My FICS standard rating has gone from 1607 to 1699 during this time and my blitz rating has gone from 1234 to 1310. I promise to write more when I have more time, but in the meantime here are a few thoughts and resource:

1. Check out GM Nigel Davies The Chess Improver Blog.

2. Being more aware of my opponent’s threats has been a major improvement milestone.

3. A sure way to quickly improve is to practice basic chess tactics and to try to eliminate blunders from your play.

4. Blitz is fun, but it is counterproductive when trying to improve your overall chess.

5. Chess Secrets: The Giants of Chess Strategy by Neil McDonald is a phenomenal book and a great positional textbook.

UPDATE — 3/4/2011
I have been following my new training program for 1 month, and I am tracking my progress via my standard FICS rating and my chess.com tactical trainer rating. After 31 days, I have gained 23 standard rating points and 26 tactical training points. I continue to take detailed daily notes, and I have had many ideas to improve the training regimen as I go. I figure that in a few more weeks I will be happy enough with the program to post a few more details.

UPDATE — 2/20/2011

I am in the 3rd week of a new training program , I am working it out as I go, but I am happy with the short term results. I am keeping detailed personal notes on what I am doing, as well as tracking my standard rating on FICS to validate the program.  I am trying to synthesize all of the  things I have learned about chess improvement in the last few years. Because I don’t have to edit the content of the training log, I find that I am writing more frequently than if I would be posting on the blog.

I don’t plan on updating beginchess much in the next few week / months, but I will add periodic updates under this post, and an occassional blog post.

I have modified my trianing program so that I focus my study on specific content and I don’t jump around from book to book and topic to topic. This new focused training was working well until one week ago when I started missing training sessions, to the point where I have been almost two weeks without following the program. I continue to work 20-30 minutes on tactics, so I don’t lose my tactical vision, but I have decided to take another 1-2 weeks off training.

I believe that the disinterest has to do with over-training which has led to a training plateau.  I plan on writing an update to the training plateau post where I will deal with “muscle confusion” in chess training. I think this P90X style training schedule, will keep things fresh and training plateaus will be delayed or avoided altogether…so stay tuned for that.

Leave a comment if you have unique ways in which you deal with training plateaus.

In the meantime, I have compiled the most popular posts for your enjoyment:

• Key Squares
• Chess Exercises
• The Step Method
• Chess Books by Rating
• Purdy’s Thinking System
  

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 participate in a tournament to help gauge my progress. I am compiling positions and content to go along with the program, but I have just recently started doing this and it will take a while.

Right now I am on week 1 of the tactics phase, and things are going well. A draft of the schedule looks something like this:

Monday

Tactics Trainer – consists of doing 1 hour at chesstempo.com

Tuesday

Play a standard game and analyze it afterwards

Wednesday

Stoyko Tactics – consists of doing 1 hour of positions from Imagination in Chess. These are tough, so taking up to 15 minutes per position is not unusual. I am also using a tactics checklist based on Heisman’s ‘Seeds of Tactical Destruction’ Novice Nook.

Thursday

Play and analyze

Friday

Speed Tactics – Consists of doing 1 hour of easy tactics. I am using positions from Bain’s Chess Tactics for Students. The idea is to do as many as you can in 1 hour. I am averaging about 120 positions per hour from the Bain problem set.

Saturday

Core Tactics – consists of doing positions from the Alburt’s Chess Training Pocketbook.

Sunday

Open day – idea is to have fun, take a break or work on any one of the exercises above as extra credit.

I plan on elaborating much more on this new program with much more to follow, and remember in the meantime to visit the chess.com ECT group.

Original Post 12.21.09

I’m currently brainstorming a new chess training program for adult beginners rated 1200-1600 USCF. I have created a group on chess.com for this purpose which you can visit here: http://www.chess.com/groups/home/extreme-chess-training.

I’m still in the early stages of setting this up, but I will be posting more about it in the next few days.

Stay Tuned…

Long Term Goals

• Increase USCF rating to 1400 (currently at 1283)
• Increase Chess Tempo standard tactics rating to 1850 (currently at 1700)
• Increase ICC standard rating (currently have a provisional rating of 1750) will set appropriate ELO goals within the next 3 months once I get out of provisional status. update 01.03.10 Out of provisional rating after having played 26 standard games. Benchmark rating is 1781 goal is to reach an ICC rating of 1825 by the end of the year.
• Play in 4 tournaments within the next 12 months
• Play a minimum of 2 standard games G/15 or > per week
• Have a minimum of 6 training sessions in the next 12 months with FM Charles Galofre

Short Term Goals (goals for the next 90 days)

• Dedicate 1 hour per day to chess training
• Review all of my standard games
• Play in an OTB tournament before the end of February ’10
• Have a chess lesson before the end of February ’10
• Simplify my chess training, focus more on the practical side of chess
• Increase Chess Tempo rating to 1750 by the end of February ’10

My training for the past 2 months has consisted of doing tactics puzzles on Chess Tempo and working on my thought process. I spend an average of 30 mintues per day doing standard puzzles focusing on quality not quantity (yet).  At the end of the week I create a problem set with the five tactical themes that are giving me the most trouble, and I spend an additional 10-15 minutes per day solving these ‘problem’ puzzles.

Thought Process in Chess

I have also spent a considerable amount of time working on my chess thought process. First, I created a thought process checklist that is compatible with my playing style and way of thinking, subsequently, I have been trying to incorporate it during long games and training positions (this is the hardest part for me).  I feel this has helped my game a bit just by making me more conscious of threats (I’ll expand further in a future post).

Moving Forward

Here are my goals for the next month:

1. Continue with my chess tactics study regimen, perhaps increase the number of puzzles done per day.

2. Continue practicing my thought process by playing slow games, and during training positions.

3. Play more.

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