Playing Up Every Game!!! - Continental Chess Championships
Why hello everyone! Just last weekend, I participated in the Continental Chess Championships. I decided that since I played in my own section recently in the Maryland Open (atrocious tournament, 2.5/5 against MUCH lower rated opponents). Does anyone else notice the trend that I play better while I'm playing up a section over playing people in my own rating group or lower? Crazy. My chess psychology is completely screwed up. Not really sure why, but I'll have to accept it and try to improve it. Anyways, on to this tournament!
Day 1
Game 1: G/60 d/10
Game 2: G/60 d/10
Game 3: G/40/100 sd/30 d/10
Day 2
Game 4: G/40/100 SD/30 d/10
Game 5: G/40/100 SD/30 d/10
Tournament Summary, Results, and Takeaways:
Rating: 1544 ----> 1623!
I was honestly really proud of this tournament. I feel like I'm right there in being a solid player (say, 1700 skill level). If I'm able to correct the small positional errors that I am playing into (part of it is missing free material due to a miscalculation), or just fine tuning my openings, then I can really create more opportunities for myself to gain rating points. But how exactly do I do that?
Well:
I figured at some point, I would have needed a coach. Being self-taught, there's not much room for improvement (from my perspective and based on the resources around me) where I can just go up on my own. So, I've decided to get a chess coach! It's also someone my readers might be especially fond of (knowing a good amount of my readers stuck around from the DHLC, or so I think), and he is Dan Heisman!
I've honestly been very fond of his work from Novice Nook and his book A Guide to Chess Improvement, and I've decided to get him as my coach!
There's really a lot of room for improvement for me, and I'm really glad that I'm able to acquire more resources to expand my potential!
