I'm declaring a holiday; I'm going to play some blitz tonight on FICS! Hopefully I'll catch some people who've been drinking and really increase the old rating. Ha!
Anyway, in lieu of a formal Progress Report Week 7 and all that blah, blah, I'll just say that I finally get to play serious chess starting Jan. 10 in the Reno CC Class B Ch. and I'm so excited I feel like a kid again, waiting for the last week of school to be over and summer vacation to begin. Yeah!
I did do some Chess Tempo this week and that's good, but I have realized that my recent study program has been valuable but a little too confining. I don't have the percentages for the whole week with me right now, but the rating dropped from 1801 to 1764--horrors! Actually, since the point for me was to stay sharp for tournament play I'm not going to freak out about it, I think it's done its job.
While I'll keep up the Chess Tempo in the new year, I'm switching over to more time working with my new ChessDB program and reviewing and analyzing my own games and brushing up on my openings, but only by playing through complete master games in those openings trying to "guess the move," for both sides. This is an interesting idea that I saw when working with Secrets of a Grandpatzer--instead of taking the winning side and "being Tal" or whoever, guess the move for both sides as soon as you're out of your opening "book", taking no more than 15-20 minutes per game. I'll give it a try soon with the DB.
The good news for you, Dear Reader, is that I plan to make this blog somewhat less about "me, me, me" in 2008, and more about other's chess lives and topics of wider interest; I'll still inflict all my tournament games, and some study progress reports, upon you from time to time.
Enough!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
4 comments:
Happy New Year Rob!
Btw - I LIKE reading about YOUR chess experiences. Don't give it up altogether. :)
What is a blog if it's not about you? Boo.
No progress report is acceptable for the holiday period. But I have the strong feeling that you will tire of putting up a progress report every Tuesday come February.
Yes, it's time for the real chessing to start!
I thing 'guessing' the move is very important. I have developed the habit more and more. When I'm going through a game I don't try to guess every move but I make sure that at critical points I stop and try to find a move before I look at the next move played. Also when an awkward looking move is played that I overlooked or don't understand I try to work out the variations before I go back to look at the book. I think it really helps.
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