Back to the Sweat-Work

My performance in the Kings Island Tournament a few weeks back was, let's say, lackluster. Excluding my half-point byes, I scored +1 / -2 / = 0 in the three games I actually played, with my rating dropping back down to 1557, losing 38 of the 55 rating points I had regained at the Golden Buckeye. Then work smacked me in the face upon my return, and so only now am I getting back to the sweat-work of analyzing my games, though I did manage to find the time and energy for tactics (including, of course, the obligatory Polgár mates).

Given the sub-par analysis in my preparation for my last coaching session, I've decided to make a change in my process. I'm going old-school and working over a real board and using pencil and paper to force myself to slow down and focus more.

You'll notice the laptop is closed. While I always do my analysis without the engine, I have been doing it on a computer screen. I'm thinking though, that doing it on a keyboard and screen makes it too easy to superficially click out variations and miss things, as I did in abundance before my last lesson. So for now it's all pencil and paper...

....with just a little help from Capa! 

We'll see if this experiment helps me seal up some of the gaps in my analysis. The other thing I've noticed, is that this forces me to limit my variations to more "normal" lengths. Clicking away with a keyboard and screen, I can just keep pushing variations deeper and deeper way past where I ever could have reasonably calculated anyway. Working with wood and paper will limit me to shorter variations and therefore force me to rely a lot more on evaluation of positions. Evaluation is one area I really need to work on, so this cannot be a bad thing, I think.

In closing, here is my training plan for the coming week.

The sweat-work begins again.