MARCH 28

MARCH28, 2016

DAY # 592;  84^th Week

HOURS. 11.8 hours

RATING (gain):  1446 (0)

 

“something Different”.   We have used our blog as an opportunity to say (as I see it), things I have learned of chess, to express ideas that inspire me, to focus on an important idea, or to philosophize in a place less contentious and argumentative than the Chess.com Forums.

With apologies to however reads this; the point of this blog will be to document progress, and a failings in my whole improvement program is a certain amount of accountability.  Yes.  I keep track of my progress, but there’s not a weekly evaluation of what is working and what is not.  MY blog will become the place for us to summarize what I need to do- to give place to goals, and to inspire me to evaluate and change.

“We continue to Motivated by something that happened Just over a week ago…”  so after a lengthy back and forth pm at chess.com.  I Played on SATURDAY MARCH 19, the strong player; International Master Trener $40 in certain loss to gain insight into my game and to see at a longer Time Control that I normally play if I could keep up with a talented and strong Human player…

The results were embarrassing, No HUMILIATING.  Basically I barely got a game- after a brief amount of Theory in a French opening I thought I knew somewhat well- I ended up take a poison pawn and losing both a piece and a defender.  White invades and quickly wins; when my passive defense fails to see a Mate in 1!   I knew I was Tactically bad at times, and had a tendency to blunder- but this game proved I need to Deeply work on seeing big threats,and keeping all my pieces Safe.  You can’t play an interesting game with a very strong player, if you Give him your pieces, and allow him a quick mate….

I’ve Decided To approach this by looking towards my Chess Activities, and setting Goals that I think will help.  By reaching for consistency in my program- I can work on increasing my tactical Good sense- and strive to study/play my tendency to blunder. 

ACTIVITES that will help me Blunder less and Win more!  (As of Saturday Night)

1).  Memorize a Blunder Pledge ,establishing what is good thought process. and do so Three times a week…..                                              Not achieved.  2 times

2)   Go over Tactics Puzzles.  Stay sharp on what is a Definitive move in a chess game.  25 puzzles a Time and Four times a week….        Not achieved.  3 times and 88total

3)   Play Titans (hi Level).  To work towards making less Material Losing moves;  3 games- 3 times a week….                                            Not achieved.  1 times and 2total

4) Play Live Games.  to play human and equal competition, please play 12 Live games on at least 3 separate times.                                        (mostly) achieved!  3 times/ 8games

We are Clearly Concentrating on Live games (especially at FICS where I want to get a solid rating)- but are doing Very poorly on Titans.

THE WEEKS distractions!  Per this calendar Date, NOW is that time when we should be catching Calico ( a very pretty FISH that also goes by the ugly name “crappie”), like crazy.  As one of my oldest and most avid hobby (perhaps even more than chess, itself)- fishing remains Important to me- when the fish are biting!

Oc. What do I say, when my normally very effective fishing trips becomes dismally uneffective?  And that each fishing trip is a more than normal drive that takes lots of time away from chess.

I can really only say, that a certain amoun of tolerance is needed. Its Good that I can have a study program this time of year- and Better that’s its actually Not that Bad. Time wise we are above our average effort.  And as said, still meeting some of our goals.

We are doing very little Book Learning.  Book Learning on things like Positional chess and Endgames have always been a little harder for me.  Tactical puzzles squeeze into small units of time well- require no set up of a board, can be easily paused when someone needs my attention at home, and are very straitforward to understand.

On the Other end of the spectrum Annotated games are nearly an opposite – so its not suprising that I find it hard to obsess on this kind of study.

But “Book Learning “ has a bery peculiar function in chess.  While it may seem that Blunders and tactics explain many games- “technique” and “Positional understanding” underly every move of a game, and create something of a Potential Energy of ones chess strength.   With good book learning- blunders become less disastrous,  the point of openings and the concepts of the endgame become clear, and straitforward and you can effortlessly prevail, in what another players struggles at.

In short, its important and I know it!  I just need to make Time for it- and if I continue to put it last on a list I never complete, I don’t need to ask why I see no serious rating improvement.   We had no book learning last week- and need to change it.  Even if it occurs weekly this is an deep investment that will someday pay off.

We need to more thorough track Blunders!  How often do they occur in our games?  How frequently are we making them in tactical .  We don’t know & we haven’t been doing enough due diligence to find out.

But I believe improvement will be more incremental than revolutionary- so we need to work on this. 

SUMMARY  in this coming week, I want to make improvement in both of these topics with a solid session of book learning, and a better understanding of how often blunders are happening in our game.