So today it's interesting.

Had to go to uni and didn't get much done.

Ended up running for external vice president in the chess club in uni. I'm now in charge of organizing chess events between clubs and uni in the Sydney chess community. Not sure if this is a good decision or not - to have to spend more time doing this. But my aim is to organise more events and promote competitive chess, which would allow me to get more practice and experience. It's very hard getting OTB experience in Australia because we rarely ever have tournaments. Maybe just two or three good ones every year.

It was pretty funny that some guy brought like a bunch of girls to help vote for him to be president, but no one wanted to run for that position anyways so he got it by default.

Broke my first rule which was to not play poker. But ended up playing a tournie while waiting for someone to pick me up. Cashed for 20$ which was pretty lame.

Now I will try to wake up early so I can get alot of chess done.

UPDATE: 2/5/2015 - 13/5/2015

Day 77 - 88

Sorry I haven't updated in the last one and half weeks now. I've been quite busy. Been working on my openings which is consuming alot of time. I haven't been able to work on other aspects of my play which isn't good.

I decided to simply the process and prepare only for the most common lines that come up, while learning the themes/ideas of the less common one. My rapid tournament is in a few days so hopefully I can test out some of my lines.

It's quite interesting that I'm not playing so well OTB atm. I'm having some trouble visualising some patterns and spatial patterns that I wouldn't have trouble with over the computer screen.

Tomorrow, I'll post some of the lines I studied in the past weeks with diagrams.

I'm also abit surprised no one has commented on this thread at all since my absence. I guess this thread doesn't have that many followers (hardly surprising since it is a chess thread after all lol). Would definitely like some strong or master level players giving me some input to how to optimize my training.

Loki — Serious question. Would you listen to and/or follow that advice if given? So far from this log my impression is you are somewhat all over the place and while interacting with you goes fine, what you then do seems contradictory and/or odd.

I've gone from some interest to almost none in replying or posting here tbh. I still will follow though b/c I'm very interested in how things are going.

Plus you aren't really asking specific questions or for any help that I can tell.

Also, this forum simply doesn't have a lot of traffic.

So I'm not sure why you expected anything.

By "all over the place" do you mean my study schedule for chess?? Because no one has really given any solid advice rather than something vague like just "do abit of everything", "go study rook endgames" or something like that.

I would probably like something more concrete like "study this theme in conjunction with this variation etc." etc. etc.

I guess I would also like to know how exactly master level players train their chess, to play how to play in position arising from their repetiorre. I've gotten responses like "play an engine, play the other side of this line and see what ideas engine use". Or my coach who suggest going through the database and downloading every game that ended quickly and see how one side killed the other side and assimilate the ideas.

I guess no one has ever done a log like this (I'm not including logs by beginners). Or have a log that's this honest. Because generally high level players take years to get better after playing countless games and gaining ideas/pattern gradually over time. But no one has really given any insight how a daily training routine goes other than "I did some tactics puzzle last night".

Of course, just letting you know, I'll be taking a few months break after July because I need to sort out some of my uni and work stuff, but will keep posting whenever I get some work done.

Well, I have a similar log. WarCrazy has a similar log.

Rei has tried being helpful in all of our logs I believe. You are right that no one has stepped in and said "Do this and this and this exactly." But I'm pretty sure the Master level players on the board don't really care to coach for free or the answer as to exactly how we should train is a little bit "it depends."

Anyway, I've noticed the same thing in my log too. No one has stepped in and provided me with the magical roadmap. But when I ask specific questions I seem to almost always get helpful responses, even if, they too, are not magical roadmaps. Tbh it seems you have a magical roadmap you are following from a coach? I don't remember.

Ah, I just saw your new chess log. Thats good. Definitely will be following. We're in a similar situation except ur around 15 years older than me.

Warcrazy definitely has a tougher road ahead, not sure if he'll reach his goal. Ur were already 1800 in ur 20s so that makes a big difference since those patterns and themes were already established.

We are both around similar levels. We both have limited time (poker or education) and trying to improve. I guess I'm aiming for abit higher in the goals part. But at least now, our aims seems to be similar.

The "magical roadmap" you speak of, I guess involves learning your opening REALLY well. The truth is, unless ur some 2700 beast, ur not gonna be getting into every type of position in chess, so you want to prioritize the ones you'll get into.

I think we can definitely help each other our and give each other feedback. Having a player of similar level to discuss chess with you can improve alot faster than by yourself according to my coach. Can we add each other as coach on chesstempo?? Do you play on ICC or chess.com. I suggest for a mutual partnership can be beneficial to both our chess. Reviewing games and sharing ideas can also help.

I somewhat follow along as well (though I don't come to the chess forum on a daily basis). I guess the problem is your log is all very "this is what I did" and doesn't really ever progress to "here's a tournament I played and here's what I took away from it" - basically, imagine if your favorite sports team just broadcasted all their practices and never played any actual games - would get uninteresting eventually. I think many of the very early responses including mine asked what level of competition you had available to you - there's nothing like actually playing real under pressure games to build your strength, and tell you (and us) whether anything is actually working or not.

I'd also echo the comment above about not really taking any of the advice given here to heart - eg, I suggested to you openings should be a much smaller area of focus than your tactics, which you then seemed to get other confirmation of and take to heart. Then in your most recent post, you say "Been working on my openings which is consuming alot of time. I haven't been able to work on other aspects of my play which isn't good."

Anyways, if you ever want to play bullet on chess.com, let me know and I'll help you break your training habits.

NL Loki. I play on chess.com and do training on chesstempo. Not sure what adding each other as coach on chesstempo would accomplish since I don't think we'll be coaching each other? What does it do, just lets you see the other person's problem sets?

I mean, I'm fine doing it just not sure how we gain from it.

I'm "ptSmooth" on chess.com.

I added you on chess.com

Adding each other as coach on chesstempo will allow us to see what the other side is getting wrong in their puzzles and share ideas. E.g. I kept getting a particular type of tactics wrong until someone point it out and we worked on it for abit. Sort of like patching up our game.

Sorry I haven't been able to update on tournament games that I play. The truth is there's basically no chess scene in our country. We have <3 tournaments a year and its very difficult to get games. I've been more active trying to promote the chess scene so I get practice.

I am peteysmooth on chesstempo. I actually thought I mentioned it previously, lol. In for "coaching" although I cannot promise I will be any help but if I check things out and notice something I for sure would bring it up of course, .

UPDATE: 14/5/2015 - 19/5/2015

Day 89 - 94

Okay, so this post is going to be pretty lengthy. Have a lot to write here. Firstly, I played the Newcastle One day Rapid and did alright. The tournament had a bunch of 2000s and top seed was a 2300, so quality wise was alright, and I managed to held my own. Had a 1900+ performance rating. I felt like there was a lot of positions I didn’t really understand and a lot of my games came down to time trouble issues and tactics. But most of the position I have had no plan that was good or intuitive (which shows more in a rapid game since you have less time to calculate.) I didn’t play that well for most of the games and nerves definitely affected me. This is my first OTB tournament in many years (even if it’s rapid time control 20 0). Most of the game didn’t really have any concrete calculation of variation analysis when I played them, for quick games, I mostly play based on pure intuition and ideas.

I have around 45 days till the zonal tournament that I was preparing for. And I’ll be playing a state open tournament early June to practice and see how my openings are going. I realized that this is the critical moment and opening study is very very important. So I changed my study schedule abit to based around that. People often underestimate the importance of understanding opening and say it’s not useful until you’re master level, but I think modern chess is all about opening preparation. There are so many types of position in chess that you should priorities to learn the ones you will mostly get into. E.g. Learning a specific structure from a specific opening might not be as useful if you don’t intend to play it or against it. Efficiency is especially important when you don’t have 24/7 to study chess like Bobby Fischer. And my other focus would be tactics/calculation and some endgame understanding.

I’ll show two games I played from the rapid that highlighted my mistakes.

This first one was against a 2000+. I understood the opening better and got into a better position in the Sicilian dragon. However, I played rashly, assuming I already had it won already. I forgot a common theme and accidently blundered in the last game. I had to reconstruct the game from my memory so some of the moves later in the games were wrong. I don’t remember what sequence I played exactly. But I try to make it as similar to the game as possible.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game....php?id=101757

9. … d5 My opponent didn't do a correct setup for dragon and I equalised easily. Starting to complacent and expecting an easy win. This game teaches me that its not smart to have that mentality.
16. … e6 so far so good. Black seems to have a much better game with his pawn roller.
17. … Rfd8 I thought I didn't need to go h5 just because queens are off board
25. … hxg6 26. f6! I completely his counterplay. fxg6 would’ve been fine Now he wins after doubling on h- file. I played the last few moves in less than a minute and didn't take my time at all, expecting an easy win against a 2000. Bad habit and mentality. I could've prevented this earlier by playing moves like h5 and stopping his counterplay. I was so annoyed by the fact that I gave away such a good position that I resigned 1-0

The next game I played is against another 2000+. I managed to win this one as black. I played an opening variation that I only just learnt earlier in the day. After a bunch of miscalculation and bad play I got a much worse position out of the opening. I ended up swindling in a very messy endgame when both players were low on time. I only recorded the first 19 moves because they were the only meaningful ones. I also don’t remember much of the middlegame and endgame because they were mostly random and bad moves by both sides in time trouble trying to avoid getting flagged.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game....php?id=101759

10. … g5 this is apparently a nice plan in some Slav positions, with the h- file open, I can aim for some attacks and opposite side castling games
11. … 0-0-0 overestimated the safety of my king, castling long will give me annoying problem down the c- file especially since tension is not released yet. Should’ve kept Ke7 as an option
15. … e3 ( { I miscalculated and thought I had ideas like } 16.Bxe3 Rxe3 17.fxe3 Rxh3 18.gxh3 Qg3+ 19.Kh1 Qxh3+ 20.Kg1 Qg3+ { take a perpetual at worse if sac don't win } 21.Kh1 Bd6 22.Rf2 Qxf2 23.Qg1 Qh4+ 24.Kg2 )
16. ... Qg3 ( 16...Rxh3 { doesn’t work because } 17.Bf4 { which I missed } ( 17.gxh3 Qg3+ 18.Kh1 Qxh3+ 19.Kg1 Qg3+ 20.Kh1 Bd6 21.Rf2 Rh8+ { If only… } )
Now he will swap queen and be in a much better game, while my king will soon face trouble on the c- file

Hope those games were instructive or at the very least informative.

My schedule for chess study could not be as intense as I want due to upcoming assignment and final exam on my uni courses.

Thus I’ll allocate time for both and my daily schedule should look something like this:
12pm – 4pm: four hours work (chess or uni)
4am – 5pm: break or chess if I feel like it
5pm – 9pm: four hours work (chess or uni)
9pm – 10pm: dinner
10pm – 2am: four hours work (chess)
Exceptions are for days I play tournaments/go to chess club

My main study with chess everyday would consist of:

Studying opening critically

Studying tactics: I find it’s better doing positions from Aagard’s book or Perfect your chess than just doing chess puzzles

Studying Endgame: practice positions against engines and doing endgame puzzles on chess tempo

UPDATE: 20/5/2015 - 27/5/2015

Day 95 - 102

Weekly updates

This week, I had to do 2 university essay which was quite time consuming and fustrating. It's difficult to not be able to focus on chess fully...

I'm also in the processed of having another coach. My currently coach is too buzy in China and we are finding it very difficult to book lessons. Instead, for the time being, I had a chat with with someone I knew in high school who is now almost a GM (hes an IM with a bunch of norms). Will keep you guys up to date on my progress. He'll be helping me with my repertoire for upcoming tournaments.

Switching over to long time controls yet?

Starting to play some long OTB games now. Going to have more chance with club games and tournament games and what not.

UPDATE: 28/5/2015 - 30/5/2015

Day 103 - 105

Didn't do that much self study, but played alot of chess.com. Also had two coaching lesson, one with the guy from China who I haven't had a lesson for a long term, and another one with the IM (Almost GM) then I knew back from High School.

The lesson with the first guy was mostly going over my mistakes in the rapid tournament, such as not converting winning games tactically and bad habits.

The second was more of an opening repertoire. It was quite tough as there was alot of stuff to memorize, such as move order tricks. He suggested playing 1. Nf3 instead of my usual 1. c4 and transposing back into some of the lines I studied from Marin's book or going into other lines. It's pretty complicated, but he's certain it'll put put alot of U2300 under a tough test, and sub-2000 players basically won't know what to do against those tranpositions and minor details. This means I won't be able to play some of the 1. c4 e5 line I studied or Botvinnik System. But I can still use them as specific weapons against some people. For black, he suggested I switch to accerelated dragon, and only tranpose back into main line dragon under favourable transpositions (e.g. my opponent misplays or develop in the wrong order). Maroczy Bind is definitely an issue, and he admits he haven't found variations that achieve full equality yet, but says its unlikely I'll play alot of those (and if I know in advance that my opponent play those, I can transpose). He's also happy with me just using Nicholas Pert's repertiore from his video series for Slav Defense. I have a trial tournament coming up then a bigger tournament in July. Hopefully, I can work out all my repertiore in time despite having university workload and exams.

Note to self: No bullet games or blitz games until state open is over..., no poker or even searching about poker for the whole month, no facebook, except on phone to check chess group updates (using my phone)

Fwiw I play the accelerated dragon. I am still not sure if I play hyper or am fine going into the Rossolimo. I haven't played the Maroczy much but I believe I play the Gurendize (however it is spelled) against it.

This is just fyi. I am not an expert on any openings but if you post lines of the accelerated dragon in your or my log I'm sure I'll be interested and be excited to take a look .

The way you lost the dragon game shows why it is important to get OTB practice, and why studying openings can be a pitfall. You equalize with black out of the opening, which in opening theory is a really big thing. In rapid games under xxxx rating? Not so much. What's more important is the way it affects your thinking. You start getting lazy, allowing yourself to blunder away a perfectly fine position. The second position you didn't have this, and you win the game. Knowing positions are good because you've studied the opening is a good thing in itself, but be aware of your attitude. Thinking you can easily win a game against someone rated higher than you, or just about anyone, just because you got a small to decent advantage out of the opening is really really really dangerous.

Thats spot on, mate. Psychologically made a huge difference and OTB practice is very important. Its quite sad that in my country OTB chess games are very hard to get and very hard to develop as a chess player. This is quite reflected in our country's performance. We only have like three or four GMs and not alot of IMs and FMs, and alot of them are like foreigners who just happen to have citizenship.

UPDATE: 31/5/2015 - 3/6/2015

Day 106 - 109

Still been crunching the slav lines, definitely not being efficient as I want to be. I'll spend some time on tactics and endgames everyday now (since I got less that 1 month before important games)

I also played my second long time control game (60+30) against a club veteran who is about 1760 FIDE, won in 20 moves quite easily. Managed to keep increasing pressure and play some good positional move, and he crumbled very fast.

1.c4 f5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 e6 4.g3 Nc6 5.Bg2 Bc5 6.d4 Bb4 7.O-O O-O 8.Bg5 Bxc3 9.bxc3 Qe7 10.d5 exd5 11.cxd5 Ne5 12.d6 cxd6 13.Nd4 g6 14.Nb5 a6 15.Nc7 Rb8 16.Nd5 Qg7 17.Qd4 b5 18.Nxf6+ Rxf6 19.Bxf6 Qxf6 20.Qa7 1-0

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game....php?id=102032

12. d6!? was an interesting positional sacrifice, aimed at preventing him from freeing bishop and ruin his centre, quite interested to see what my coach thinks of this. Seems it did the trick and pretty creative

12. d6 followed by Nd4 looks good to me. I'm not sure what black was trying to do in the opening, I'm only familiar with some classical dutch lines where I'd play my bishop to e7 and then play d6, which should help avoid stuff like what happened. It seemed he didn't really know what to play against the English.

Very nice tactic that you prepared by playing Qd4, I'm not sure I would have seen that in a game at all. I would likely have just won the exchange then played Qd5+ and Rfd1 with likely a relatively easy but long game.

d6 is definitely a good move, and thematic. Reminded me a bit of this brilliant game Euwe-Najdorf
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1042813

UPDATE: 4/6/2015 - 5/6/2015

Day 110 - 111

So I have a 3 day tournament tomorrow. It's not FIDE rated. Most of the players I'm playing are recreational and I can't find much games in their database, so I can't prepare ahead.

I'm abit nervous, because I haven't really played many long game tournaments over the board since I was in high school, so the psychological part is getting to me abit. Also, I'm not quite use to sitting there for a long term.

I've been studying some Slav lines using a few video resources and books. Although I'm unlikely to actually get into any of the lines I study (20 move deep main lines lol), I would still like a comfort zone in terms of understanding the Slav. I haven't played many Slav games at all... So I'm sort of just winging it. But it'll be a good preparing for future. Gonna try to get a good night sleep now.

and

Good luck!