5/31 log
tactics: 35/41 intermediate set
chess lesson going over last Wed night tourny game
6/1 log
tactics: 30/34 intermediate set
6/2 log
tactics: 47/50 intermediate set
6/3 log
tactics: 27/30 intermediate set
calculation: 6/10 standard set
6/4 log
tactics: 22/24 intermediate set
calculation: 4/10 standard set
6/5 log
tactics: 41/42 intermediate set
calculation: 8/16 standard set
Spent way too much time on standard problems this day. The entire week I didn't study much in the way of openings, just this tactics stuff.
6/6 log
Played in 1 day tourny. 3 games at a time control of 60min + 30sec increment. Went 2.5/3 playing a 9XX rated kid, a 12XX rated guy, and drawing a high 1800s player where I played the Dutch fine, then maneuvered myself into a worse position, then lucked into an even position, then blundered into a lost position, then lucked into a better position but Q vs. Q endgame with no time on my clock and agreed to a draw.
Here is the game:
http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game....php?id=102212
So in the 7 rated games I played as a tune-up for the National Open I went 5.5/7 and my rating likely went from 1778 to ~1825. However, only 3 of the games actually "mattered" against two high 1800s and one 1500s player. The rest of the games were opponents +/- 300 points from me.
Very helpful as a tune-up although long-term I think I need more games vs. players within 300 points of me. There are plenty of those at the chess club here, just ran a bit unlucky in terms of drawing stronger players in the tournaments I was in.
tactics: 4/4 intermediate set
6/7 log
tactics: 35/38 intermediate set
chess lesson: One big theme that is becoming clear I'm very glad coach keeps bringing up and highlighted very well for me is that while I can just get better in general, I need to be more willing to go into speculative lines where I'm not exactly sure how to evaluate vs. just playing safe moves that don't do much. Safe moves are fine, but some of the speculative lines I'm looking at are better/more dynamic and while a bit less clear, they will be unclear to my opponent too and if I feel good about them at all it's worth trying them out.
6/9 log
tactics: 53/61 intermediate set
calculation: 0/1 standard set
6/10 log
tactics: 26/29 intermediate set
calculation: 6/11 standard set
6/11 log
tactics: 15/17 intermediate set
6/12 log
tactics: 17/18 intermediate set
6/13 log
tactics: 32/38 intermediate set
5/10 blitz games. I noticed that all my wins were fighting wins while a couple of my losses were just me dropping a ton of material randomly. Which is probably a relatively good sign all things considered. I also think I drew two games where I was up a queen but had so little time I just traded it for my opponent's last pawn.
I've since turned on premove so I should have a much better chance to win those types of games.
6/14 log
tactics: 14/14 intermediate set
1/1 blitz games
chess lesson
I felt really off/bad the entire week and really didn't do anything except some small amount of tactics each day. I slept a lot this weekend and feel more back to normal, which is good b/c I fly to Vegas on Thursday.
As discussed with coach, my main prep left to do is to look at the gambit/early aggressive lines vs. the Dutch so I am not clueless about them and continue tactics.
I'd also like to review 150 attack and Barry attack as white b/c I'm pretty sure I'll face g6 at some point in this tournament. I also need to review Rossolimo since I never looked at hyper-accelerated lines after all (except Rei's great link to that Bartholomew video, although John doesn't go into any hyper-accelerated line and instead does a solid Bc4 main line setup, which I allegedly "know" already).
Also, I learned that Tex will be at the National Open too. I gave some thought to some sort of gentleman's prop bet with him but he is playing up a section and I'm basically playing down a section (my rating is on the books at 1778 in the June supplement so I can remain in u1800) so better point total really makes no sense. Since this tournament actually has significant prize money it seems silly to bump myself up if I don't have to. Playing 1800-2000 players is better short-term experience but 1600-1800 players still are close to my general skill level and I have some sort of realistic chance rather than complete dream chance of binking 5+ points.
Tex — If you see this and have any ideas let me know. My goal is to score above 4 points fwiw. If your goal is to score 3 points or something we could do results vs. goal type prop bet, I dno.