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

Much needed win

I dropped a knight and a pawn, refused to exchange queens to have "chances" and ended up making the next to last mistake. Hadn't won a slow game for a bit, so this was much needed!

Slow Chess, Busy Schedule

Playing in the STC Winter Blues, which is one game per week and had my last round of TL 45 action. 0-2 in STC so far, and pulled a draw in my TL game.

Getting some 5/0 games where time allows (got my bltiz rating over 1000 :p).

Still plugging away at Amatuer's Mind- finding time to just hammer it out is tricky with a family and other hobbies (fishing, Dungeons and Dragons), but I feel like I'm getting close to making a big jump. I have been feeling great when I sit down for my long games, and I enjoy looking over my games win or lose...I just feel potent right now and believe that I will see my patchwork study and practice coalesce into real improvement soon...maybe a steady 1600+ FICS standard rating.

Another lesson

Here is the Watchbot for the game: http://mekk.waw.pl/mk/watchbot/game/2989161

Haven't run it through a computer yet, and haven't looked deeper than my notes above. I don't have a whole lot of time at work (:P) right now to add more comments.

I did my best to stay focused and not post a bunch of comments during the game. I stayed cool and focused, until I lost it zeroing in on the false winning of a pawn.

Tunnel vision killed me here. This week, I will go way back to de la Maza's board vision exercise- Concentric Circles. Wednesday and Friday I'll do those. Thursday will be for some reading from Amateur's Mind. Saturday or Sunday, I'll see if I have time to get a Stoyko (sp?) exercise in. Some practice visualizing and evaluating will be useful now.