Day 2
I finished another chapter in ‘Boost Your Chess’. This chapter was about stalemates. Which I scored quite well on.
Suddenly I wanted to listen to classical music, so enjoyed Mahlers 1st symphony while reading. Played a good 15|10 game that I have annotated (without an engine) on my blog.
Day 3
I'm starting to wonder what is happening on chess Twitter and in the chess world?
Sometimes I open my phone and just close it again, because, there is nothing to check.
Being unconnected is an interesting feeling. I do not need to form an opinion about one thousand different things which do free up some energy. I’m starting to believe that it might be useful for enabling doing deep work.
Before the experiment started I had registered for a qualification tournament for the Danish Speed Tournament which was today.
I decided to play even though it was blitz since I had already registered and there was a good chance to play against some strong players (it was won by GM Jacob Aagard).
I was nonetheless not in the zone and decided enough was enough after hitting 1/6.
On a positive note, I listened to the audio version of my favorite newspaper, Weekendavisen. It was a better experience than the sometimes random algorithmic article reading I sometimes do on social media.
Also took down another Yusupov chapter!
Day 4
Today my thoughts have been on the candidates today. How do I best follow the games without getting drawn into social media? I’m definitely curious about what people are tweeting about the games!
The Caruana vs. MVL endgame must have started an argument about slow vs. speed chess on Twitter, I’m sure!
I will post a new update in a couple of days.
Best,
Martin
it is very different isn't it, being offline for chess. I have been doing puzzles from a book I have and just doing them in my head and writing down all the possible lines and picking the one I think is correct. I am noticing a big difference from doing them online: I think through them with much more focus. I played a 30 minute game and used an engine. I don't think I am a strong enough player to not use an engine.