The Chess.com Study Plan

Week # 4 Day # 1 Rating 1253 +87 points overall.  to start the day. 

I am Excheqquer an inveterate nonimprover, a gentle slug who when he gets a small advantage let's it slip away, and I was tired of this life of no advancement, so I decided I would follow the Chess.com Study plan : Study Plan Directory - Chess.com 

This is the chronicle of what happened. 

So as I mentioned in my last article I have finished the beginner study plan and have decided to move on to the intermediate even though I am still "in the beginner" ratings. 

In the intermediate study play you need to put in 45 minutes to an hour on puzzles. Check I'm doing that. I am doing the puzzles both for ratings and also using the puzzle rush especially the puzzle rush survival mode. My puzzle rating is back up to 1878. My high is 2100 before my last reset.  At my level the games are almost always won on tactics. I have to be sharp. 

The study plan also recommends that at this stage you should start developing an opening repertoire. They recommend a number of different openings and variations to look at on the explorer site. In fact they list over 34. But I know what I am. I am a d4 player for white and a Sicilian for black.  And I continue to work through Shankland's complete d4 repertoire on Chessable. That is going to take months to master. Maybe a year, but when I have that down I will be ready to keep going up. 

I am watching IM Rensch's excellent series on Pawn structure. I haven't looked exactly but there may be 20 videos on pawn structure. I totally get IM Rensch. He explains in a way that I can understand. And I like that he talks fast. I get bored with pauses as the narrator tries to decide what to say next. And I am learning a lot of theory. I will certainly have to watch them all again at some point. 

And then making sure my caffeine gauge is not on empty I play a game. My game is a 60 minute against SteveDumas123. He is about 20 points lower than me as we start the game. SD123 has been a member of chess.com since December 2020.  He has been as high as the mid 1300's, and his best win was against a 2000+ player. He has played over one thousand games since December and has 66% win record. Impressive. Of course I didn't know all this at the start of the game. He started with 1. e4 c5 2. f4 d6  The Sicilian :McDonnell attack. 

SD123, although an e4 player, has not had many games against the Sicilian. He often chooses the McDonnell Attack, and he is not having much success with it. If he is going to stay as an e4 player he will need to find a better opening against  1... c5 .

Here is the annotated game: 

IM Rensch in his video series lectures about the danger of using the computer to help analyze your games afterward. Then again he made the video in 2010. I can't believe he is still giving that advice. In anycase I love the computer. 

Well now I get the win : Rating 1260 up +94 points. 13/14 wins since starting the program. 

Well good chess to you my friend!