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