From Problems to plans: Creating My chess Study plan

Hello Chess world!

My name is Diego, a fanatic chess player from the United States here to share with you my improvement journey. I have been playing chess coming up on to two years now, since creating a Chesscom account in 2023. I was bored between my college classes, and looking for something to entertain myself with, and like many young and chronically online players, I got pulled in by a GothamChess video in my youtube feed. Since then I have taken a Olympic level dive into the chess world, watching more youtube videos, getting too many online courses, following my favorite players and tournaments, and playing in my own OTB tournaments. This brings us to this year, where I have decided to take the New Year's Resolution become more organized in my chess training.
So why the blog? I suppose I am taking some inspiration from one of my favorite GMs, Sam Shankland. Something he always says in his Chessable courses or writing is that he chooses to create his content for the selfish reason of wanting to get better at what he is writing about. If he wants to study rook endgames, he writes one of the best pieces of work on rook endgames. If he wants to refine his repertoire, he creates a multipart chessable series on 1.d4, the semi-slav, and the sicilian. Nobody can tell you that you are not getting better at something if you are able to write a full book on the subject! So for myself, if I want to stick to a general training plan, why not share it with others in writing, hopefully teaching someone a thing or two if I can.

I am going to start this blog off with a little bit of bragging, but it is good to take stock of where we are at before deciding where we need to go. If you are looking to create a improvement plan, its important to start by assessing yourself as well. just be positive about what you have done so far, and be honest in your shortcomings.

Some of my Chess accomplishments and struggles so far:

First, the good stuff; I have accomplished:

• A peak live USCF rating of 1505, current rating of 1481
• Achieved my highest online rapid rating TODAY! @1771
• A puzzle rush survival high score of 45
• A total of 3504 chess games played online on C, 106 Classical OTB games

So far so good! And now the bad. I am sure many improvers can relate to these struggles:

• I have not been able to break past the 1500 USCF ceiling, which does put a bit of a mental barrier, even if i feel my chess skills improving.
• I my worst games online and OTB come from being super impulsive; making moves too fast without trying to spot a refutation, usually due to a dopamine rush when I think the move absolutely works.
• It also means i focus too much time on complicated ideas when I really should be focusing on playing simple moves, which, 9 times out of 10, are usually the best.
• My endgame skills falter when I don't see a clear cut path, or tactical continuation. I struggle to make improving moves in endgames when I don't know what else to play for.
• I get a little too obsessed with knowing my openings. Its another rabbit-hole my brain likes to go down.
• I struggle to handle OTB stress, to the point where I can really struggle to think about the position, combined with impulsiveness, bringing me many, many losses where I wonder, "what was I even trying to do?"

So what to do about it? Where do I go from here? Let me show you what I have been working on.

From Problems to Plans

The first thing I did with these problems in play was recognize that my goals need to address them. Rating goals are nice, and I do wish to be 2000 rapid some day, but I have to fix my play to get there. If I could click my heels and be where I wanted to be, I really would! But instead we have  We really have to be problem solvers here. I wrote in a journal some goals.

1. Improve my Tactical vision, to help myself spot tactical threats and refutations easier. I can do this by working through a tactics book.
2. Improve my nerves and thought process, to make my decision making easier. I can do this by reading about chess strategy and applying it in the games I play.
3. To enter my next large OTB tournament, the USCF Western Class Championships with confidence. I believe that confidence in competition comes from trusting your experience in practice, so it means applying everything I am learning in real OTB games. I am going to be spending a lot of time at the chess club!

Now we can devise plans for these goals, forming my training routine.

While straightforward, the plan I created here isn't too much for me. I can fit it into my normal routine with my job and school hours. I am not pressuring myself to do it if I have higher priorities throughout the day, but I am making up any lost time on days I am more free. Still, crackin' n stackin' is not going to get me anywhere. So for my own accountability, I'll be back soon with another update! I think I'll use this blog for sharing my progress, resources, any interesting puzzles and games. If anyone has any suggestions on a entertaining name for this blog, I'll be glad to hear it. Good luck on your own journey!