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It’s Monday and it is time for sharing your week review and plans for this week:
1) What went well? Last week I spent a lot of time writing my last post, which was annotations to a 15+10 game I played during the week. It was fun to go down the rabbit hole and learn a new opening. In total, I played 12 rapid games last week and did spend some time looking at them afterward.
I also enjoyed watching Kasparov analyze/commentate on live games over on the Chess Dojo YouTube channel. There is something about Kasparov that really makes me appreciate chess even more,
2) What did not go well? My kids keep getting sick with various forms of viral infections. This makes it hard to keep the structure and get enough sleep during the week, but I guess it is just part of the term when you have kids. I also had to reschedule my OTB tournament game. I hope the coming week will bring some more sleep and focus! 3) What will I do this week This week I want to work with books, not online tools. Besides that, I want to continue with 15+10 games, when I can find enough time for a whole game + some annotations.
I studied a lot, and played a lot! In fact, I got in over 10 hours of OTB this past week because of a local Saturday tournament that I entered and shared first place with 2.5/3. That brings my USCF rating to an all time high of 1693. My goal for the year is 1700! The first two games were pretty smooth wins and the last one I was happy to escape with an early draw in a bad position. I got to read and study a LOT of the Ink War, and also do a lot (probably too many due to tilt) of lichess puzzles. I crested 2100 on lichess multiple times in the middle of my nightly hour-long sessions this week but haven't been precious about it, so I would win some then lose some and just hover in that range. No big deal. It's not my final goal so why put an artificial stop there? Plus losing just means I have an opportunity to learn a new thing!
2) What did not go well?
I lost a second game in two weeks at my local club for the team tournament. I admit I tilted because my opponent played a Catalan, and I hate the Catalan. I dropped a pawn, the kind of pawn that changes the evaluation to +3 for white. And it was torture from there on out. That stung. On the plus side I rage studied a bunch of catalan lines because whatever I played did not work. I already feel more prepared to try this next time, but we'll have to see how it goes.
3) What will I do this week
Got round 3 of the team tournament coming up. I feel a bit reinvigorated and encouraged after this last event. I'm ready to try to get a win in! I'll keep studying the Ink War. I'm about, say, 40% of the way through it after 9 days. I expect to finish it by the end of the month. I'll keep on practicing tactics and studying some opening lines. And I'll keep playing rapid. Basically I'll keep doing what I always keep doing, because I think it is working!
Feb 13, 2023·edited Feb 14, 2023Liked by Martin B. Justesen
1) What went well?
- Clocked training time - 1hr 1min
- It came on weekends.
- Most of the time spent on
-- The Tactics Ladder by Martin
-- Checkmate mastery by Martin
- A bit review of Pawn Play from Positional Understanding course
- A bit of Build up series random chapter but didn't feel good to continue. It felt boring and not relevant yet. The topic was "The Wrong Bishop". What are the chances such things come in my play?
2) What did not go well?
- Couldn't show up on weekdays due to commitments.
- I no longer feel good solving puzzles / hard exercises etc by book without knowing how they are going to impact the Chess understanding / ability. Unlike other learnings, where there could be a connection between what we learn vs how much we perform / understand, in Chess its the spread is very vast. You could learn dozens of Openings with certain depth, hundreds of complex puzzles, Study various Endgame but there's no way to measure how much it has helped. So what to do? See next week's thoughts below.
3) What will I do this week
- Continue warmup exercise / tactics - These are "Essential" category.
-- The Tactics Ladder
-- Checkmate mastery
- Play Training game + Review - This is very important. Else we may just forget what we learned.
- Based on Training game - fine tune Opening, Look for themes, Opportunities
- Visit Positional Play or other relevant topics from above findings.
- Based on recent readings and past experiences, experiments, I think of keeping it simple. Start with warmup exercise to get the board vision in mind. Play 1 game [Blitz / Rapid as time permits]. Run through the game for next couple of days. Improvise Opening. See any missed tactics. Check for any Endgame basic things came up. Create these as Study in LiChess [and manage somehow].
- Continue this cycle with a bit of relevant topic on any gap I may find and learn respective area in available / purchased courses or in Web.
- This doesn't guarantee anything BUT atleast it makes the cycle dynamic and touches only those that I may identify as gaps based on Blitz/Rapid online play.
- Ofcourse this doesn't replace a great understanding coach, a proven book etc but considering the situation, I am opting for this for now.
Although I can see that you are working hard by this, I'll encourage you to add to your post by reflecting on the process. Seeing what you've done is good for accountability and it'd be nice to see a bit of your personality in these updates.
Thanks Mike. Somehow I didn't realize that. I kept compiling the things done as I'd do in my normal day job work routine [status report!] and now I see that its lacks energy and personal touch.
Let me modify a bit based on last week's memory.
Ok I actually put few things on what I've been thinking / experimenting.
I clocked in 8:30 of serious work, mostly tactics, Martins Blue Ladder and Checkmate Mastery. My current routine is to do 12 puzzles of Checkmate Mastery and 20 puzzles of Tactics Ladder ever other day.
2) What did not went well?
I did not finish Noel Studers Next Level Chess Training videos. I played too much blitz, my blitz rating is declining, which is frustrating.
3) What will I do this week?
I will finish Noel Studers course. I will not play blitz. I will continue my daily tactics routine.
I had a bad habit of trying to start too many different chess training plans and never sticking to one. I still struggle that maybe I could open one book and transform my play. So I decided last year to stick to one giant book, in the hopes that the accomplishment of a giant book would motivate me, as well as giving me a pass in the future to spread out my chess studies. Thus the Polgar book is my ongoing work for a while.
All of which is to say, good job on sticking to Noel's course. Maybe you can view his videos as a reward. You get your laundry done and your reward is to learn how to be a better chess player. Which is the thing you want. And the reward for finishing the his course is a monster blitz session. Cause you know that you want to multiply rewards on rewards. :)
I had highest rated scalp in Lichess Classical on Friday. A user who was rated 2369 got lost in complications in the Gruenfeld. I managed to reach my training goals for last week, However I feel like my goals might not have pushed me much last week.
What went poorly?
I lost in my club game this week to a guy that really knows the Caro well. Afterward I'm starting to book up on a different way to play this opening. I've tried setups with Bf4, classical takes and although I'm comfortable with the londonish Bf4 style it's not very ambitious, I have something new to try after watching a Johnathan Schrantz video.
What I will do this week?
Ok this week I need 40 polgar puzzles and again 20 positions in Evaluate like a grandmaster. There's either blitz or rapid Over the board at the club and I'll try and steer towards complications. I'm bad in quiet boards, and my training for the last few months is all about keeping the board busy. I figure after I get evaluate like a grandmaster done I'll want to work on endgames.
The beginning of this year is tactics, the middle endgames and around September I'll work on my openings. I hate opening work but I feel that I come out of most openings well. But 2 of the higher rated club players are just well booked in their lines and I feel I never get to play for a game with them. But I want the skills to make sure that once I have a game I can finish them off instead of let them off with a draw. Good luck this week to everyone.
I spent over 4:30 hours last week on chess. Most of it were online classical games. I also reviewed one game I played last week.
2) What did not go well?
I spent over 4:30 hours last week on chess. Most of it were online classical games (ha!). I spent very little time training. The little I did was short periods of simple tactics training, just to log something and not be totally embarrassed. I had a busy work week, so that's my excuse.
3) What will I do this week
I'll be more deliberate in my training. I should probably set fixed times to study/train to make the habit stick. Maybe assign specific times throughout the week for (a) tactics training, (b) playing, (c) analyzing games, (d) studying opening principles, (e) training simple endgames, (f) playing over exemplary games. Maybe (a) every day, (b) and (c) twice a week, (d) and (e) once a week. I'll be happy to receive suggestions from this group.
If you're in thinking zone as described in 3rd question, you're not alone.
You can easily bombarded with traditional approach of learning.
Keep things simple.
1 - Warmup tactics [Checkmate, Various puzzles mixed etc]
2 - Play practice / training games + Review
3 - Based on Review - Revisit / fine tune Opening and build base Opening repertoire, Positional understanding, Tactics theme, Endgame [if during the game, found missing] - Any ONE of them which is most important. May be two max.
This is ONE cycle which you could repeat one or more times in a week as per your available time.
Everything else will come once you master these which are very essentials. We do not need to plan and study everything and then feel odd that we didn't run through ALL of them.
I am actively doing this after drawing so many plans, checklists, sprints etc. Even recently GM blogger suggested 1/3 point method. We can even say its 80/20 method at THIS time of our chess journey.
NOTE: This may not be relevant advice for kids / chess starters as they need to gather many basic things before tournament play.
1) What went well?
I studied a lot, and played a lot! In fact, I got in over 10 hours of OTB this past week because of a local Saturday tournament that I entered and shared first place with 2.5/3. That brings my USCF rating to an all time high of 1693. My goal for the year is 1700! The first two games were pretty smooth wins and the last one I was happy to escape with an early draw in a bad position. I got to read and study a LOT of the Ink War, and also do a lot (probably too many due to tilt) of lichess puzzles. I crested 2100 on lichess multiple times in the middle of my nightly hour-long sessions this week but haven't been precious about it, so I would win some then lose some and just hover in that range. No big deal. It's not my final goal so why put an artificial stop there? Plus losing just means I have an opportunity to learn a new thing!
2) What did not go well?
I lost a second game in two weeks at my local club for the team tournament. I admit I tilted because my opponent played a Catalan, and I hate the Catalan. I dropped a pawn, the kind of pawn that changes the evaluation to +3 for white. And it was torture from there on out. That stung. On the plus side I rage studied a bunch of catalan lines because whatever I played did not work. I already feel more prepared to try this next time, but we'll have to see how it goes.
3) What will I do this week
Got round 3 of the team tournament coming up. I feel a bit reinvigorated and encouraged after this last event. I'm ready to try to get a win in! I'll keep studying the Ink War. I'm about, say, 40% of the way through it after 9 days. I expect to finish it by the end of the month. I'll keep on practicing tactics and studying some opening lines. And I'll keep playing rapid. Basically I'll keep doing what I always keep doing, because I think it is working!
It's nice to see that hard work is paying off! Good luck!
1) What went well?
- Clocked training time - 1hr 1min
- It came on weekends.
- Most of the time spent on
-- The Tactics Ladder by Martin
-- Checkmate mastery by Martin
- A bit review of Pawn Play from Positional Understanding course
- A bit of Build up series random chapter but didn't feel good to continue. It felt boring and not relevant yet. The topic was "The Wrong Bishop". What are the chances such things come in my play?
2) What did not go well?
- Couldn't show up on weekdays due to commitments.
- I no longer feel good solving puzzles / hard exercises etc by book without knowing how they are going to impact the Chess understanding / ability. Unlike other learnings, where there could be a connection between what we learn vs how much we perform / understand, in Chess its the spread is very vast. You could learn dozens of Openings with certain depth, hundreds of complex puzzles, Study various Endgame but there's no way to measure how much it has helped. So what to do? See next week's thoughts below.
3) What will I do this week
- Continue warmup exercise / tactics - These are "Essential" category.
-- The Tactics Ladder
-- Checkmate mastery
- Play Training game + Review - This is very important. Else we may just forget what we learned.
- Based on Training game - fine tune Opening, Look for themes, Opportunities
- Visit Positional Play or other relevant topics from above findings.
- Based on recent readings and past experiences, experiments, I think of keeping it simple. Start with warmup exercise to get the board vision in mind. Play 1 game [Blitz / Rapid as time permits]. Run through the game for next couple of days. Improvise Opening. See any missed tactics. Check for any Endgame basic things came up. Create these as Study in LiChess [and manage somehow].
- Continue this cycle with a bit of relevant topic on any gap I may find and learn respective area in available / purchased courses or in Web.
- This doesn't guarantee anything BUT atleast it makes the cycle dynamic and touches only those that I may identify as gaps based on Blitz/Rapid online play.
- Ofcourse this doesn't replace a great understanding coach, a proven book etc but considering the situation, I am opting for this for now.
Although I can see that you are working hard by this, I'll encourage you to add to your post by reflecting on the process. Seeing what you've done is good for accountability and it'd be nice to see a bit of your personality in these updates.
Thanks Mike. Somehow I didn't realize that. I kept compiling the things done as I'd do in my normal day job work routine [status report!] and now I see that its lacks energy and personal touch.
Let me modify a bit based on last week's memory.
Ok I actually put few things on what I've been thinking / experimenting.
1) What went well?
I clocked in 8:30 of serious work, mostly tactics, Martins Blue Ladder and Checkmate Mastery. My current routine is to do 12 puzzles of Checkmate Mastery and 20 puzzles of Tactics Ladder ever other day.
2) What did not went well?
I did not finish Noel Studers Next Level Chess Training videos. I played too much blitz, my blitz rating is declining, which is frustrating.
3) What will I do this week?
I will finish Noel Studers course. I will not play blitz. I will continue my daily tactics routine.
I had a bad habit of trying to start too many different chess training plans and never sticking to one. I still struggle that maybe I could open one book and transform my play. So I decided last year to stick to one giant book, in the hopes that the accomplishment of a giant book would motivate me, as well as giving me a pass in the future to spread out my chess studies. Thus the Polgar book is my ongoing work for a while.
All of which is to say, good job on sticking to Noel's course. Maybe you can view his videos as a reward. You get your laundry done and your reward is to learn how to be a better chess player. Which is the thing you want. And the reward for finishing the his course is a monster blitz session. Cause you know that you want to multiply rewards on rewards. :)
What went well?
I had highest rated scalp in Lichess Classical on Friday. A user who was rated 2369 got lost in complications in the Gruenfeld. I managed to reach my training goals for last week, However I feel like my goals might not have pushed me much last week.
What went poorly?
I lost in my club game this week to a guy that really knows the Caro well. Afterward I'm starting to book up on a different way to play this opening. I've tried setups with Bf4, classical takes and although I'm comfortable with the londonish Bf4 style it's not very ambitious, I have something new to try after watching a Johnathan Schrantz video.
What I will do this week?
Ok this week I need 40 polgar puzzles and again 20 positions in Evaluate like a grandmaster. There's either blitz or rapid Over the board at the club and I'll try and steer towards complications. I'm bad in quiet boards, and my training for the last few months is all about keeping the board busy. I figure after I get evaluate like a grandmaster done I'll want to work on endgames.
The beginning of this year is tactics, the middle endgames and around September I'll work on my openings. I hate opening work but I feel that I come out of most openings well. But 2 of the higher rated club players are just well booked in their lines and I feel I never get to play for a game with them. But I want the skills to make sure that once I have a game I can finish them off instead of let them off with a draw. Good luck this week to everyone.
1) What went well?
I spent over 4:30 hours last week on chess. Most of it were online classical games. I also reviewed one game I played last week.
2) What did not go well?
I spent over 4:30 hours last week on chess. Most of it were online classical games (ha!). I spent very little time training. The little I did was short periods of simple tactics training, just to log something and not be totally embarrassed. I had a busy work week, so that's my excuse.
3) What will I do this week
I'll be more deliberate in my training. I should probably set fixed times to study/train to make the habit stick. Maybe assign specific times throughout the week for (a) tactics training, (b) playing, (c) analyzing games, (d) studying opening principles, (e) training simple endgames, (f) playing over exemplary games. Maybe (a) every day, (b) and (c) twice a week, (d) and (e) once a week. I'll be happy to receive suggestions from this group.
If you're in thinking zone as described in 3rd question, you're not alone.
You can easily bombarded with traditional approach of learning.
Keep things simple.
1 - Warmup tactics [Checkmate, Various puzzles mixed etc]
2 - Play practice / training games + Review
3 - Based on Review - Revisit / fine tune Opening and build base Opening repertoire, Positional understanding, Tactics theme, Endgame [if during the game, found missing] - Any ONE of them which is most important. May be two max.
This is ONE cycle which you could repeat one or more times in a week as per your available time.
Everything else will come once you master these which are very essentials. We do not need to plan and study everything and then feel odd that we didn't run through ALL of them.
I am actively doing this after drawing so many plans, checklists, sprints etc. Even recently GM blogger suggested 1/3 point method. We can even say its 80/20 method at THIS time of our chess journey.
NOTE: This may not be relevant advice for kids / chess starters as they need to gather many basic things before tournament play.