've done some opening revision and I'm going to solve at least 20 tactics. The next few days I will follow the same routine until I feel I can unpause my </span><span class="qlink_container" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><a class="external_link" href="http://chess.com/" rel="noreferrer nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 12px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Chess</a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">.com games and continue the full scale project. I am also going to pick My System back up as I left it about half way read. Hopefully, these steps will help me reach a next milestone in my chess progress.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11779142792442974461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-2930907052908326402014-11-24T07:11:00.000-08:002015-08-08T07:12:04.686-07:00Resisting the urge to play blitz games.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Yesterday I bought a nice travel sized chess board so I can properly study chess again. I also got a copy of My System, long on my to read list. I read and went through the positions in the first few pages today. Nothing new so far aside from the incredible importance Nimzowitsch gives to tempi and his great explanation on when to exchange and when not to. I enjoyed it but going through the positions was a bit exhausting.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I've kept up practising tactics and so far I am nowhere near my all time high of 1990 in tactics. Hanging arou</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">nd the 1700 level. Just had a massive urge to "test" my newly acquired knowledge in a live blitz game, managed to resist it until I keep my promise and get to the 99th percentile in corespondence chess. Wasn't easy, but instead I managed to get a few more tactics in. Over and out!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11779142792442974461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-50065673935937448102014-11-21T07:10:00.000-08:002015-08-08T07:11:10.262-07:00Tilt, Learning Plateau & Future Resolutions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">A couple of months ago I seemingly got stuck at the 97-98th percentile of correspondence chess. This frustrated me and I lost 100 rating points quite quickly. After recovering about 50 points I decided the reason I reached a plateau was that correspondence chess was boring me a bit and I decided to go back to live games. I picked the Blitz format because my rating there was the most mediocre, 90th percentile, say what?!</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Fast forward a couple of months and a couple hundred or so blitz games later and I reached the same problem. Stuck at the 93th percentile, tilting, losing 10 games in a row making the most horrendous moves. It was at this point I realised I play completely different when my rating is below what I think I should be, a common characteristic of chassing your losses, tilting. I took a step back and decided to find a solution. My search led me to a book entitled </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The mental game of poker</i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> by Jared Tendler, a sport psychologist. The insights I drew were extremely helpful.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Jared cites the Adult Learning Model (ALM) theory in his book which describes how certain skills we know (or don't) have four different levels of competence. The levels are Unconscious Incompetence, Conscious Incompetence, Conscious Competence and Unconscious Competence. Most GMs can win blindfolded against multiple opponnents because most of their skills lie in the Unconscious Competence category.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The problem that we, as learners have is that most of the skills we think we know are actually still in the Conscious Competence category. These skills are fragile and require utmost attention and focus for us to execute them properly. If emotions show up, including time pressure, these skills go out of the window and we start playing a subpar game. Jared argues that emotions are difficult to control and perhaps counterproductive as well, therefore the best way to stop emotions (or tilt) affecting your play is to move more skills to the Unconscious Competence category, aka the skills that show up irrelevant of how you are feeling.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Think about it, even in time pressure, you won't try to move your queen like a knight, right? That's an example of UC and that's where we need to bring the rest of our skills up to. Furthermore, if you are a beginner then it's likely a lot of your skills are either in the UI or CI category! For instance, if you know that moving a piece twice during the opening is considered bad, but do not know what to do about it then that skill is in the Conscious Incompetence category. Once you learn that you must complete development of all your pieces because it is an integral part of the game, this skill moves up to the Conscious Competence category.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Jared also uses a helpful example of an inchworm to drive the point home, but to keep things short I will put forward some concrete findings based on this principle that apply to my game:</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">1. When I reach a plateau and stop climbing rating points as fast, I get frustrated, my emotions are all over the place. This means I start playing worse than usual because all the things I think I know go out of the window.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">2. To improve, I need to identify which of these skills are still at the CC level and study them to finally get them over to the UC level. When I do this, my rating will naturally climb up until I reach another plateau at which point I have to find the next UC skills to promote.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">3. On the basis of that logic, I realised that I do not practise prophylaxis on every move as I should. Therefore I resolve to make it a commandment that I shall ALWAYS analyse what my oponnent's move intends before I plan my own move. Sounds simple enough, but the trick is to get used to doing it EVERY move. Bring it to the UC level.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">4. I also realised how I stopped studying as much, and therefore I resolve to quit playing live games once again until I reach the 99th percentile on correspondence. Meanwhile, I will do the </span><span class="qlink_container" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><a class="external_link" href="http://chess.com/" rel="noreferrer nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 12px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">chess.com</a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> tactics trainer and hopefully double my tactics time from 48 hours to 100 hours. Bring some more tactical patterns to the UC level.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I realise this post is very technical, psychological and lacks detail. However, in order to go in more depth I would end up writing a chapter of a book. I will leave that for later.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11779142792442974461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683094630305451661.post-81342856062399891152014-08-06T13:17:00.001-07:002014-08-06T13:17:31.283-07:00Update on the goals I set myself. Lessons learned.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">5 weeks ago I set myself some goals, here is how I did:</span><br />
<ul style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 8px 0px 8px 16px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;">Read a few books<br style="line-height: 1.4;" /><i>Man's Search for Meaning, Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle: Transform Your Body Forever Using the Secrets of the Leanest People in the World, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers, The Call of the Wild, Mind Power Into the 21st Century: Techniques to Harness the Astounding Powers of Thought.</i><br style="line-height: 1.4;" />Total: 6 books. Conclusion: <b>Not too shabby! Great books.</b></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;">Train & Summit Chimborazo (once and for all!)<br style="line-height: 1.4;" /><i>At the beginning of the break I went all out with my training by doing 650 meters of climbing without any previous training. This stupidity lead to injuring my knee. I had no idea what was wrong with it until 2 weeks ago when I met a nice physiotherapist who sorted my knee out. With only 2 weeks to go I trained hard to go to Chimborazo, including a 950m ascent/descent in 3h 30m. Not bad, I felt ready, however I could not get hold of my guide to actually go to Chimborazo. Shame. </i><br style="line-height: 1.4;" />Conclusion: <b>Failed! :(</b></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;">Finish developing a proof of concept for a start up I am working on with my brother<br style="line-height: 1.4;" /><i>I ended up paying a developer to do this, only a bit more work left to do and the proof of concept is ready.</i><br style="line-height: 1.4;" />Conclusion: <b>Almost made it!</b></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;">Finish programming a chess study tool I left half done, this is on my list thanks to <span class="qlink_container"><a href="http://www.quora.com/Igor-Smoli%C5%84ski" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #155fad; text-decoration: none;">Igor Smoliński</a></span> :)<br style="line-height: 1.4;" /><i>I actually programmed this myself, today I am happy to announce it is ready to be tested out by people other than myself. Closed BETA!</i><br style="line-height: 1.4;" />Conclusion: <b>Made it!</b></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;">Sell a car I bought before I leave for Chile & Argentina. I thought this would be a quick flip sale but instead its taught me some difficult lessons.<br style="line-height: 1.4;" /><i>Completely failed this one, I had some ongoing negotiations to trade it as part of a payment for a small apartment but in the end it did not happen. I am probably going to lose some money on this car, oh well.</i><br style="line-height: 1.4;" />Conclusion: <b>Failed</b></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Of course, keep playing chess :) Here is my current on-line chess ranking: #15,241 of 423,339 (96.3%). I flirted with 97% for a while.<br style="line-height: 1.4;" /><i>Oh yeah, what this blog is all about. I kept playing chess on-line and I actually managed to go above 97% and hold it for a while (around 1,850 correspondence rating). Then, as usual started too many games and the less attention I give a game the more mistakes/blunders I make. Thus I've gone back down to 96% (#14,561 of 425,566 (96.5%) <- this feels like failure after being above 97%!). Now, I have my sights set on a permanent 97-98% ranking soon. I also found out a few locals who play chess and I've been joining them once a week to play live. I must say, playing in person is way more enjoyable (and I lose less!).</i><br style="line-height: 1.4;" />Conclusion: <b>I did it!</b></li>
</ul>
<br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Lessons Learned</b><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">All in all I am happy with how all of this has gone. I didn't do half bad and as always I've learned a few things about myself & life.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">1. To program/work 8-9 hours a day or just 3?</b><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I really do hate programming (or is it working?) when it takes up my whole day. At the beginning of the 6 weeks I kept feeling like a failure if I didn't do 6-9 hours of solid work in a day. As a result, I felt some sort of resistance to work and didn't get anything done. After realising this I've set myself more realistic goals of 90 minutes to 3 hours of work a day. When I approached work in this manner I've managed to get a lot more done than on days where I aimed for the Western standard of 8 hours. I am willing to be these days I did more than most people who work 8 hours as well!</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Considering I've read multiple times that most people get around 3 hours of productive work done per day (even if they work 8), a goal of 3 hours per day seems to be the way to go. It worked, I got almost everything done! Maybe the next start up I run I will impose a rule that everyone can only work part-time (and pay them double for it?), we can spend the rest of the day playing Call of Duty or something (er, I think that's what we used to do anyway :) )</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">2. Buying a vehicle without solid advice from a specialist is very risky!</b><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I took the wrong person for advice on the purchase of a car, while the car is awesome & in great condition there is a very small market for this kind of car where I am, hence, selling it on is a huge problem. A niche car such as this will take a lot longer to sell than I originally planned.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Funny enough, I knew this rule from The Richest Man in Babylon, "Arkad lost his first investment when he trusted a brick maker to purchase jewels. The brick maker knowing nothing about jewels got tricked, losing all the investment.". I broke this rule, now I shall never forget it.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">3. If you are injured, see a physiotherapist.</b><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I was under the wrong impression that if I gave my knee time to recover on it's own, it would. After all when I cut myself my wounds heal on their own. Boy was I wrong! The knee wasn't getting any better with time. When a physiotherapist saw it, she had it sorted within a day. Amazing.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">4. Chess is enjoyed more when played in person.</b><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Can't beat a game in person, so much more fun. Thanks everyone who has played me in person lately, it was good fun!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11779142792442974461noreply@blogger.com0