arghasen's journey in chess

W2D2-5:

Rapid Games-  19 11/0/8(+38)

Classical Games- 4 3/1/0(+12)

Puzzles - 65 33/32(+6)

Study- Not much study in this time, just chessable reviews and some basic tactical study.

W3D1:

Was away from the plan for last 10 days. Back on it again now. 

Rapid games: 3 1/1/1 
Half knowledge is dangerous thing, i had recently studied Q+K vs Q+P on 7th rank and incorrectly assumed it was a draw and took it. Was a mate in 4 at that position. 

Puzzles - 8 4/4

Yosupov has been hard to solve for me so I am taking it slow but plan to study it for sometime everyday. In order to compensate I got 1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners and started to solve it. I plan to do it woodpecker style.

W3D2:

Rapid Games: 5  3/0/2(+6)

Puzzles -10 7/3(+16)

Study - The best thing about the premium plan is that @smarterchess is extremely helpful. When I showed him the data about my games and asked for suggestions he immediately suggested looking at Italian master games which is my go to opening as white. One thing that came out of it is I am too afraid to move the pawns in front of my castled king and that leads to extremely bad positions at time as I let the opponent load up my kingside. I am still need to find the right way to play these but the direction has been extremely helpful.

W3D3:

Rapid Games: 1 1/0/0

Didnt get any time to study, need to ensure such days I find some time to do the 5 puzzles at least.

Italian can often lead to nice kingside play for White. If your pawns are on d3 and c3, the b1 knight can head to d2-f1-g3, f3-knight heads to h4, plant a knight on f5, etc.

Yes, this is such a nice concept, I saw a few games where the b1 knight goes into this kind of dance and I was confused what was going on there. This explanation now makes things clear for the Knight on f5 would be monster.

W3D4-5:

Rapid Games: 2 2/0/0(+16) 

New peak rating in classic of 1226.

Classical Game: one 90+30 game played, a solid win for us

https://www.chess.com/game/live/15426741039

 Puzzles- 38 19/19

Study: More study of the italian, trying to look to ways to punish opponents on early deviations of 3.h6 and 3.a6. Also studied a nice game with 3.g6

End of Month Update:

This month was not the best in term of study as I got extremely busy. I will back on the study plan again. Week 4 starts today. 

Tactics 

Bain Book - 6 chapters 81% accuracy

1001 chess exercises for Beginners - 8 chapters 66% accuracy

Chess.com Puzzles- 152/290 (+57)

Games  

Rapid - 140 78/4/58(+107)

Blitz -7 4/0/3 (+0) Not playing blitz this month, a few unrated game here and there

Classical -

30 min games - 7 5/2/1 

90 min games- 3 3/0/0 

Classical games were on chess.com so they are counted in rapid ratings. Results on the 90 minutes games are probably not a true representation as these are from the Dojo classical tournament U1200 section where I missed the first round so I have so far been outrating my opponents by 200 points. 

Classical games have been a huge change in my gameplay as the amount of time to think has been a lot more. When Matt analyzed my first game vs Birdsell his biggest advise was to take more time and that is some golden nuggets in that video.

Argha vs Birdsell

General Study:

Yosupov - 2 chapters, skipped chapter 3 and now on chapter 4. 

Everyone's 2nd chess Book - Completed till chapter 6.

W4D1-4:

Rapid Games - 3 2/0/1 (+8)

Classical Games - 1  Hard fought draw in opposite colored bishops, was 2 pawns up in a Smith Morra gambit Sicilian as white but could not convert. 

Blitz Games - 19 8/0/11(-31) Started playing blitz again after a month long break from blitz. The rustiness was showing with a lot of extremely bad games. 

Puzzles - 36 21/15 (+49) Peak rating in puzzles hit

W4D5:

Rapid Games - 1 lost in 18 moves after blundering in the opening

Blitz Game - 6 3/0/3 

Study - Yosupov Ch 4 15/22 so my first lesson where i did better than barely pass.

Puzzles - 11 9/2 It is amazing that I was stuck at mid 1700s since march and then I reach 1900 in puzzles in 2 days. Think I am finally reaping the benefits of doing 1001 exercises for beginners.

W4D6:

Rapid Games 1 Blundered early, never managed to recover. Lost in 70 moves. Happy with defensive play but the opening I was looking for never came. 

Blitz Games 4 2/0/2(+3) Struggling a lot in blitz after being away from blitz. More practice needed

Puzzles 11 7/4(+13) 

Study No study time today.

W4D7:

1 Rapid Game - Won 

1 Classical Game - Won

Puzzles - 10 7/3(+50) Peak rating now at 1970.

W5D1-3:

Rapid Games: 4 2/0/2 

Blitz Games: 4 3/0/1 (+14)

Study:

1001 Exercises for begineers- Chapter 10 completed

W5D4-6:

Classical Games: 4 2/1/1(+12)

Blitz Games: 12 5/1/6 (+12)

Study: Yosupov Ch5 examples completed.

Puzzles: 172 80/92 (-172) A horrible few days in puzzles, missing almost everything that I tried. Was missing a lot of simple ones by overcomplicating things. 

W6D1:

After a week's break from the plan we are back again from today. With me back working now in office, time for chess would reduce but I hope to be able to stick to the plan of playing games and puzzles atleast. I can probably do more puzzles during the commute.

Played 1 classical 90+30 game, where opponent blundered a bishop early and was unable to recover. 

Puzzles 17 -  11/6 (+10)

W6D2:

Rapid Games : 3 2/0/1 (+18) 1343 New Peak Rating

Puzzles: 24  13/11(+28) 1834

Study: With study taking a backseat as I am back working now, I decided to read logical chess in commute. It is a lot easier to read now as i have better visualization so I dont need to play every move and can follow the diagrams. I had read it first 5 games before I stopped so this should keep me busy for some time. Started from game 1 and plan to read 1 game today.

W6D3:

Rapid Games: 1 Won a crazy game where I went down a rook but the opponent blundered to lose his queen.

Puzzles: 63 31/32  (-21) 1813

Study:  Game 2 of Logical Chess. A few puzzles from 1001 chess exercises for beginners.

W6D4:

Blitz Games: 7 0/1/6 (-58) Absolutely murdered in blitz today, played horrible. Rating at 922 new low since the study plan began.

Puzzles: 12 9/3(+53) 1866 so coming back slowly towards 1900.

Study:  Game 3 of logical chess

W6D5:

Blitz Games- 25 11/2/12 (-18) Continuing to get blasted away in blitz though its better results than yesterday. New low of 904 at the moment but we will come back strong.

Study: Game 4 of logical chess.

W6D6:

Blitz Games - 8 4/0/4 (-1) Beginning to stabilize my blitz rating again. Current 903. 

Rapid Games - 4 2/0/2(+2) Crossing 1350 for the first time.

Study: Openings study this weekend. Analysed the Stafford Gambit in depth as it was causing a lot of problems as white for me. Fairly confident that i have got the traps covered now. 

Basic analysis of the caro-kann mainline. Matt suggested on live stream to look at 3.c5 and i will analyse that tomorrow.

W6D7:

Classical Games: 1  Won the final round of Dojo Classical to win the U1200 section of the tournament with 7/8.

Rapid Games: 2 Both lost

Blitz games: 3 2/0/1 

Puzzles: 21 12/9 (+4) Current Rating 1903

Study: Revised Rook and pawn endgames, especially the Phillador position, that loss against Prestajay hurt