Update for July

I'd have to say so far so good this month.

Here we are at the not quite mid point of the month and so far I seem to be on track.  Let's recap shall we...

My goals this month were to work on:

• Opening Prep
• Analytical Ability
• Calculation Ability

So far I think that I have done a fair amount of work on each of them.

Opening Prep

I have done some of this on my own the good old fashioned way of just playing through some variations over and over trying to learn them.

However, I have also done something I should have been doing for a long time, which is to take my games and put them in ChessBase, then scroll through the opening book to see who deviated and what the correct move was.  If I keep playing the same openings and keep doing this, then I should be able to learn my openings on a deeper and deeper level.

Lastly, I have a two hour lesson scheduled for tomorrow to work on nothing but openings.  I need to learn them desperately and it's been hard overcoming years of not studying the opening at all.

Analytical Ability

I have been making more of an effort to analyze my own games lately.  Not only have I been analyzing recent games that I have played, but I've also gone back and looked at some that were 18 months old. 

What's interesting is that as I look at the older games I am identifying a lot of areas in which I have improved.  Also, since I have gotten better in that time it's easy to see progress.  It's also easier to identify areas in which I still need to improve when I am looking at these older games.

For example, I know that one of my weaknesses is that I tend to play a large number of "groveling" moves.  Defending when I don't need to, etc.  As I look at games I played in the past few weeks it's too easy to be defensive about the moves I just played.  Especially when I had a good result.  i.e. when you are rated 1700 and you draw an expert you don't want to admit that any of your moves were weak.  Yet when I look at a game from a year ago it's easier to be objective, regardless of the result.

I don't know if others feel this way, but I certainly do.  Perhaps that in an of itself is a weakness I should work on.


Calculating Ability

This is the area in which perhaps I have done the least.  I have been working on some tactical exercises and doing some endgame work, both of which serve to help in this area.  But I don't feel like I've truly worked hard on calculating.

However, I have a cutesy fix for this...

I am reviewing a handful of books for ChessCafe.com and as I work on the reviews I intend to treat the diagrams as calculation exercises.  I think that will help me get two things done at once...my reviews and  my calculation skills!

So at the roughly mid way point of the month I'd say I feel good but not great about having stuck to my plan!


By the way, for anyone who is curious, here are the books I am reviewing right now.  They are older books which I was asked to look at:

Mastering Tactical Ideas - by Minev

Essential Chess Endings for Advanced Players - by Donaldson

How to Win at Chess Quickly - by Williams

True Combat Chess - by Taylor

 

Here are some items I have reviewed for ChessCafe already...

 

Kasparov - Short 1993

 

Fighting Chess: Move by Move

 

Chess Evolution #66