I played in the U 1500 section of the Miami Open a few weeks ago, and it was not a good outing. I only won one of 5 games against a much lower rated opponent. While devastated, it has only made me work harder on my chess. The week following the Open, I immediately started taking face to face lessons with FM Charles Galofre. I have decided to stop trying to find my path on my own, and to work with a strong player that can guide me in the right direction. I have two lessons under my belt, and I have been very pleased with the direction my chess improvement process has been taking.
I will begin posting more frequently in the coming days, but I wanted to document some of the things I have been doing differently in the last couple of weeks.
1. Started taking chess lessons
2. Narrowed the focus of my chess study (50% of study time is on tactics)
3. Focusing on my thought process
4. FM Galofre recommended that I start playing open game as White
5. Taking every game as an opportunity to learn (annotating and reviewing afterwards)
Failure is not getting knocked down, it’s not getting up again
– Vince Lombardi