ArielTzentner's Novice Study Plan

“I’m back.”

After a two-week hiatus, I concluded that a still love chess, really want to improve and need a structure of sorts, but with a few tweaks. During this time, among other things I read portions of “The Guide to Chess Improvement: The Best of Novice Nook” by Dan Heisman and it suggested a study plan with very similar components to this plan, the minor difference being a rebalance of chess games time control: 90% slow games (30 minute games and slower), and 10% fast games. This is very comforting for me, as I tend to stress out in blitz games and commit serious mistakes due to time trouble, and I want to improve my chess thinking while playing slow games. 
Therefore, with great joy it is that I resume the study plan, aiming to finish what I started with a bang! 💥

Stats update

I played a few OTB and online games during the last two weeks, and practiced a huge chunk of puzzles:

Rapid: 864 ➡️ 890 (after winning a 30+0 game)

Puzzles: 1152 ➡️ 1446 (after reaching 1500 this week)

Plan structure

From now on, I’m changing the game style a little bit - I will play 1 slow “classical” game every Sunday and Thursday, and on Tuesdays I alternate between a rapid game (15+10) and a classical game (30+0). For the remainder of the plan I will not play dedicated blitz games, since I really want to focus on improving my thought process. 
Today is Friday, exactly two weeks after I suspended the plan - a perfect day to resume day 6 of week 9!

Week 9 - Day 6

Daily -

Puzzles -

• Total: 5/10
• Rating: 1446 (was 1441 at start of day)

Logical Chess Move by Move
Game 24 - Takeaways

• A truly beautiful game played by Capablanca, one of the best to ever do it!
• Positional chess may have an advantage over aggressive tactical chess, if played correctly and with patience
• Always look to put pieces on good active squares where they can exert their influence on the enemy camp
• Don’t look for early attacks in the first ten moves if haven’t completed development
• If attacked early, repel with efficiency- try to develop with threats or while dodging threats

Note: I try to make my future posts readable in Dark Mode, after copy/paste straight from iPhone Notes caused the posts (since about week 2) to be in black font with no option to change to default.

yesssss glad to have you back!

I was wondering why the dark mode thing happened to some posts. Any idea?

It was actually in all of them since roughly week 2, probably because the copy from the notes app here caused the formatting to stay identical (font size, colors etc.) - lazy me - but today an intermediate copy to notepad on my computer solved the problem.
Also, good to be back 😁

Good tip on the intermediate copy to notepad! Let's gooo!!

Week 9 - Day 7
Daily - 👍

• Won one game of the ChessGoals tournament by checkmate!
• Link: davidmeese vs ArielTzentner - https://www.chess.com/daily/game/326872890

Positives

• Good game, attacking throughout most of it, implementing pins and maintaining the pressure

Improvements

• Missed fairly obvious double attacks that could’ve won pieces - his queen most of the time
• Should’ve taken the pinned knight 3-4 moves in a row- a double attack as well

Puzzles - 👍

• Total: 3/5
• Rating: 1455

Lessons - 👍

• Think Like a Chess Player - Forcing Moves: Queen Sacrifices, Saving Draws
• Think Like a Chess Player - Reading the Board: Pawn Structures, Pawn Chains

Endgames - 👍

• Two rooks mate
• Queen mate
• Rook mate
• Winning king and pawn
• Drawn king and pawn

Openings - 👍

• E6-B6 New York Style - GothamChess openings course for Black
• Learned chapter 1 - e4/d4 2 knights
• Played 1 5+5 blitz game to practice the concepts
• Lost by checkmate...

Positives

• Followed the right opening moves right until move 6
• Looked for good moves to attack, forked bishop and knight in the center

Improvements

• Blundered into a mate in 1 after I was sure this was a forced mate in 2...
• The main idea of taking the pinned knight in this opening is to win the pawn on e5! And I missed it

Week 10 - Day 1

Daily- 👍

Puzzles- 👍

• Total: 5/10
• Rating: 1465
• started 0/5 in the app (which became unplayable after an update), then switched to the website, took my time and scored 5/5!

Classical- 👍

Game 1

• Recap: Won by checkmate, really stupid game
• Link: https://www.chess.com/game/live/14905087933

Positives

• Developed my pieces while my opponent was doing stupid stuff in the opening (a5, a4, f6, g5)
• Kept looking for ways to checkmate

Improvements

• Blundered my queen away after a "sure mate" premove - never premove in a classical game! He made the only move that avoids mate and loses my queen
• Even though my opponent makes some silly stuff in the opening, don't be greedy - develop the entire army and launch a sure-fire attack!
• Don't forget the checklist - checks, captures, attacks!

Game 2 - I wanted to play another game, more meaningful one but my second opponent resigned after two moves...

Game 3

• Recap: Won by checkmate!
• Link: https://www.chess.com/game/live/14908673433

Positives

• Kept developing incrementally, trying to move pieces to good squares and improve my position
• Made a bishop trade that caused a royal fork that won the queen!
• Kept looking for checks, captures, attacks

Improvements

• Missed a pin of the knight to the rook, and missed a skewer on that same diagonal - I'm having trouble seeing diagonally
• Only hung a pawn, most of my pieces captures were equal trades

Week 10 - Day 2

Daily- 👍

Puzzles- 👍

• Total: 4/5
• Rating: 1495

Logical Chess Move By Move
Game 25 - Takeaways

• Develop patiently! White took 13 moves to develop his pieces completely organize his camp before launching an attack
• Exchanges help relieve a cramped position
• Don’t attack without your whole army supporting the attacked side! White only threatened an attack on the kingside and slowly but surely moved his whole army (even pawns!) to support the attack

Week 10 - Day 3

Daily- 👍

Puzzles- 👍

• Total: 7/10
• Rating: 1529

Classical- 👍

• Recap: lost by resignation (was low on time in a losing position)
• Link: https://www.chess.com/game/live/15083894731

Positives

• Felt quite comfortable in the opening
• I had a lead in the middlegame

Improvements

• Nc6 is not the right place for the knight in my king’s Indian setup and in queen's pawn openings in general, d7 is better
• Some one-move miscalculations cost me pieces
• I had a terrible mouse slip blunder with retreating the queen that cost me the lead and tons of time in retreat...
• This is not checkers - I don’t have to take all time!
• Forgot to look for checks-captures-attacks some time during the game - I have to do this every move! Always look to be aggressive
• I’m getting into time trouble more often that not, and I’m not spending it very wisely

Week 10 - Day 4
Daily - 👍

• Resigned the second game to Jesse in the ChessGoals daily tournament
• Link: https://www.chess.com/daily/game/326542156

Positives

• Didn’t play as terribly as I thought- 83% accuracy! (but 97% by Jesse)

Improvements

• Look to trade pieces if it improves my position

Puzzles - 👍

• Total: 7/10
• Rating: 1553

Logical Chess Move By Move

Game 26 - Takeaways

• A better strategy is to capture with a pawn towards the center
• Major exchanges in the middle-game brings about the endgame faster than usual - and hints at king mobility! Castling is aborted altogether when there are few pieces in the game
• Exploit the opponent’s weaknesses gradually and incrementally - here the dark squares became a liability in Black’s camp that White slowly takes advantage of - almost 30 “endgame” moves!

Week 10 - Day 5

Daily- 👍

Puzzles- 👍

• Total: 7/15
• Rating: 1517

Classical- 👍

• Recap: Lost by resignation after being low on time on a lost endgame
• Link: https://www.chess.com/game/live/15249802127

Positives

• Had a lead most of the game, incrementally improved my position
• Played very well until move 18

Improvements

• Blundered a rook where I could've taken his rook!
• Moved a pawn to attack a knight where he could've forked my queen and rook with it!

Week 10 - Day 6

Daily- 👍

Puzzles- 👍

• Total: 8/15
• Rating: 1502

Logical Chess Move By Move

Game 27 - Takeaways

• It’s important to develop the rooks, either to open files, ones likely to be opened, and towards the center
• Once a winning combination is found, stick with it and don’t stress for earlier victory
• Overload a defending piece on the opponent’s camp, it will become the weakest link of the defense
• Mobility is crucial for winning the game, usually the side that has more mobile pieces is the one to emerge victorious

Week 10 - Day 7

Daily- 👍

Puzzles- 👍

• Total: 11/15
• Rating: 1542

Endgames- 👍

• King and pawn opposition
• Queen mate (indirectly)

Openings- 👍

• Realized I’m still a novice and I should stop trying to memorize openings , and just stick to the basics and play the basic stuff (Giuoco Piano, King’s Indian, London System etc.)

Looking good! Your opening realization is going to help you stay on track with the other tasks.

Week 11 - Day 1

Daily- 👍

Puzzles- 👍

• Total: 8/15
• Rating: 1562

Classical- 👍

• Participated in the ChessGoals May Classical matches
• Recap: Resigned in a losing position
• Link: https://www.chess.com/live/game/15528786317

Positives

• No major blunders, only 1 mistake and 3 inaccuracies, for a total of 71% accuracy (vs 96% by coriollis)
• Developed steadily while trying to keep everything defended

Improvements

• Look for solid defense of the center pawns, maybe push or take in the center to create pawn breaks

Week 11 - Day 2

Daily- 👍

Puzzles- 👍

• Total: 8/15
• Rating: 1554

Logical Chess Move By Move

Game 28 - Takeaways

• Immediate attacks on the opponent without completing development are doomed to fail
• The best thing against opening attacks are defending with development, and ideally with threats too
• Don’t get the queen out too early! Almost never a good idea
• When ahead, trade pieces for a simpler game and relatively easier endgame
• In endgames, try to keep the marching pawns together in a chain to defend each other

Week 11 - Day 3

Daily- 👍

Puzzles- 👍

• Total: 7/15
• Rating: 1504

Rapid- 👍

• Recap: Played unrated against my usual friend
• Recap: Won after he resigned following a couple of blunders (by both of us)
• Link: https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/15704648529

Positives

• Played the Giuoco Piano quite well until move 10, gained a nice advantage out of the opening

Improvements

• Ng5 is very often a bad idea, if the other knight is not on f6
• Try not to put the queen and the king in the same line (file/diagonal)

Week 11 - Day 4

Daily- 👍

Puzzles- 👍

• Total: 7/15
• Rating: 1473

Logical Chess Move By Move

Game 29 - Takeaways

• Don’t try to set traps in the opening
• Pinned pieces cannot only just move, they can’t defend as well!!

Yep. When I was reviewing that game, that's what I saw immediately when you took on e4. It's common trap once your opponent has castled. However, even without the queen, it looks like you were able to get into a good position so nice recovery!