I hope your last week has been full of chess! I have not had a productive week when it comes to my own training, but it has still been a busy chess week. I had a great interview with Ono about blunders, so check that out if you missed it.
New Tactics Ladder Book
I’m also almost finished with the next Tactics Ladder book, which I know some of you have been waiting on for a while -— The Tactics Ladder for the 1000 FIDE Level. It will be the fourth book in the series where I already have published books for the 1400 (two volumes) and 2000 FIDE levels.
The book will contain 10 chapters with 100 puzzles in each based on different areas. The tactics will be for beginner players and should be a good starting point for everyone starting out on their chess journeys or for those who want to practice the fundamentals.
The above tactic is from the pin chapter, so you can get an idea of the difficulty. I will send out the ebook (pdf) to the paid subscribers later this week, and if all goes as planned publish the paperback on Amazon in two weeks.
Quick Book Review
I continued reading about ultrarunners after finishing the new Goggins book last week. This week was an autobiography by Cameron Hanes. Hanes is an American bowhunter, who has adopted an incredible work ethic. To become a better bowhunter he started to run ultra-marathons, while also managing his normal job at the local water and power company.
Cameron Hanes' hunting expeditions into the wilderness demand incredible mental and physical toughness and reminded me of the legendary American frontiermen Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. These fearless and individualistic figures faced numerous challenges and hardships in their quest for survival on the edge of the American frontier. Hanes' story echoes their spirit, determination, and hard work, making his adventures a modern-day embodiment of the American frontier tradition. In the book, Hanes mentions a quote by the Danish photographer and journalist Jacob A. Riis, who emigrated to the United States in 1870:
"When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it—but all that had gone before."
— Jacob A. Riis
This quote is relatable for those who are working to improve their skills, such as in chess. The stonecutter reminds us that success is often the result of sustained hard work, not just one breakthrough moment.
Overall, I found Hanes's autobiography to be an inspiring read, even if it was a bit repetitive at times.
Started well on Tuesday with good quality rapid game finally.
Went off mid week, only to finish on Sunday with Tactics Ladder to make atleast 1 hour.
2) What did not go well?
Able to play Rapid game 10+5 [after Bullet and Blitz - time not counted].
Played Rapid with Blitz style - not utilizing the time at all - blunder at the end - otherwise well played game.
Due to Blitz effect and not-practicing rapid game effect, moves were pretty reflexive. Before mind thinks, hand / mouse played the move that looked best.
In Blitz, played Opening that was supposed to be studied and understood but missed best continuation. It looks like it's very hard to master Openings when there's not much play at all.
3) What will I do this week
Continue Tactics Ladder.
Review Rapid / Blitz games - Opening / other areas [thinking system].
Reviewing games isn't hard in the sense that going over a game is hard. It's hard in the sense that you have to find your problems, and worse figure out how to address that issue.
For instance I missed 2! Mate in 1 moves in my last blitz game. I had a winning continuation and was so in love with the idea that I didn't even look to see that I could have ended things earlier.
I like the idea that in each game you should look for your first mistake or your most painful mistake and work out how to handle it. Learning how to handle one thing per game is very powerful long term.
I've had games that I lost in the endgame because I didn't see a knight forking my rook and king. Rather than try and always be watching for that I just try and place my king and rook on opposite color squares.
You'll come up with similar tricks that keep you from making that same mistake so you can make new and more interesting mistakes!
I again managed to spend over 12 hours on serious chess improvement. I did 12 Checkmate Mastery puzzles a day, and I am now at puzzle 427. Thanks to this training, I won a lost rapid game today (where my opponent missed a mate in 2 which I saw in seconds).
2) What did not go well?
I did not continue Move First, Think Later.
3) What will I do this week?
Continue as last week, maybe continue to read MFTL, but tactics, calculation and playing have priority. I also will play in the lichess 4545 league as an alternate.
I got to study a lot of Capablanca's Best Chess Endings, which is always nice. I went 3/3 at my local club in a single-day rapid swiss tournament. I played a chunk of rapid games this week and they were instructive, though I did drop from my peak rating to a bit lower. Tbh, I don't care that much since my rapid rating on lichess doesn't have any meaning towards a national master title. It's nice to be free from that kind of stress when training.
I also studied a lot of Spanish and French lines since I was overdue to learn how to play against the lines I was finding myself in.
2) What did not go well?
I didn't play as much rapid online as I would have liked, mostly due to not getting enough sleep. I'll be working on that this week!
3) What will I do this week
There's a new three-week quad tournament with 60+15 games I will be entering. I'll keep studying the French (I hope to finish crunching all the lines in Giri's course by the end of the week but it depends on how overwhelming the reviews get on chessable). I'll also keep going through Capa's best chess endings. I think there's a good chance I'll be able to finish it this week. Then the next thing might be finishing Colovic's course on Capa.
Yesterday I had the house to myself and I managed to get halfway through Evaluate Like a Grandmaster. I reached my goals of positions looked at in Polgar's last week too.
Our local club had a rapid quad go last week 24 minute time control and I scored 2 of 3. I lost only to someone 300 pts higher rated and I got the type of position that I wanted out of the opening. I also had a solid performance in my online rapid games.
What did not go well?
My online classical games were a bust last week. I'm finding that in a surprising number of games last week that I'm pulling victory from terrible positions. It's the type of thing that as I face sterner competition that I won't be able to recover from. I had one game last week where my opponent didn't realize that down a whole queen I was trying to sac a bishop for a mate in 1. It worked and it shouldn't have.
Swindles have been the name of the game for me. I'd like to applaud myself for my creativity but this has been a theme in a games for my chess career. I'm a tenacious defender and many of my wins come from impatient people trying to finish me off rather than win a longer game. I put this down to not having a solid opening repertoire, however that's not on my list to work on until the latter half of this year.
What I will do this week:
This week I'm hoping to get in 50 more puzzles and 20 more evaluations. I'm feeling a bit of ladder anxiety right now. (Where you don't want to play rated games for fear of losing) It's sort of a side effect of serious study. I feel fear that I worked hard for nothing. I had some of that before last week's club games and did fine but I haven't felt this in a while and I'm not sure where it's stemming from. I'll play a few games and get over it but it's strange that I'm feeling less confident in my play after working on it in a systematic way.
1) What went well?
I clocked 1.02 hrs last week.
Started well on Tuesday with good quality rapid game finally.
Went off mid week, only to finish on Sunday with Tactics Ladder to make atleast 1 hour.
2) What did not go well?
Able to play Rapid game 10+5 [after Bullet and Blitz - time not counted].
Played Rapid with Blitz style - not utilizing the time at all - blunder at the end - otherwise well played game.
Due to Blitz effect and not-practicing rapid game effect, moves were pretty reflexive. Before mind thinks, hand / mouse played the move that looked best.
In Blitz, played Opening that was supposed to be studied and understood but missed best continuation. It looks like it's very hard to master Openings when there's not much play at all.
3) What will I do this week
Continue Tactics Ladder.
Review Rapid / Blitz games - Opening / other areas [thinking system].
Play atleast 1 Rapid 10+5 and Review.
Read / Learn how to do Game Review effectively.
Reviewing games isn't hard in the sense that going over a game is hard. It's hard in the sense that you have to find your problems, and worse figure out how to address that issue.
For instance I missed 2! Mate in 1 moves in my last blitz game. I had a winning continuation and was so in love with the idea that I didn't even look to see that I could have ended things earlier.
I like the idea that in each game you should look for your first mistake or your most painful mistake and work out how to handle it. Learning how to handle one thing per game is very powerful long term.
I've had games that I lost in the endgame because I didn't see a knight forking my rook and king. Rather than try and always be watching for that I just try and place my king and rook on opposite color squares.
You'll come up with similar tricks that keep you from making that same mistake so you can make new and more interesting mistakes!
Thanks Mike.
Shared the game GIF in group.
Did the Review in LiChess well. Found quite few ways of winning missed.
1) What went well?
I again managed to spend over 12 hours on serious chess improvement. I did 12 Checkmate Mastery puzzles a day, and I am now at puzzle 427. Thanks to this training, I won a lost rapid game today (where my opponent missed a mate in 2 which I saw in seconds).
2) What did not go well?
I did not continue Move First, Think Later.
3) What will I do this week?
Continue as last week, maybe continue to read MFTL, but tactics, calculation and playing have priority. I also will play in the lichess 4545 league as an alternate.
Amazing 🤩 please share the mate!
How can I insert a gif in the reply? I do not see any option to upload a picture ...
Here it is, Black to move and mate in 2 (easy):
https://lichess1.org/export/fen.gif?fen=4r2k%2Fpppq3p%2F4p3%2F6RQ%2F2P2P2%2FP7%2F1P4PP%2F3r1RK1+b+-+-+0+28&color=black&lastMove=f3f4&variant=standard&theme=brown&piece=fresca
1) What went well?
I got to study a lot of Capablanca's Best Chess Endings, which is always nice. I went 3/3 at my local club in a single-day rapid swiss tournament. I played a chunk of rapid games this week and they were instructive, though I did drop from my peak rating to a bit lower. Tbh, I don't care that much since my rapid rating on lichess doesn't have any meaning towards a national master title. It's nice to be free from that kind of stress when training.
I also studied a lot of Spanish and French lines since I was overdue to learn how to play against the lines I was finding myself in.
2) What did not go well?
I didn't play as much rapid online as I would have liked, mostly due to not getting enough sleep. I'll be working on that this week!
3) What will I do this week
There's a new three-week quad tournament with 60+15 games I will be entering. I'll keep studying the French (I hope to finish crunching all the lines in Giri's course by the end of the week but it depends on how overwhelming the reviews get on chessable). I'll also keep going through Capa's best chess endings. I think there's a good chance I'll be able to finish it this week. Then the next thing might be finishing Colovic's course on Capa.
I think it’s a good decision to not get caught up in obsessing about the rating
What went well?
Yesterday I had the house to myself and I managed to get halfway through Evaluate Like a Grandmaster. I reached my goals of positions looked at in Polgar's last week too.
Our local club had a rapid quad go last week 24 minute time control and I scored 2 of 3. I lost only to someone 300 pts higher rated and I got the type of position that I wanted out of the opening. I also had a solid performance in my online rapid games.
What did not go well?
My online classical games were a bust last week. I'm finding that in a surprising number of games last week that I'm pulling victory from terrible positions. It's the type of thing that as I face sterner competition that I won't be able to recover from. I had one game last week where my opponent didn't realize that down a whole queen I was trying to sac a bishop for a mate in 1. It worked and it shouldn't have.
Swindles have been the name of the game for me. I'd like to applaud myself for my creativity but this has been a theme in a games for my chess career. I'm a tenacious defender and many of my wins come from impatient people trying to finish me off rather than win a longer game. I put this down to not having a solid opening repertoire, however that's not on my list to work on until the latter half of this year.
What I will do this week:
This week I'm hoping to get in 50 more puzzles and 20 more evaluations. I'm feeling a bit of ladder anxiety right now. (Where you don't want to play rated games for fear of losing) It's sort of a side effect of serious study. I feel fear that I worked hard for nothing. I had some of that before last week's club games and did fine but I haven't felt this in a while and I'm not sure where it's stemming from. I'll play a few games and get over it but it's strange that I'm feeling less confident in my play after working on it in a systematic way.
(Where you don't want to play rated games for fear of losing)
Glad to see that you caught that thought. May be we want to preserve our precious rating.
I think we just need to push through bit by bit and play games and overcome that fear.