Forum

Week 1, day 1. Current stats: blitz 1113 rapid 1331 daily 1385 puzzles 1929 I've been playing chess for 7 months now, before that I only knew how to move the pieces. Besides Yusupov 1, I'll also add Silman's Endgame Course and Smith/Tikkanen's Woodpecker Method. Let's see how it goes.

Week 1 , Day 0: Blitz Rating 497 Rapid Rating 1066 Daily Rating 1360 Puzzle Rating 1463

There are 5 endgames listed in the novice study plan. The first one is "King and Two Queens vs King". Should it be "King and Two Bishop" instead? Thank you in advance.

My Background: (Short version) - 38 year old adult who only learned the game 2 years ago, but is absolutely obsessed. - Blitz rating ~ 1200 (Chess.com) - Blitz rating ~ 1500 (Lichess.com) My Background (LONG version) I am 39 years old and am a father of two children, a husband to my beautiful better half, and a high school science teacher of physics and astronomy. Interestingly, I only learned the game of chess for the first time around 2.5 years ago. As a child, I was discouraged from playing chess by family who said that it was a game "only for geniuses." As a result of this double insult (insult 1 = chess is only for geniuses; insult #2 = I am not smart enough for it), I never had any interest in chess until I was in my mid 30's. But when I did, I caught the chess bug HARD! In that 2.5 years, I've logged up more than 20k blitz games (3 min, 0s) and, as you might expect from a total beginner, I've also picked up a TON of bad habits. However, I've managed to hold a 1500 Blitz rating (Lichess.com), which I suppose isn't too bad. Before the pandemic I had also played in 3 USCF rated tournaments, playing a total of 9 rated games. Those 9 games took place barely a year into my chess journey, and my results were about as great as one would expect for an adult learner of the game: 1 win, 1 draw, and 7 losses. Around the 1-year mark into my chess journey, I began to take the game much more seriously; I purchased countless numbers of books on openings, on middlegame strategy, tactics, and endgames. Guess how many of those I've completed, or even read through half of? In truth, the answer could be counted by a person with no fingers because the answer is zero. Classic beginner mistake, of course. In addition to books, I've also bought lots of video courses, interactive chess training courses (through Chessable), and many more and have spent countless, unstructured hours, on parts of each. One thing I noticed quickly while studying opening books in particular is that the best / main lines I was studying in these books were almost never encountered in my own games. The reason, of course, is that at my level, my opponents do not know theory and just play chess. Some of those games I win, some I lose. But I can tell you that studying those books, and in particular, dedicating countless hours to memorizing specific mainlines, did not at all contribute in any way to those wins or losses because I never played them. This got me to thinking. What if I generated my OWN repertoire based not on the games of experts, but based on games of players of similar strength (and slightly above)? Then, I can focus on tactics that come up in openings that I actually play and will experience! And so around 2 months ago, I downloaded every single LiChess game that was played in 2019 (by anyone) over a 6 month period (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, and Jun). Then, I uploaded that (ENORMOUS) database into ChessBase and saved only the games that were 1400 - 1800 (in my rating neighborhood). I then made this new database, containing millions of games, my Chessbase "reference database." Now, I felt prepared to start creating a repertoire because now I knew how opponents at my rating would most likely (statistically) respond. The next step was to figure out what openings I wanted to explore. After reflecting on my past opening experiences, and my desire for certain positions, I decided on the following. With the white pieces, I play a Reti system setup, usually playing, in some order, Nf3, c4, g3, Bg2, 0-0. Against 1. d4, I am going for ...Nf6 followed immediately by c5 in most cases (Delayed Benoni systems are my current love). Against 1. e4, I am going for a Hyperaccelerated Dragon with a twist--I do not always play cxd4 immediately. Sometimes I will, other times, not. Even though I feel I have a general plan, I lack overall guidance or knowledge on how to actually go about creating lines in this repertoire. Questions which I cannot currently answer are: How many lines to create? How to select then? How deep to go in each variation? How to annotate my moves? And many others. This is where I'm hoping external guidance / support can assist me. And, because I'm a teacher, I often use analogies to communicate complicated physics to my students, so I'll use an analogy now to describe my current situation: When I began my chess journey, I felt like I was on a giant ship, aimlessly sailing the ocean, with dense, thick fog obscuring my view of any land. Right now, the fog is beginning to fade, and I can begin to make out land off in the distance. I know that's where I want to go, but I'm not quite sure how to steer the ship there and I'm hoping others can provide some insight and guidance. And, yes, I know studying openings at my level is NOT the best use of time; and I agree. My aim is much more modest: to create an opening repertoire that is only 7-8 moves deep, and for which I can generate (and test!) various plans and tactics. I want to study tactics that are likely to come up in my own games. It may seem strange to post about my desire to create an opening repertoire in a post where I'm now committing to a concrete study plan which does not prioritize openings. That's OK--I will only do my "opening" fun during the extra credit times, should that become available. I'm really hoping that by going through this intermediate planning program, that my tactical, and perhaps positional, skills will be enhanced and I'll more easily continue working on my own repertoire.

Week 1, day 1. Pre-week 1 stats: blitz 1458 rapid 1348 (probably slight underrated) daily 800 (no finished games) puzzles 1956 FIDE standard 1680 To the standard plan I added about 1 hour more: 1- A book reading session of 40 minutes (every day switching between Yusupov, move by move series and De la Villa endgame book). 2- A 20 minutes session of chessable/chesstempo exercises (to improve opening and calculation ability). Moreover, due that in the past I was too focused in studying opening lines, I decided to limit the amount of time dedicated to opening theory. Let's see how much I can improve.

Week 1 Day 1 (11-17-20) Ratings: -Blitz: 1025 -Rapid: 1074 -Daily: 546 -Puzzle: 1504 Week 1 Day 1 Rapid Game: https://www.chess.com/live/game/5761134532 Two Positives: I was losing in the middle game but was able to capitalize on some mistakes my opponent made to come away with win. 0 Blunders, I didn't make any moves that outright lost me the game. Constructive: I need to utilize my time more, I don't think I ever went below 10 minutes. At one point (Move 18) I had an opportunity to win a piece but missed it. I'm sure I would've seen this had I spent more time on the move. My rook +King vs King endgame needs a little work. I was able to pull it off but didn't make optimal moves. Puzzles: Got 3 out of 5 right, the other two I needed the hint to solve. Daily Games: Just getting started, nothing to report yet. Week 1 Day 2 Rapid Game: https://www.chess.com/live/game/5768353766 Two Positives: I feel like my opening was solid. A few of the moves i was unsure of ended up being considered the best when analyzed afterwards. Constructive: Still need to work using more time. I made a huge blunder that would've lost me the game had my opponent seen it, and I didn't realize until I analyzed afterwards. Puzzles: got 6/10 on my first try. One of the ones I missed was a simple mate in 2, I have issues with tunnel vision on one part of the board and not taking in the whole picture once I'm fixated on trying to make something work. Daily games: Won 3 so far, haven't lost any.

Blitz 1483 Probably about right Rapid 1731 probably slightly over-rated Daily 1556 underrated from timeouts Tactics 2332 about on par (for chess.com tactics, that's all) USCF 1530 I feel it's underrated for legit reason that I'll spare you from. Could only play one 15|10 game tonight but here it is. Final thoughts, my 6 month break from chess is showing and my transition to the endgame was my weakness in this game.

Ready steady go!

Week 1 Ratings Blitz - 657 Rapid - 981 Daily - 944 Puzzles - 1309 FIDE standard N/A Looking forward to it!

Ratings before starting Puzzles 1103 Blitz 876 Rapid 925 Daily 833 First week - Rapid 5 Puzzles per day => 1165 (+62) 6 15|10 games => 4W 2L 939 (+14) 7 daily games with a result => 5W 1D 1L 1107 (+274) [high Glicko RD] The 15|10 and daily games are really helping me out on trying to always find the best move. I usually played 10|0 and kinda rushed my moves with intuition. I intend to follow the plan and try to analyze opening lines I struggled with the most during the week on day 7.

Week 1. Pre-course stats: Rapid 1565Puzzles 1753Blitz 1330Puzzle Rush 19

So at some point last year I learned about the Yusopov series and since I determined a long time ago that my progress would have to come without a coach since I didn't have the extra money for one. I purchased the series with the intention of going through every book following the instructions Yusopov stated to a tee. Then Covid happened and I left chess for about 6 months due to re-prioritizing my life. Then I caught wind of the Netflix series "Queens Pawn" and I binge watched that. It reminded me how much I love chess. So I have decided before I get back on my path with the Yusopov series, I am going to read a couple books by Heisman since I think learning to annotate well is essential and along with Silman, I think Heisman is a great author. When I was all out training before covid, my mistake was to try and get through as much material as possible while playing my once per week slow games, making sure to fully annotate/analyze that game, discuss the game with my opponent before our next game, and be sure to get my daily tactics in. It was too much for my schedule which is already extremely full with full time work, going to school at night for BSEE, and still leaving time for my family which includes my children's sports. After watching the netflix series, I realized how much I missed chess but with everything else going on, I can't put such a chess load on my plate. So my revised study plan is as follows and I'm not going to worry how long it takes me to do this:. Daily tactics, so important. Slowly read through whatever book I'm working on and my order is as follows: 1. Heisman the improving annotator, for the reasons I mentioned earlier. 2. Heisman The worlds most instructive amateur game book. I'm reading this because I think it falls in the same category of Silman's Amateur Mind which was a great book. 3. Heisman The Improving chess thinker. The reason for the book third is with the idea of finding my thinking deficiencies from looking at a few positions and comparing my thoughts with players from every rating up to IM. 4. Then I'm going back to the Yusopov series which I left off on the second book. I may stop with after the orange series and finish Silman's Reassess your chess which I need to finish at some point. Every now and then play a slow game with my friend who is of similar strength to me, annotate the game when I can, and not to play again until after we've tore this game apart (no engine assistance at all) and compared our analysis. After that I'll feed it into my engine to compare our analysis but that is the very last step. The frequency of our slow games depends on when we finish our analysis. I will eventually get back to playing USCF tournaments once we can play in person and will ask my friend to analyze them with me. My current USCF is 1530 I took a hard hit in the last tournament I played in (which was the class B section). My failure was not due to being outplayed in this section but due to my tendency of slacking off when I was ahead which occurred in most of my games. I lost almost every game I had when I left the opening ahead which I think was 5 of 7 games, but I don't remember exactly and I haven't looked at the games recently. I ended up with a score of 1/7, ouch! I was proud of myself for continuing on even though I was playing so poorly. I'm still trying to not worry about my rating while I'm focusing on improvement. I might play a blitz game or two every now and again just for quick fun and to see how I'm doing with my openings and simple tactical vision. By the way, I really like what this group is all about and I think @SmarterChess is on the right path for the most effective chess improvement based on studies that have been performed along with some other factors. I think his study plan is especially helpful for the dedicated adult learner who also has a life outside chess. Your hard work is appreciated!

Hello, I am on the first day of the intermediate study plan. I will update this as I go along. --- Tom

Week 1 Day 11084 Blitz 1181 Rapid 1613 Puzzles BEGINNER study plan. Kinda aiming for 200 points gain in each rating category.I'm confident (mostly) with my openings. I usually don't blunder anything major there, sometimes a pawn, or a minor piece but It's really the middle and endgames I think I need to improve on the most.

Hi I will start my "Intermediate-Study-Plan" tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing what it brings, in addition to some fun chess. I've mostly played OTB chess and daily chess, but with the crazy times we live in, I think online fast and blitz chess might have a chance, to get the little grey cells rolling... My fast rating is 1342, blitz 1541 and daily 1734. /Dennis

Hey Matt! I'm in the process of knocking the rust off after being away from chess for almost 5 years. I'm confident that I'm in a position to be able to devote the time and energy needed to make meaningful improvement. I'm not sure if you recall, but we actually had a few coaching sessions together back in 2014 before other commitments pulled me away. I was considering engaging a coach again when I found your Study Plans. I decided to buy Novice-Intermediate with the expectation that I'll need the others as I make progress. I began the novice plan yesterday and expect to follow it to the letter with one addition. I'm also working my way through Susan Polgar's 'Learn Chess the Right Way' series in the evenings and am really enjoying it. Thanks for the providing this fantastic resource. I may also reach out to get some additional help with my plans one-on-one.

I am starting day 1 of week 1. Today will be -Daily Games: I didn't start 2 new daily games as I already have a few -5 puzzles: Will do as soon a I am done with this note -2 rapid 15+10 games: Will play these after lunch -analyze rapid games: Will do after games

So I've started with the free beginner plan and it appears I'm getting worse. I'm trying to toss out everything I know about Chess, the Opening, some mating patterns etc. and just go with a simple 1. e4 or 1. ... d6 but my rating is going down. Has anybody else experienced this when just starting out on the learning plans? It's a bit frustrating, to say the least. I also find it odd when you're playing a similar rated player and they are hitting 97-99% accuracy. Maybe I'm just reading into my own deficiencies too much, but I'm lucky if I hit 70% in my games with friends. -D

Games: Chess.com 2-3 hours Rapid 1-2 of 15|10 Blitz 5 of 5 Minute Daily Games: spend at least 5 minutes per move calculating Chessable - about 1 hour Sicilian study London Study Endgame and mates Books about 1 hour Silman endgame course Make progress through Part 1 Reassess your chess Progress through part 1 Tactics 30 minutes At least 5 Puzzle rush aim for high and fast

Week 1 Day 1 I've got 5 daily games rolling. I did the 5 puzzles and actually managed to pull my rating up a bit (10 points). I did 1 15+10 game today and while I messed up the endgame, I did learn from that! While I have played chess my whole life, I haven't ever really gotten good at it, or played it regularly, so hopefully this program changes that!