Learning chess: Week 3: Tournaments are fun
In my 3th week of playing chess I haven't actually spend much time in studying or analysing games. Instead I spend much more time in playing, and had lots of fun with it.
Learning chess is a long endavour and not something you will learn overnight so why not varying studying with playing. This week was a play week.
Tournaments are fun
I started to play the standard 15|10 (<1200) tournaments and had lots of fun with it.
Because my rating is in the low 800's I am always ranked as one of the last in the tournament which mens that I always play agains better ranked players. This forces me into bringing my A-game which seems to help.
I enjoy this format of playing and I even got a few 3th places and one 2nd place.
In the past weeks I always spend some time in analysing my games however this week I didn't really do that. Sometimes I notices that I made a stupid move just when I released my mouse. I still need to have a little more patience and watch the board more closely before actually making my move.
Online Chess
A couple of days ago, I also started playing online chess. I didn't do it before becasue I thought every game would take days or weeks. Now that I have played some game, I have to be honest, I really enjoy online chess.
Yes, some games are really slow but many game finish in 1 or 2 days which is fine.
I also notice that I learn much more from online chess because I really take my time and before submitting my move, I re-analyse my position. I already lost track of the amount of moves I cancelled when I took a closer look. This is something I wouldn't do in a 15|10 game.
Because of this, I also notice that I take more time in calculating my move in 15|10 games.
I really feel the online chess is a big step forward for me. It really helps me in taking it easy, analysing each move and be sure it's the best move I can come up with.
Opening theory
I notice that in losing games, I am behind during opening and the opponent has a much better position after the first 10 or so moves. Although I do understand the idea of an opening and the key concepts of opening which I explained in my week 2. I however feel that it is really difficult to apply these conepts in context of my opponent. I do not know how to adapt my opening based upon the opponent his moves.
Because of this, I decided to dive into opening theory so I bought Fundamental Chess Openings on Kindle. I only read a part of the queen's gambit declined opening but I am a bit dissapointed by the book. I bought it because it got the best reviews however I feel it doesn't actually explain the moves. It however delivers the conclusions of the moves but because these usually inlude mid or end game concepts, I do not really understand why.
I want to understand why certain moves are better than others instead of just memorizing a lot of moves.
Statistics:
Live Games Played this week: 28 (11W/17L/0D)
Live Rating: +/- 850
Online games played: 17 (8W/9L/0D)
Online Rating: +/- 1000
