Mounting Mastery #22: Tournament Mode

What's up, guys and gals?

Last week, I covered my study plan moving forward, and what I wanted to achieve. As I have stated many times, it is more important for me to make obvious progress than achieve my plans to perfection, so I'm not really concerned about whether I did X amount of study or not. 

Anyway, let's start with tactics.

I spent the week primarily on tactics trainer, and let's have a look at my log:

TACTICS LOG:

MONDAY --- 11/12 (92% accuracy) 2004 to 2041 (+37)

TUESDAY --- 9/14 (64% accuracy) 2041 to 2051 (+10)

WEDNESDAY --- 6/8 (75% accuracy) 2051 to 2061 (+10)

THURSDAY --- 7/14 (50% accuracy) 2061 to 2064 (+3)

FRIDAY --- 4/6 (67% accuracy) 2064 to 2101 (+37)

OVERALL --- 37/54 (67% accuracy) 2004 to 2101 (+97)

I got to 2100 on tactics trainer! Yay! Though I know I still have some work to do, as I know I've been right around 2200 tactics. For your enjoyment, here are some instructive puzzles which I invite you to answer in the comments! 

BLACK TO MOVE

WHITE TO MOVE

I gained nearly 100 tactics points this week. Not a bad performance!

Since I have a tournament coming up, I will take a different and more challenging approach to tactics training. Instead of my usual routine, solving rated puzzles and trying to get my rating up, I will go into custom unrated mode, set the rating from 2400 to 3000, and try to solve some of those difficult ones! I'm hoping this practice will help improve my calculation skills right before my tournament! 

I will likely post my puzzles in a new group I joined, FangBo School Of Chess. If you want some updates on my tactical struggles, or want to join a small and secluded group for aspiring and improving chess players, feel free to check it out!

The two endgame books I am studying...

Last week, in 100 Endgames, I was in the middle of ending #36, and now I just concluded ending #39. Not bad considering I spend some time reviewing endgames as well. I'm basically dealing with single minor piece battles with a one pawn advantage for one side. The general idea is that the side lacking the pawn is trying to save the draw by capturing the pawn, while the side with the pawn advantage is trying to use his resources to escort the pawn home no trouble. Here is an example of what I am talking about:

Feel free to share your thoughts! I know some of the games were not the best quality! 

Though over the eight games, I was able to win five, draw two, and only lose one, going from 1521 to 1532 in the process (though some of the games were not rated). My performance rating over the week was approximately 1570, which is not too shabby. I'm hoping to progressively get my standard rating up, and this added motivation. I do need some stronger opponents, though no matter the rating, feel free to contact me! 

As for my next post, I have this tournament on Saturday, June 16th. I, unfortunately, can only play three of the four rounds (due to other plans later on), though I will play with grit and determination over my three rated games. Then the following Sunday, I leave for a week-long church camp, and will have no access to chess.com. So it will be interesting... playing a tournament, leaving for a week without chess, then analyzing the tournament games without having seen them for a week!

With that said, my post may not be out until sometime during the weekend between June 29th and July 1st. 

As always, leave a comment, let me know if you have questions, but otherwise, have a wonderful weekend! 

A small note before I forget: I was forced to prematurely end my game with @MiddleGamerUmesh, though he kindly agreed to a draw even though we both agreed he was significantly better.