First entry of the new year, and it is time to review my Chess goals and resolutions. So far, I’m happy with my progress, and the new training program I am following is finally giving me guidance and improvement. This week was the 2nd and final week of the first cycle of Phase I of…
I’m having issues with my Internet connectivity, so I’ve decided to play my standard game against a chess engine instead of playing my regularly scheduled standard game on ICC. While I have tried playing in sparring or friend mode, this type of play for me is not realistic enough. What I have done is to use an…
This is the first week where I trained using the Extreme Chess Training (ECT) program. I am still beta testing it and I should have more information available the first week of January. Monday – Performed 45 minutes of standard tactics at chesstempo.com Tuesday – Played an ICC standard game and reviewed it afterwards. Wednesday…
Update 12.25.09 Here’s an update post on a quick overview of what I’m thinking and doing so far: The program is going to consist of 3 phases, each phase lasting 60 days. The first phase will focus on tactics and the following phases will be on endgame and strategy. At the end of each phase, I will…
I have started to evaluate tactical positions a bit differently than quiet strategic ones. For this purpose, I am using a tactical checklist, which is based on Heisman’s seeds of tactical destruction. I assessed the position in the using the checklist, and my evaluation is below. You can download a copy of the check list here.…
This has been out for a while, but I just got a chance to view it and it has a lot of interesting references to expertise and talent pertaining to chess. Highly recommended.
I am working on creating a Chessbase notebook (more on this in a much future post), and I am working out a way to effectively categorize my chess content. Below is a draft of the taxonomy I plan on using. For example pins would be categorized as Middlegame – Tactics – Pins, whereas King and pawn endgame…
Monday 12.07.09 Played G/15 game and drew against opponent rated 1826 in a winning position (I was up a minor piece), but opponent had counterplay and I was down to 4 1/2 minutes on the clock. Tuesday 12.08.09 Reviewed game. Confirmed that position was won. Opponent made a tactical mistake where he lost the exchange.…
Monday 11.30.09 Played G/20 20 game against opponent rated 1865. Played the Sicilian Grand Prix and lost in a rook endgame where I was a pawn down. Tuesday 12.01.09 Reviewed game. Made an interesting observation that I would not have picked up on if I had not reviewed game. I lost 2 pawns during the…
Started new program mid week, so entries will be from Wednesday through Sunday. Wednesday 11.26.09 Played G/15 5 game against an opponent rated 1687 on ICC (I am provisionally rated 1781 after this game). I plan on playing all of my standard games on ICC so that I can maintain continuity in tracking my ELO rating.…