2024 Chess Goals and Training Plan Overview.

Chess Goals 2024

Main Objective: Improve my Chess Tactical Ability(Speed and Power), Technique(Strength) and Functional ability over time over the board (Endurance) so that I can compete against anyone in any OTB tournament to beyond 50 moves. Scoring 4 out of 6 or 3.5 out of 5 would be a challenging reasonable goal that would signify my improvement. I will not “play up” in a tournament until I have achieved this goal within my current USCF rating. My goals will NOT include a USCF or chess dot come rating goal.

• Chess dot com “Speed/Power” goals: Puzzle Rush 35+ puzzles solved in 5mins, Puzzle Rating 2850+ . Specific Endgame speed practice via the chess dot com learn endgames feature (I will have to figure out how to make specific goals for this and update my goals sheet as I learn more about this feature as I’ve never really used it) These are attainable over time with correct specific training.

How I will get there “Speed”:

• I will solve 20 puzzles rated 1000-1500 per session and log the time it took to solve them, and go over the puzzles I missed. I can choose to increase this range as I improve.

How I will get there “Power”:

• I will solve 10 puzzles rated 2000-2500 per day at whatever pace I need.  (I tend to miss these enough that my puzzle rating just comes right back down, despite my ability to occasionally solve a 3000 level puzzle.) I can choose to increase this range as I improve.

How I will get there Endgame “Speed/Strength” (w/technique).

• I will spend ___10___ minutes per day improving my technique with speed though various endgame challenges via chess dot come endgames.

• Technique “Strength” goals: Book Study, Specific theme puzzle study. Master game study/review.

Overview: This is a very generalized goal, as there are so many categories to improve. More specifically, I’d like to improve with my Endgame and Opening play. There are many Endgame concepts for actual technique improvement, where with opening play, I will do more “memorization” through tactile repetition (touching and moving the actual physical pieces while practicing openings).

How I will get there “Endgame Strength”:

• I will spend a minimum of ___15___ minutes per session studying Specific Endgame books via forward chess OR logging examples in my collections on chess dot com.
• I will solve __5+___ endgame puzzles from my “endgame” app per day.

How I will get there “Opening Strength:

• I will spend __10___ minutes per session watching an opening video/lesson on new openings or reviewing old openings.

How I will get there “Technique Strength”

• I will review one master game per study session.
• I will study a forward chess book of my choosing for 15 minutes/one game example per study session.

• Endurance Goals:

Overview: In my limited over the board tournament experience, I have a problem with making questionable or outright bad decisions that I feel are related to being out of mental and physical shape when it comes to thinking and performing over a longer period of time. The solution will need to incorporate physical health improvements, actual chess technique improvement, as well as functional practice by playing a number of longer time control games, when I can fit them in.

How I will get there Functional endurance:

• I will play 2 longer time control games per week, aiming to increase this goal as time allows.

How I will get there Physical endurance:

• I will complete one 30 minute workout and 10,000 steps per day, increasing and changing this goal as I get closer to tournaments and the end of the year. I will lose weight, returning to below 240lbs before the end of 2024.

• Testing:

I will review this goal sheet once a month and make changes to the plan as needed.

I will test my progress once a month by completing and recording the results of:

“Speed/Power testing”:

• Best of 3 Puzzle Rush scores in 5 min.
• Regular Puzzle play for 1 consecutive hour to see how many I can finish and how much I can raise/lower my puzzle score.
• Endgame Speed challenge testing TBD.

“Technique Strength Testing/challenge”:

This will be difficult to create a SMART goal for, so instead of trying to make an actual rating improvement goal (which isn’t really a SMART goal necessarily reflective of actual Chess strength improvement). I’m going to turn this into a challenge and report my results and blog/go over the results and try to see how my game is stagnating/changing and use that to inform what types of study I should pursue the next month to decrease that deficit in my game.

• I will play two 30 minute Rapid games (one as white and one as black) with a 2000+ level Bot. I will set aside 30 minutes, play the game, and review the games.

“Physical Fitness Endurance Testing/Challenge”

• I will jog for 45 minutes on a flat track and record how many miles/laps I finish. As I progress to later in the year, I will try to improve my total ability to “workout” to go beyond 1 hour.

(My starting 2024 goal is to be sharp and in good physical shape OTB for the first hour and hopefully beyond but I have a LONG way to go physically.)

I will create a weekly/daily training record sheet and record my progress each day!