My Journey To Getting Better At Chess #5

Hi guys, let's get this show on the road!  I'm excited to share with you my progress, my chess goals for March, and my upcoming OTB tournaments next month! Without further ado, let's dive into my progress:

Progress

Since my last post, I've been able to increase my Rapid peak from 1847 --> 1871 (+24 points), with an overall record of 6 wins, and 1 loss. 

Things seem to be looking up! My only anxiety at this point is if I can translate my rapid, blitz, puzzles, etc progress to OTB chess. Because that is what really matters.  I think it'll be a matter of time, even if it doesn't show for my next tournament, if I have truly grown and improved as a player, then it will show in the results.

I didn't do as much calculation work as I wanted. This week, I only did a couple of Aagard exercises, and three puzzles my coach sent me. I think at this point, I'm just obsessed with playing!   But as I mentioned, I do have some tournaments coming up, so I need to work a little harder to make the most out of it.  

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In honor of my good results, and trying not to just brag about my wins, I have annotated my loss, and I shall share that with you!

I had not done a deep dive as to why I lost the game. I think I played way too ambitiously (especially when I knew he was content with a draw around move 25). The position just got complicated, and I didn't calculate well enough. Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments!

My upcoming OTB tournaments

I have two tournaments coming up in March! An outdoor chess tournament in Sugar Land (Houston area) on March 13th, and a "secret" invitational tournament on March 20th, it's in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. As I mentioned last week, I want to be more disciplined with my calculation. So hopefully, in a week or so, I will be able to report that I worked hard!

The time control for Sugar Land will be 3 rounds, 75|5 (75 minutes per side with a 5-second delay). The time control for the secret tournament will be 4 rounds, 45|5 (45 minutes per side with a 5-second delay). I have some more tournaments tentatively coming up in April/May, but we'll see how things are then!

March goals

Here are my chess goals for the end of March!

• 1900 Chess.com Rapid
• 1930 Chess.com Blitz
• 2700 Chess.com Puzzles

I don't really have any solid USCF rating goals for March, as I will only have 7 rated games, only so much we can do with it. My coach introduced me to "creative goals", rather than rating-oriented goals. Factors like better time management, calculating better during the game, not accepting draw offers, etc. 

These next couple of weeks, I'll think about my creative goals, and share them with you guys. 

I also have some intangible goals. Mainly to do more calculation exercises, and annotate more of my rapid games. I have a hard time quantifying it, so I will just do my best!

I hope you enjoyed the post... I will see you in some time for another one!