Quote:
Originally Posted by The Yugoslavian
However, for the first 3 months I've laid out:
8 rated games
Completed 8. Would have been 1 or 2 more but I was sick for most of last month.
My performance rating was 1996 over these. I lost 3 games vs. higher rated opponents where I think I outplayed my opponent into an advantage of some sort but didn't convert any of them. I feel my concentration failed me to some degree or another later/late-ish in the game. I'm not sure if there is for sure a pattern here or not but I may need more grit as the time gets further and further past my normal bedtime.
Quote:
3 league games (the last three of the season)
Completed. Won 2 and drew 1. The draw should have for sure been a loss but my opponent seemed hell bent on winning fancy and ended up almost losing.
The league is over and I ended up with 6/7 on board 1 of the Silver division (2283 performance in these unrated games but this includes very outdated ratings of opponents). Which is way above any expectation I had. Sadly our total team score was 12.5/28 and we ended up finishing in the bottom two. We'll see if I play the league again what I may do. I'd prefer to play in the Gold division even though it'd likely be on board 4 as that is where most of the serious and strong players play.
There is some sort of pizza party for the league this Friday where I may get an award (along with 2342343 other people who were the top of their board in the various divisions, and the winning teams from the various divisions). Would be cool to have some sort of plaque or something as top 1st board,
. The top 1st board in the gold division was GM Andrew Tang. So, I mean, the only thing separating us is one division of the league,
.
Quote:
20 homework analysis games
I completed 20 homework assignments although not all were analysis of full games. It's very hard for me to tell how helpful these really have been. They are interesting and I enjoy working on them so I'm not sure it matters if I can tell for sure or not. It's either do this or make more progress in the Yusupov books. This is a bit more practical in some sense since I'm making decisions throughout an entire game, where as Yusupov is always exercises of specific positions. Which trains skills I need in a game but does not necessarily train bringing it all together throughout a game.
Quote:
Read through Chess for Zebras
Done. Completely unsure how practically useful this is/was but it was for sure interesting and changed how I think in certain ways for sure.
I also have gone through at least 1/3 of
Improve Your Chess Tactics: 700 Practical Lessons & Exercises on Chessable. No clue how much it's helping but I am definitely memorizing a bunch of them so it should be easier to spot similar things in actual games.
Starting this month I'm back working on Yusupov and hope to finish the second to last book in the next 2-3 months. Then the last one by the end of the year.
I've been reading Thinking Inside The Box. I have to admit I'm skipping most of the analysis games and annotations. It's not that they are necessarily way over my head but I am not using this as a training book. I simply want to learn more about Aagaard's approach to getting better. I do not think I will jump to his books right after Yusupov but at some point it may be what I want to do. So, this is another "casual" read like Zebras rather than specific training. I also have a Chess24 subscription and am going through Yusupov/Dvoretsky videos there (at the least) which is more casual learning - although I should probably try a bit harder when they pause during a lecture to ask what I would do.
I also briefly considered switching my White repertoire to The London System. I may still do that at some point. However, it would require quite a bit of work for me and since I have a pretty established system that I'm only lacking experience in, I may as well just keep that until I really feel it is limiting my results rather than my chess ability. So far even when I am in weird lines or things that are supposed to be completely equal and not ambitious, I'm getting games against stronger opponents and possible advantages. Those mistakes they and I are making are much more significant imo than playing a slightly more ambitious system.
I'm also committed to The National Open in Las Vegas in June. Will plan to play 5 out of 7 rounds. Since I'm playing many more rated games this year I don't care nearly as much about getting in all 7 rated games and would prefer to enjoy the experience a bit more and have more time to see family.