Day 13:
Study: Some more work on Phildor Position, learned 1 more line in the Smith-Morra Gambit and a watched a video for playing against the London.
11 blitz games - 5/1/5
I had a few easy games recently, not sure if it was just lucky or is it because my skills have improved.
Days 14-18:
Over the last 5 days. I have made some solid gains. The hard work over the past 4 months have finally shown fruit as we hit the peak ratings in blitz/rapid/puzzles. Here are the results from the last 5 days.
25 blitz games - 17/0/8
12 Rapid games - 6/0/6
Puzzles: 808/2000
Ratings:
Blitz - 1001
Rapid - 1129
Puzzles - 1654
Especially satisfying is the 1000+ blitz rating as I had this as my first point to overhaul before I made further investments into chess. Now it gives me motivation for the future.
Time to get the premium plan and start towards higher goals.
Congrats Argha on hitting the 1000 blitz milestone! I'll email you some info on the study plans right now.
Day 19:
Study: 2 games from Logical Chess.
13 blitz games - 6/0/7 Rating : 981(-20)
1 rapid game - 1/0/0 Rating: 1138(+9)
Puzzles - 891/2000 Rating: 1663( +17)
Day 20:
Got the Intermediate plan yesterday. It will be started from Saturday onwards once the Yusopov Book arrives.
Endgame Manual I will buy in a couple of weeks.
Study: Basic Pawn structures- isolated pawns, passed pawns, connected passed pawns.
5 rapid games - 5/0/0 Rating: 1186(+48)
Puzzles -992/1000 Rating: 1751(+88)
Cumulative Update of Results from 15 Weeks of Study:
Blitz - 371 games - 193/9/169 Rating : 984(+237)
Rapid- 58 games - 32/2/24 Rating :1184(+31)
Puzzles - 3800 positions 54.3% Accuracy Rating- 1726(+936)
Puzzle Rush - Best Score 20 (Survival)
Key Takeaways:
1. When you learn something new, skills improve quickly before you hit a barrier you cant seem to cross. Keep plugging away and then something will click and you will go the next level. In my case I jumped from 747 to 850 in 3 weeks of study and then was stuck there for 2 months. At one point I was thinking it was probably the peak of my Chess ability. Suddenly about 3 weeks ago it started to climb and now I am consistently rated around 960.
2. Dont expect immediate results from a study/video. I watched videos on some opening tricks from famous streamers and when I applied them lost under 15 moves many times. Move orders matter, sometime small changes in positions can have huge impacts. Watch atleast 2-3 videos of the same opening/concept and compare notes. Avoid those win in 10 moves kind of videos.
3. Avoid trying to replicate from Masters doing climbing rating ladders. While what they do is great and instructive., remember that the Master can see the 4 move checkmate in his sleep and we miss that our Queen will be captured if we move there.
4. Learn basic Rook and pawn endgames. GM Ramesh has an extremely good 1hr video on it. That video alone has given me quite a few wins. A ton of games reach these positions after the blunderfest we do in our games. If you have studied the endgame, you will win more often as the opponent will blunder more.
5. Do not resign. Just like we don't see the mate in 1, the opponent also doesn't see that in their turn. I had quite a few games where the opponent resigned and I realized the forced mate only in analysis.
6. Keep doing tactics. For me it took me over 1000 puzzles before I saw a similar idea in my game.
Adult Yosupov Intermediate Plan:
Today marks the beginning of the plan and over the next 12 weeks I will try to learn and improve as much as possible.
Day 0:
Today was about preparing for the plan. I played a ton of games, tried out a lot of fun gambits and interesting games happened. I was looking to create a baseline with my knowledge gained so far so no new studies, puzzles were done today. I end the day on 1000 blitz rating so it is a nice round figure to start the plan.
Targets for the 12 week plan:
Chess.com Blitz Rating of 1100 is what I am targeting at the end of the plan. Also a Rapid Rating of 1300 is something I am looking as an extra bonus.
Puzzles accuracy which is at 54.3% I would like to improve to 60% and also reach 1900 puzzle rating.
I looked at my results in the last 15 weeks and found some stats:
White - 136/6/97
Black - 114/9/119
Improving the ability to draw when behind is a skill that I want to improve on.
W1D1:
Horrible start to the plan.
Rapid Games - 15 4/2/9 (-45) 15|10 is a different beast compared to 10|0, there is a lot more time, think more, take your time don't rush moves.
Puzzles - 70 33/37 (-24) Not too worried here, had a horrible streak in the beginning where I got a few tough ones and at my current skills I would not have been able to solve them with hints as well.
Analysis: Not sure how to do proper analysis, just used the computer analysis like I did before but looked at a few more additional lines in today's analysis.
Key Takeaways:
1. Play slow, take your time. In 15|10 if I make a en prise blunder I cannot improve.
2. In 3 games reached a winning position only to squander it away. Study Endgames today. R+K+3p vs R +4p was a tough one but to draw a won K+P vs K game is not acceptable. Also the Opposite colored bishop with 3 connected passed pawn vs an outside passed pawn should have been won.
Here are two blog posts that could help with game analysis:
https://chessgoals.com/game-analysis/
https://chessgoals.com/nicolas-takeaways/
Thanks @SmarterChess, both links are extremely helpful. Started to analyse my games based on those and also making using the takeaways spreadsheet.
W1D2:
Today was supposed to be blitz day but I decided against it. Playing rapid games and analyzing them seemed a better idea.
Rapid Games: 18 9/0/9(-30)
Puzzles: 63 28/35(-104)
Analysis: All games played today have been tracked in the spreadsheet, for most games did key moments and tried to understand blunders and missed wins. One thing I am following is if I don't understand the engine line after 5 moves I give up for in my game I cant think 5 moves ahead.
Key Takeaways:
1. In Arena tournaments don't worry too much about finishing the game quickly, leads to blunders and I lose anyway. Better to just play normal game.
2. Against weaker opponents don't attack too much, the game matters not the opponents rating.
3. Don't be afraid to take the game into the endgame against stronger opponents, if we are timid we will lose anyway
W1D3:
Rapid Games: 7 5/0/2(+21)
Puzzles: 39 21/18(+30)
Tournament: Daily Rapid Arena on Lichess 3/0/6 Performance Rating: 1688
Analysis: 3 games analysed in depth
https://www.chess.com/a/U5AyhfjU24j7p
https://www.chess.com/a/bcaud6Sz24j7p
https://www.chess.com/a/2Z139sG1k24j7p
Will try and analyse 2 games even on days where it is blitz. All other games key moments analysis will continue.
Study: Finished chapter 3 of Everyone's 2nd Chess book. Chessable learned new lines of the Italian.
W1D4:
Rapid Games: 1/0/0 (+12)
Puzzles: 47 28/19(+83)
Tournament: Daily Blitz Arena on Lichess 4.5/15 Performance Rating: 1534
Our best win against a 1914 rated player, very satisfying win
Study: Reviewed lines on chessable and studied more K+P vs K endgames.
W1D5:
Rapid Games- 3 2/0/1(+2)
Puzzles - 15 8/7(+12)
Analysis - Not much, all games were pretty standard, opponent blundered around move 10-15, and resigned after a few moves. The lost game was a mouseslip on our end and it was a hopeless position afterward.
Study: Reviewed the lines on chessable, Yosupov book bought on chessable and read through the preface/introduction. We start learning it tomorrow. Very excited about it.
W1D6:
Rapid games: 18 7/1/10(-18)
Puzzles: 20 12/8(-3)
Analysis: Only basic analysis of games.
Study: Yosupov Chapter1 examples
End of week 1 update:
Took me a few extra days so this is more like 10 days.
Total Rapid Games- 123 56/4/63(-104)
Blitz games- Not enough blitz games as I was trying to prepare for the Chessgoals team event and didnt want to rush moves.
Study:
Yosupov Ch 1- 11/16
Bain Ch1 - 21/29
Lessons- Studied Kight vs Bishop imbalance
How did you like the knight vs bishop imbalance? It might be my favorite imbalance to play with during games.
it was amazingly instructive, the benefits of the bishop pair blew my mind though I dont know how to use it yet. Stong outposts Knights being great was another concept new to me. The exchanges part was bit hard for me as I don't fully grasp the good vs bad bishop.
Day 12:
Study: Not much study, mainly played games.
20 blitz games - 11/0/9
Puzzles - 754/2000