Speed Barrier

One of the pieces of advice that I encountered early on was from Gotham Chess.  He said that if you want to improve, don't spend a lot of time in Bullet or Blitz.  I have tried to heed that advice.  The idea is that if you are playing quickly, long before you can easily and quickly recognize movement patterns, you are just inviting chaos.

Taking that a step further, even when I am playing 15/10 or slower, I find myself moving too quickly with inadequate calculation.  Not all the time, but often enough.  It is far too common an occurrence for me to make a move and immediately see how I have weekend my position.

I am really trying to make a point of taking my time and looking at the entire board.  If you play, I am sure that is obvious to most of you, but I am old in body, new to the game and though I love it, it does not come naturally to me.

Another piece of advice I have received is to not spend too much time on puzzles.  For me however, given that I am working on my speed issue, taking the time to study more complicated puzzles carefully, is definitely helping.  What id does is help me slow down.