Ariel Tzentner’s Beginner Study Plan

Marching Forward - New Plan!

After some failed restart attempts, I figured my custom plan was too much for me to stick to, a lot of time to dedicate to the daily tasks, and even though I like spending my time on chess, it felt more like a chore that I couldn't keep up with.

Therefore, I bought the beginner study plan as well, with the hope of finding a better (and easier) structure to stick to, and I found what I'm looking for!

My study plan goals:

• Create a daily chess habit of playing at least one game and solving at least 5 puzzles every day
• Improve my psychological approach to the game and take losses more lightly
• Learn from each game and absorb at least two takeaways to implement in future games

With regard to the last point, I will try to keep an updating list of key takeaways (or types of mistakes causing my losses) to review each week. I remember now @SmarterChess has created a spreadsheet of game analysis a while back, so I might adopt this strategy!

Chess.com created a "Study Plan for Beginners" in which they list the top 10 reasons a chess player loses, as follows:

1. I did not see (or underestimated) my opponent's threat(s).
2. I did not develop/get castled.
3. I ignored a passed pawn that ultimately promoted.
4. I sacrificed prematurely to attack and could not find a checkmate.
5. I got behind on material from bad tactics.
6. I could not stop a mating attack.
7. I did not try my hardest (lack of focus).
8. I played too fast.
9. I took too much time, and eventually I ran out of time or blundered.
10. I did not have any idea how to proceed or find a plan.

I will use these causes to list exactly why I lost in each game, and see if there are recurring patterns.

Today is Sunday, August 1, a great day to start again!

Week 1 - Day 1

Puzzles

• Total: 2/5
• Rating: 1606

Games

• Recap: Won by resignation
• Link: https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/21542381431

Positives

• Opening: starting out with the Stonewall Attack setup, implemented it quite nicely
• Took advantage of my opponent's mistakes and took free pieces

Improvements

• Don't settle for trades! Look for better options - I missed a simple fork that could've won me a rook (and probably the game)

Let's go!!

Best of luck!

Week 1 - Day 2

Puzzles

• Total: 5/5
• Rating: 1649

Games

• Recap: Won by resignation
• Link: https://www.chess.com/game/live/21661251849

Takeaways

1. Take free pieces when they're available
2. Try to develop my forces before I launch an attack
3. When ahead, think hard to thwart any potential counter-play by the opponent
4. When attacking, try to pose as many problems as possible, attack as best as you can

Week 1 - Day 3

Puzzles

• Total: 3/5
• Rating: 1641

Games

• Played OTB vs a friend of mine
• Recap: lost by resignation

Takeaways

1. Develop most (if not all) of the pieces before launching an attack on the castled king
2. Try not to weaken the pawn structure near the king if possible
3. Never counter-attack if it is not thoroughly verified without dangers - better to retreat hanging pieces or defend them if attacked by heavier pieces

Week 1 - Day 4

Games

• Recap: Won by resignation after a very wild game
• Link: https://www.chess.com/game/live/21834039791

Takeaways

1. Never ever resign! Even in a completely losing position, at my levels it is more than possible to persevere and turn things around!
2. Learn a steady opening line against flank stuff
3. Keep my eyes open for my opponent’s blunders - don’t get tunnel vision!
4. Don’t play the opening too fast, and look out for my structure’s weaknesses
5. Pinned defenders are not defending anything!

Puzzles

• Total: 2/5
• Rating: 1618

Week 1 - Day 5

Games

Game 1 (W)

Takeaways

1. Play the opening faster even in doubt, and don’t burn so much time on moves that don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things
2. Not much else to take away, the game ended after less than 10 moves (opponent resigned for some reason)

Game 2 (W)

Takeaways

1. Learn some move orders vs various rare black replies - for example, vs Nc6 refrain from Bd3 and f4 because of an uncomfortable ...Bf5, instead play Nf3 and aim for c4
2. Think twice about one move attacks - is the square safe?
3. Always look for available tactics - by use of checks, captures, threats

Puzzles

• Total: 2/5
• Rating: 1606

Week 1 - Day 6

Games

• Recap: Won by abandonment in a winning position
• Link: Chess: TMKO vs FiftyTzent - 21978000299 - Chess.com

Takeaways

1. Better continuations: Qa6+ instead of a4 and c5
2. In the first move, I needed to see a way to get my knight out of b2 safely by moving the queen with tempo to provide the knight with a safe outlet. In the second move, I should have seen the bishop eyeing the rook through the pawn, and stationing the rook on d3 safely with the queen defending (beautiful move).
3. Thought process principles:
   1. If I guard a square adequately, I can post a piece there without worries
   2. Have an eye for discovered attacks (or double attacks)

Puzzles

• Total: 4/5
• Rating 1634

Week 1 - Day 7

Games

• Recap: Won round 4 of the ChessGoals classical tournament!
• Link: https://www.chess.com/game/live/22094416575

Takeaways

1. Better continuations:
   
   1. Kg7 to prevent Qh6 instead of f5
   2. Qxc3 winning a pawn instead of Nd6
   3. Qc4+ to keep the initiative instead of Nc4 attacking the rook
2. Things I needed to see:
   
   1. I needed to appreciate the fact that the king is a fighting piece, and connecting the rooks here really helps to control the h-file
   2. I needed to be safe my opponent cannot attack me for my greediness
   3. I needed to see the possibility of the queen infiltrating my defense
3. Thought process principles:
   
   1. Think of the king as a fighting piece - it can hold its own sometimes!
   2. Look to take free pieces if counterplay is not really possible
   3. When attacking, keep attacking for as long as possible! Squeeze the opponent into making a mistake that might lead to mate (or severe loss of material) - as happened in the game later!

Puzzles

• Total: 3/5
• Rating: 1658

• Sun +2-1
• Mon +3-2
• Tue +2-1
• Wed +3-1
• Thu +2-4
• Fri +2-2
• 25 games total

• Total: +14-11 (56% win rate)
• White: +7-6 (53.8% win rate)
• Black: +7-5 (58.3% win rate)

The most recurring reasons for my losses:

1. I didn't see (or underestimated) my opponent's threats.
2. I got behind on material from bad tactics.
3. I took too much time, and eventually I ran out of time or blundered.
4. I didn't have an idea how to proceed or find a plan.

Week 2 - Weekend

Puzzles

• Total: 6/10
• Rating: 1753

Classical Game

• Played a ChessGoals rated match vs coriollis
• Recap: Won by resignation

Takeaways

1. Opening: when Bd3 comes, exchange it and develop naturally, the queen can only do so much by herself
2. Tactics: no need to complicate matters - I could have been up a queen - if found a good move, look for a better one!

Notes for upcoming weeks

Again and again I find myself inconsistent with my opening choices, and playing weak players in blitz certainly didn't help, since my beloved London took too long to materialize into an advantage, so I tried different things throughout the week, with mixed results.

After a brief conversation with @Side_show_Bob about said opening, I decided to level up my game and focus on these three openings exclusively:

1. London System - for white
2. Scandinavian Defense - for black vs 1.e4 (initially wanted the Caro-Kann, but I know the Scandinavian better, and I should stop trying to learn new openings every week)
3. Dutch Defense - for black vs all the rest!

I believe this is a very interesting repertoire, and in my upcoming games I will try to incorporate these openings. On to week 3!

Week 3 - Day 1

Puzzles

• Total: 4/5
• Rating: 1772

Games

• Recap: Won by resignation
• Link: blackeyes2011 vs FiftyTzent - https://www.chess.com/live/game/22758054917

Positives

• Opening: Terrific opening play! First game ever with the Dutch Defense (Leningrad variation) executed to near perfection
• Took free pieces when available

Improvements

• Don’t hang pieces! Could have saved my bishop from the sight of his queen

Week 3 - Day 2

Puzzles

• Total: 3/5
• Rating: 1773

Games

• Recap: lost by resignation after a misclick and being low on time
• Link: https://www.chess.com/live/game/22844400883

Positives

• Didn’t hesitate to launch a kingside attack with my London setup

Improvements

• I took too much time on moves! Eventually got to lower than a minute vs my opponent’s 12 minutes, I can’t have that.
• When attacking kingside - don’t lock it up! (It was actually a misclick but I can’t complain) My goal in these positions should be to shred the kingside up
• The correct way to attack the King’s Indian is with h4 rather than g4, and without the knight on c3 obstructing the view of the queen towards the kingside

Week 3 - Day 3

Puzzles

• Total: 4/5
• Rating: 1789

Games

• Recap: lost by resignation after a blunder and being low on time
• Link: https://www.chess.com/game/live/22944678255

Takeaways

• Instead of over-defending, try to incorporate "Danger Levels" - counter-attacking for gains!
• Look for tactics nore than 1 move ahead! I'm lazy thinking in a lot of my games, instead of going deeper in thought and calculations - This is the main thing holding my progress back!

Week 3 - Day 4

Puzzles

• Total: 5/5
• Rating: 1827

Games

• Recap: won by checkmate!
• Link: https://www.chess.com/live/game/23014798851

Takeaways

• Opening: solid handling of the old Benoni
• Good early kingside pawn storm vs the King’s Indian!
• I didn’t want to trade my strong attacking bishop for his passive defensive rook, even though the engine says it’s a mistake
• Don’t throw away pawns for nothing! Count attackers and defenders of each square I want to move pieces to

Week 3 - Day 5

Puzzles

• Total: 2/5
• Rating: 1824

Game

• Recap: Won by resignation in an endgame up a rook
• Link: https://www.chess.com/live/game/23106056011

Takeaways

• Keep playing aggressively with the London, launching kingside pawn storms!
• Look for simpler ways to win! When finding a good move, look for a better one - I had a simple mate in 3 instead of winning a piece in a 7 move sequence!

Week 3 - Day 6

Puzzles

• Total: 4/5
• Rating: 1854
• I need to stop rushing the puzzles, even though I'm certain of the answer, I'm just obsessed with rating gains...

Games

• Recap: Won by checkmate
• Link: https://www.chess.com/live/game/23181029079

Takeaways

• I’ve set my opponent a trap and it worked… it was still an inaccurate move and the best move was leaving me being two pawns down and a complicated position to navigate
• I might still play the London against higher rated opponents, but against my level of competition I would try to switch things up and go back to the basics
• Try not to move pieces around too much before completing development
• Learning from my opponent’s mistake: don’t obsess on winning pawns by intricate exchanges! Look at the bigger picture and try to develop a plan of action for the position

Week 3 - Day 7

Puzzles

• Total: 2/5
• Rating: 1824

Games

• Played my first rated classical game on lichess
• Recap: Won by resignation after a royal fork
• Link: https://lichess.org/ageLNQJo

Takeaways

• Try to keep all pieces defended and pose problems to my opponent - my opponent missed a discovered attack on his rook and hung a king-queen fork as well
• In e4 e5 positions, be alert for "central pawn fork opportunities", supported by the queen, a rook or even another pawn!
• As white in e4-e5 positions, look to maintain the center with pawns if possible and try to march up the board!

Week 4 - Day 1

Daily

• A daily tournament I played in on the “Pirc Defense” has resumed, and I have 3 opponents currently

Puzzles

• Total: 3/5
• Rating: 1819

Games

• Played round 5 of the ChessGoals classical
• Recap: lost by checkmate
• Link: https://www.chess.com/game/live/23391084475

Takeaways

• Before launching an attack on the kingside, make sure the pawns and pieces that are holding the position are safe - the queen can't mate the king alone!
• Look for opponent's captures and try to defend as best as possible