that could be interesting to follow as well! Remember to download the Substack app!
Okay, now to the weekly review:
1) What went well?
I managed to turn around the down-wards spiral in rapid. I started winning! That was maybe the highlight of the week. A week where I myself have been feeling sick, while simultaneously having a sick 5-month-old who has been sick on-off since the beginning of the month, but today finally seems to have been a good day. So fingers crossed!
2) What did not go well? My plans of playing 15-10 and reading chess books went out of the window. I did not have much energy left. Instead, I enjoyed watching some Chessmood opening videos. I liked how the focus is on the plans in the opening and not specific move orders. Maybe that resulted in some of my wins. 3) What will I do this week This week I will be off on winter vacation with my family, so I will take a week without any chess plans. Therefore this newsletter will most likely be the only thing you will hear from me this week.
Now it is your turn:
1) What went well? 2) What did not go well? 3) What will I do this week?
Thank you for the mention, Martin, I really appreciate it. I've been very fortunate to have those like yourself with an established subscriber base sharing my Substack.
- All of them on Tactics Ladder and Checkmate mastery.
- Showed up atleast 3 days.
2) What did not go well?
- Played a few Bullet and Blitz. But couldn't find anything to learn upon.
- Had few opportunities to put some study effort, but had no energy or mood.
- Keenly noticing that, when planning for the day [for those things under control] - work, other necessities take priority and Chess comes at last. At the end of day with planned or unplanned items, Chess remains untouched. So many days go on without Chess at all.
3) What will I do this week?
- Observe. How the day goes. Minimize wastage of time. Take short breaks though.
- Prioritize small time block by evening for warmup tactics
- On weekend, spend quality time on detailed chess study.
- Study plan comprises of:
- - Play atleast 1 training game with - Blitz / Rapid / Engine and review
- - Study / Practice 1 task / topic of Positional Understanding course
- - Study / Practice 1 Opening to re-visit and go 1-2 depth further, Update Opening Repertoire [which is relevant and appeared in recent games]
I had a GREAT week playing Rapid this week, with a lot of wins, a few losses, a draw or two, and a net gain of rating up to 2129, which is my best personal record. This isn't necessarily a goal or anything, since my ambitions are OTB-related -- I want to become an NM in about 8-9 more years; however this does boost my confidence that I'm becoming a stronger player and finally seeing some dividends being paid thereunto. Maybe I'm deluded, but right now the high feels good. Also, things have finally gotten super exciting in The Ink War, and playing through the Steinitz-Zukertort WCC match in 1886 has been a delight. I feel like I'm gaining a lot of insights into how chess has evolved, and even how little I understand it still, but I'm growing in that knowledge and I don't think it can be worse for my game.
2) What did not go well?
My blitz skills have suffered a bit. I don't think this is due to me studying other things; I think it's just a regularly recurring period of not playing at my best. It'll turn around but it's a bit frustrating. I also have hit a wall with tactics -- I need to calculate more thoroughly and deeply and that is a habit hard to train. I'm not bothered by it, just noting that it didn't go as well for me this week.
3) What will I do this week?
I've got another game on Tuesday at the club, and I'm ready to play for a win. I'll keep studying The Ink War -- It's possible I'll finish it by the end of the week! Also, I'm going to pay more attention to my thought process when training in tactics. I feel like sometimes I am looking almost aimlessly at the position until something comes up, and I'd like to become quicker and more accurate. I will also be doing some focusing on my opening training to patch up some holes with my white repertoire after almost two months of basically not worrying about it.
I got some training done. The tactics I'm working on I got my 40 tactics in. One goal met. In The Evaluate Like a Grandmaster I got 15 done. I was introduced to a g4 push in a line in the London that I play. I was able to be the tournament director for a monthly chess tournament at our local university. 60 players from elementary students to adults.
What went poorly?
Snow, it canceled the local club's meetup so I got no classical otb game in. I also missed my mark on the 20 positions I wanted to get out of the Evaluation book. I absolutely could have made it but didn't work on it. When I don't have games to look forward to the motivation to train isn't as strong.
What's the plan for this week?
I'm at #2960 and it's time to break 3000 puzzles solved. I'm getting better at mate in 2s but allowing myself to get distracted. 20 positions for sure this week to evaluate. After getting into the book it's less intimidating. It's important I think to evaluate what ideas both players have, and choose what side you'd like is good but the part that makes the evaluation work is knowing what the plans are otherwise I don't think people make progress. So the work isn't who's better but rather what moves make sense in this position. And that's what the book is introducing to me.
I could spend more than 13 hours on serious chess improvement. I did mainly tactics (Martin's Checkmate Patterns and Tactics Ladder), played a few rapid games with analysis and started Move First, Think Later by Willy Hendriks (MFTL); the first chapter is very promising already, especially if you suffer like me from sticking too heavily to standard plans. Also I managed to not play Blitz.
2) What did not go well?
Nothing! Maybe I did not play enough, but at least no Blitz.
3) What will I do this week?
More tactics (Checkmate Patterns and CM Tactic Ninja), do some opening refreshing in preparation for my club game next Sunday and continue MFTL.
Thank you for the mention, Martin, I really appreciate it. I've been very fortunate to have those like yourself with an established subscriber base sharing my Substack.
Have a nice winter vacation!
1) What went well?
- Spent 36 mins of study last week.
- All of them on Tactics Ladder and Checkmate mastery.
- Showed up atleast 3 days.
2) What did not go well?
- Played a few Bullet and Blitz. But couldn't find anything to learn upon.
- Had few opportunities to put some study effort, but had no energy or mood.
- Keenly noticing that, when planning for the day [for those things under control] - work, other necessities take priority and Chess comes at last. At the end of day with planned or unplanned items, Chess remains untouched. So many days go on without Chess at all.
3) What will I do this week?
- Observe. How the day goes. Minimize wastage of time. Take short breaks though.
- Prioritize small time block by evening for warmup tactics
- On weekend, spend quality time on detailed chess study.
- Study plan comprises of:
- - Play atleast 1 training game with - Blitz / Rapid / Engine and review
- - Study / Practice 1 task / topic of Positional Understanding course
- - Study / Practice 1 Opening to re-visit and go 1-2 depth further, Update Opening Repertoire [which is relevant and appeared in recent games]
- - Study / Solve 1 topic from Build Up series
1) What went well?
I had a GREAT week playing Rapid this week, with a lot of wins, a few losses, a draw or two, and a net gain of rating up to 2129, which is my best personal record. This isn't necessarily a goal or anything, since my ambitions are OTB-related -- I want to become an NM in about 8-9 more years; however this does boost my confidence that I'm becoming a stronger player and finally seeing some dividends being paid thereunto. Maybe I'm deluded, but right now the high feels good. Also, things have finally gotten super exciting in The Ink War, and playing through the Steinitz-Zukertort WCC match in 1886 has been a delight. I feel like I'm gaining a lot of insights into how chess has evolved, and even how little I understand it still, but I'm growing in that knowledge and I don't think it can be worse for my game.
2) What did not go well?
My blitz skills have suffered a bit. I don't think this is due to me studying other things; I think it's just a regularly recurring period of not playing at my best. It'll turn around but it's a bit frustrating. I also have hit a wall with tactics -- I need to calculate more thoroughly and deeply and that is a habit hard to train. I'm not bothered by it, just noting that it didn't go as well for me this week.
3) What will I do this week?
I've got another game on Tuesday at the club, and I'm ready to play for a win. I'll keep studying The Ink War -- It's possible I'll finish it by the end of the week! Also, I'm going to pay more attention to my thought process when training in tactics. I feel like sometimes I am looking almost aimlessly at the position until something comes up, and I'd like to become quicker and more accurate. I will also be doing some focusing on my opening training to patch up some holes with my white repertoire after almost two months of basically not worrying about it.
Wow, thank you for writing about my Substack! I really appreciate it!
Thanks for the thumbs up, Martin!
What went well?
made a good process on 1001 J Nunn's checkmates book. Started Reti's modern ideas in chess.
What did not go well?
did not have long time control games
What will I do this week?
will continue on 1001 checkmates book, planning to have at least one long time control game. Continue reading Reti - modern ideas in chess.
What went well?
I got some training done. The tactics I'm working on I got my 40 tactics in. One goal met. In The Evaluate Like a Grandmaster I got 15 done. I was introduced to a g4 push in a line in the London that I play. I was able to be the tournament director for a monthly chess tournament at our local university. 60 players from elementary students to adults.
What went poorly?
Snow, it canceled the local club's meetup so I got no classical otb game in. I also missed my mark on the 20 positions I wanted to get out of the Evaluation book. I absolutely could have made it but didn't work on it. When I don't have games to look forward to the motivation to train isn't as strong.
What's the plan for this week?
I'm at #2960 and it's time to break 3000 puzzles solved. I'm getting better at mate in 2s but allowing myself to get distracted. 20 positions for sure this week to evaluate. After getting into the book it's less intimidating. It's important I think to evaluate what ideas both players have, and choose what side you'd like is good but the part that makes the evaluation work is knowing what the plans are otherwise I don't think people make progress. So the work isn't who's better but rather what moves make sense in this position. And that's what the book is introducing to me.
1) What went well?
I could spend more than 13 hours on serious chess improvement. I did mainly tactics (Martin's Checkmate Patterns and Tactics Ladder), played a few rapid games with analysis and started Move First, Think Later by Willy Hendriks (MFTL); the first chapter is very promising already, especially if you suffer like me from sticking too heavily to standard plans. Also I managed to not play Blitz.
2) What did not go well?
Nothing! Maybe I did not play enough, but at least no Blitz.
3) What will I do this week?
More tactics (Checkmate Patterns and CM Tactic Ninja), do some opening refreshing in preparation for my club game next Sunday and continue MFTL.