Another week up

Chessable every day. Italian game lines sticking better, Bishops course added to the Knights tactics. Vision feels better. Very aware intuition still presiding over calculation, but it will balance.

Wheels Turning

Good study session this morning, think I have the Knights on the Attack series fully studied on Chessable, so in a day or two will add the next piece themed book. Lucena and Philidor positions starting to click. Grabbed an  ebook copy of the My First Chess Opening Reportoire for White so I can print it off for reference while studying it on Chessable. My one big knock is that while the text of the book is almost entirely in the Chessable package for the book, it's not really readable in the way a book is. It's PGN chunks, basically.

Quick 3+2 game while watching the Ravens this afternoon. Felt the attack on the White King was strong, but completely missed the idea of clearing the g-file with g4 so the Rooks could play too.

Routine

Dedicated study the last week has settled into a routine via Chessable.

After getting out of bed, I make a coffee, smoke a cigarette (bad habit, I know) and settle in for about an hour. The current lessons include a tactics series (presently knight focused), updating my openings (working on Italian Game) and endgames (R+P).

Today's work was about an hour and a half. Feels good. What I recall of Personal Chess Trainer software I was using years ago feels like Chessable. Repetition to ingrain pattern recognition.

Hopefully it starts to pay off!

Holy wow- it's alive!

I am a little surprised that this blog still exists, and pleased it is linked to my Google account since there is no way I could have ever remembered the password!

And more than a little chagrined that I have not yet gotten through The Amateur's Mind in the intervening ten years... LiChess has been a blessing for my chess itch. Started off using it for 10/0 games and some correspondence, and now mostly 3+2 games.

As happens in my ADHD brain (discovered as such in my late 30's a few years ago) I flit and float hobby to hobby, but chess has always been one to pull me back. I started on LiChess late 2017, and have played often. Aside from watching YouTube and Twitch for chess content, I hadn't really picked up books again until recently. Chessable is a godsend...it hits the way my brain works and re-awakened an eagerness to learn and improve a smidge.

Let's see how long a dedicated itch persists and see if slow games and correspondence games can't get back in the rotation. Maybe in my 40's I am appreciating the persistent hobbies and passions better. I picked up photography about 18 months ago and that has no signs of slowing. Let's kick a little rust off the writing side too :P