[SOS] Awesome Week! (post #2)

Hello!

It has been a terrific first week here @ chess.com. The services they offer are simply top notch. A huge library of free articles, insightful blogs, openings and tactical training tools, and a lot more. And they are free! I guess I'll be in this site for quite some time.

Back on Track 

I almost reached my goals for the past week. It's a shame that I failed, but nevertheless, I still learned a lot!

1.) Create a very basic opening repertoire.

Done! I decided to play the Colle System for white. It's pretty solid and the middlegames are full of tactics. As a defence for black, I play 1..e5 vs 1.e4 and a QGD setup for 1.d4 and the flank openings. So far so good!

2.) Start 5 Echess games to practice my repertoire. Take down notes on every move.

Done! And oddly enough, 2 of the games are already finished! I won on time on both games, and they are played against the same opponent. It has been, like, 3 or 4 games into the game and he took the whole 3 days and didn't made a move. Where did he go?

3.) Solve 5 tactical puzzles daily.

This is where I failed. I've been doing great on the first few days. Then I became busy for quite some time. I still do tactical puzzles, but not on a regualr basis. I need to fix this problem, and soon. I need to improve!

Social Interactions, yay!

I came to an idea that if I want to improve at chess, I need other people to help me out. So I tried to look up for groups to join. I stumbled upon a group named Dan Heisman Learning Center  where they preach the importance of slow chess to ones improvement. I love how Dan Heisman is active on the group notes (implying that it isn't just a fan group). They also organize tournaments and events where they play 30+mins of chess on each side. I'm excited to join one of those events, soon!

I also got an invitation from a group called NM Aww-Rats Free Video Lessons. The group is run by a NM with a chess.com handle "Aww-Rats". He offers chess coaching, but at the same time gives free content for the public. I'm on his series now, and I'm enjoying it as well.

On The Clock

To end this entry, I'd like to share my first games on the Chess.com's Live Chess Servers. I chose the time control 15|10 as these games are the fastest time control that counts in the Standard Rating, but still includes an increment. I haven't included annotations in them, but in the next entries I'll make sure to add some. Your opinions matter to me, so throw some in if you want!

Any comments or suggestions? Post them in! Thanks for reading!