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How am I doing?
in a very cold cabin above St Gervais.

How am I doing?

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Excheqquer
| 4

Week # 4 Day # 3 Rating 1269 + 103 points 15/16 wins  to start the day. 

You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games before becoming a good player.  – José Raúl Capablanca

At the risk of jinxing myself. That is my problem. Since starting the Chess.com Study plan I have only lost one game. Okay, yes I did lose two games, but Chess.com than informed me that they were giving me points based on a Fair Play Issue. So I am not counting that loss.  So my problem since putting in the hours of work I put in each day (and it is hours every day. hours and hours of study)  but my problem is I can't seem to get the losses I need. 

I think that is good enough I'm pretty sure I have cast a hex on myself with that . nervous.png

This was a difficult puzzle for me. I got it, but it took me about 8 minutes to figure out. 

So I did my Chessables opening repertoire practice on the d4 sidelines. I even did some work on the Albin Countergambit since I had a game against that yesterday. 

Then I set up my board and did a chapter from Russian Chess   by Pandolfini. 

I put in 45 minutes on puzzles overall, up to 1924. 

And then continue my Rensch's video series :

Pawn Structure 101: The Caro-Slav 2

I didn't play a game, but I am going to feature a game from europoort.  europoort is an American player who recently let me know that he was going to start doing the Chess.com study plan as well. He too has had a nice bump in rating. 

In the featured game it started off a Scandinavian and then transposed into Reti: Tennison Gambit. Both players were relatively equal. in the 1100's. And while the masters, GM's and super GM's look down upon us lowly players, europoort is in the 80 percentile in chess. As it stands right now on chess.com, which is definitely where chess lovers come to play, he is in the 80 Percentile. That is respectable. 

Anywhere here is the game: 

I did do some substantial work in Silman's book  Complete Endgame Course. I am now through part 4, which he recommends for players up to 1600. Well, I'm not there. But I have to keep working. 

Good Chess to Y'all