Chess Plan early progress update.

Hey everyone,

     I figured I'd take a moment and reflect on the early goings of my chess training plan and how it's been going. I'll try to make this short. 

I'll spare you the details of every goal I have because if you really want to see my detailed training plan, it's findable.

I've had the most fun and early measurable success with my puzzle rush goal. (My goals is to improve to 35 puzzles solved in 5 mins within 2 months) I started doing 20+ custom puzzle sessions every morning where I would specifically target a puzzle range of about 500 points difference (1000-1500 for example) and I would try to improve my speed and accuracy and pattern recognition in that zone, then I would play 2-4 rounds of 5 min puzzle rush.

Within just a few days I saw my score at 5min spike up to a new high of 31 puzzles solved... now was that repeatable? No not yet, but I've started to see an ability to see patterns more easily and the speed at which I get through the first 10 to 20 puzzles has definitely improved... so then I "cycle up" to puzzles in the 1300-1800 range and continue the process and sometimes I'll see myself messing up on puzzles rated before that range, but then cycle back again and fix the holes. Overall, I can sense my improvement, I can regularly get into the 20's much more easily so my repeatable scores are encouraging. 

My other goals? Well, I'm less excited about them and spending less time than I intended so far and I don't think I have much tangible to report now.  Endgame drills I've tried I think 4x in 3 weeks and while I did improve a bit measurably, it's not much to write about.  Book and lesson study has also tapered off as I've slid into doing more puzzle goals, but I was closer to staying on the course with those with good following of my daily goals for the first 2 weeks. I try to apply what I learn, but cannot report anything tangible yet of signs of improvement there... it's very early in the process anyway.

The puzzles have taken over a bit so I'll have to prioritize my other long term training activities first and stop doing puzzles first thing in the morning. I have many a wonderful book from forwardchess and I do go through them, but I'll need to double/quadruple my time on the books from what I've been doing. 

The puzzles have been great for changing my mindset to looking for immediate attacking moves more easily, but I've noticed some maybe bad habits coming from this too. Sometimes the quiet developing move is still the best, even if you see a tactic that can win an exchange for example. Winning an exchange while being behind in development, allowing a big attack, and defending is not my happy place. 

This example is still the best kind of tactic, in my opinion... a tactic that allows a positional improvement, while still threatening an immediate win if they miss it. Here's a position from Zukortort and Steinitz from back in the day. 

White to move. Black has just moved his Queen. Can you see a tactic to create some counter play on the queenside? Let me know your thoughts and I'll post an answer reply in the comments.