Beakdoc's Beginner Study Plan

Hello All,

I am beginning the ChessGoals Beginner Plan.  I have already completed a few days of it and will post the results as soon as I finish out week 1. I play primarily on chess.com and will be using the Daily Games feature and am trying to get up to speed on the analysis features, etc. in the chess.com functionality that I was oblivious to. I would like to use them to analyze and annotate my games. Here are my starting ratings for this course:

   chess.com Blitz 900

   chess.com rapid 1139

I also have been doing a lot of puzzles and have a puzzle rating around 1930. I have been floating around in the 1900-2000 zone for a while and am trying to get more consistent.

Looking forward to your updates!

best of luck! 

Week 1: September 21 - 27

No Blitz this week, it's a Rapid game week.

Daily Rating from 1000(first-ever game rating) to 1162.  I suppose there is a lot of hysteresis in the calculation when one starts out .I played a 1010 rated player and gained 162 pts?! 1 game has finished, others still going.

Rapid Rating: 1139 -> 1102  delta: -37.  I play 15+10

Puzzles: 1923 -> 1942   delta: +19  ave success: 66% I prefer to be near 75%, but it's been a strange week. I have pretty severe tunnel vision now and then and this week it has been pretty bad.

Game Analysis.

  I am using a quick and dirty pareto chart to see what sort of mistakes I commonly make. MadLuc shared his with me and I am thinking about modifications for mine. (Shout out to MadLuc - he is a very helpful guy quick to jump in and answer my noob questions) The trick seems to be keeping enough data to see specific categories of thought that lead to mistakes and being able to see the overall trends to help figure out where the big work should go. This balance appears to be skill level dependent and perhaps personal learning style dependent. It also takes time out of the day from playing chess. So many balls to balance... . Here is my chart for this week:

Positive notes: I am seeing more Best Moves in the post game analyses. I am using the Moments feature of chess.com, then annotate the game and save in a library collection.

Week 2 - Blitz 5/5 Week

Blitz     897      -3

The 5 min time control is hard for me. I got up to 940, but then had multiple losses with lack of time being a major factor - losing due to running out or rushing at the end.

Daily Games.   1017        -145

Despite the losses, I love this format. I noticed that I am considering more implications before moving than before and this appears to be seeping into my blitz. 

Puzzles:   2055.   +113.  81% success rate

This improvement looks better than it is. I am always way over the expected solving time. This is in part to switching from Puzzle Rush to Rated Puzzles because I was doing an abysmal job of completing my calculations. This habit has been permeating all my chess games. It was further reinforced by succumbing to the rush of 1 minute bullet marathons. So more bullet for quite a while. I have added back in a bit of Puzzle Rush in order to help speed my decisions up.

Pluses: 1) better consideration of opponent's reply moves  2) deeper considerations choosing candidate moves.

Improvement Priorities: Clearer and faster calculation, pay more attention to attacks and how fast or slow they are.

I am travelling for 2 weeks and will not be able to get my games in. I will be working on puzzles and trying out the Woodpecker psttern recogniton technique. 

Edit: no more bullet for a while. I hate typing on my phone.

81% success is amazing. IMO it doesn't matter if you go over the time, accuracy is key and speed will come.  Great job!

Mon. October 18, 2021

   I was gone the last 2 weeks and did not have access to chess.com except through cell service now and then, so I worked tactics problems in books each day, read the Silman sections, and read some of the Seirawan Winning Chess Openings.  I am not quit sure how to effectively use the Seirawan book - he goes through more openings than I can digest in several years. I suppose I could start playing his suggestions in the last chapters, but not sure that is the idea.

  This week I am continuing with my Beginner plan, week 3. So my 12 week course will take 14 weeks of time, but that seems like the best way to continue.

Week 3 - Rapid    October 18-24

Daily Rating:  1131 +55 from last week

Rapid 15/10:  1142 +14 from last week

Puzzles:           2068 +25,   57% accuracy.

Daily rating is all over the map. I like the time to think, but still lost some games. The rating on daily has huge hysteresis. Most of my opponents have been below my rating, in the high 9's. Interesting games though. Several openings/defenses I have never played against, so they were good for learning something new and seeing different ideas. One opponent played a Czech Benoni, but timed out just when it got interesting.  It was very interesting trying to fathom what to do in such an apparently cramped position. I lost a few tempi messing around trying to figure out where I wanted my dark sqr Bish and was about to try a kingside break when my opponent went off the radar.  I also ran into my first English opening and messed up a calculation which kept me on the back foot the rest of the game. I lost that one.  Several of the games were not won by, but lost by my opponents who had pretty good positions, but then chose a howler blunder for a move. I guess I'll still take the wins...

Rapid went pretty well, though I had a couple of days where I am surprised I was not walking into walls based on my profoundly poor vision of what was happening on the board. I missed really basic things like a checks forking another piece, etc. Frustrating. I have been playing some Puzzle Rush trying to speed up, but think I will go back to only working puzzles without regard for the time. My puzzle accuracy diminished this week as well. I think that I will leave the intuitive move stuff for blitz weeks.

Puzzles: Still moving up, but want to get the % correct back up to around 75%.

Positives:

1. Getting a fair number of Best Moves in the analyses, so I am doing something right.

2. Learned some new concepts while playing against the Czeck Benoni and English. It was refreshing to get into some different structures and learn a bit more about what may or may not happen.

To Work On:

Vision. Look at the entire board, follow the adage "If you see a good move, look for a better one." This is my biggest weakness. I seem to go into a fog and there appears to be a cycle to it. I come out of it, play better chess, then drop back in. Getting off this roller coaster, or at least evening out the elevation changes would be welcome.

If you ever figure out the fog feeling that seems to last several moves, let me know! I constantly find myself focused on every move, then suddenly go into lala land for a move or three. Sometimes happens more than once in a single game.

MadLuc, are you familiar with a book called "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by David Kahneman?  I believe it sheds light on the problem.  I have tried a couple of things that have helped a bit. One is to play the computer with no time limit with the object of scanning each piece and see what moves it may make. The point is to try to develop a habit of scanning the entire board without the pressure of a real game, not so much to win the game. So far, I have yet to get through a whole game doing that. The other exercise I do is look at each enemy piece and count the number of defenders and attackers. This has had some success for me and more than scanning everything. I think I need to practice it every day though. I have not been doing it for a few weeks and appear to be slipping deeper into bad visual habits again.  It's so hard to look beyond the current crisis or imagined killer tactic. Once we are in the fog, the way out disappears.

Thanks for sharing. I am not familiar with the book, sounds interesting. I like the idea of playing a Bot with the only intention of scanning the board. I am currently doing something similar: I am playing through master games, set up on a board, and on each move and asking: any checks or captures, what is opponents idea, what has changed. And also trying to calculate the best move as I go along. I have been told if you do something similar for 30 days, it should become a habit. Here's hoping!

Hi MadLuc, that sounds like a good idea. I have tried some of that, but often can't figure out why a particular master's move was made, not matter the time I spend on it. Do you know of any collections of games that are well anotated so I can check my work against someone that actually understands what's going on?

I found the Kahneman book very insightful. He got a Nobel prize for applying psychological considerations to economic theory.  Here a classic selective attention test he cites in the opening of his book. It is pretty fun to try to count the right number of passes if you have not seen or heard of the test before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo

I posted another test in a post to dbusse's forum post. They get at the heart of the issue I think we are all trying to improve upon. 

For annotated games, I have a couple of books that are in my openings that I use. Granted, most of my games are out of book between move 2 and 5, but I still go through the books master games to do the above exercises (checking each move, trying to see next move, plans) and every now and then I pick up a nugget I can use. If you can't figure out a master move and the annotation doesn't help, I either: play on and see if the move makes sense several moves later, ask my coach if I feel it is important enough and sometimes, just let it go and hope one day it makes sense. At my level, not understanding move 5 in the book, is not likely to stop me blundering my rook on move 25 because I went into lala land again. 

Here are some annotated games that you might find useful.

http://www.pgnmentor.com/files.html

https://www.angelfire.com/games3/smartbridge/ 

Much appreciated, MadLuc. I'll take a look. Yes, that rook move seems to pop up in my games too. Maybe rooks should be traded off or even sacrificed at the beginning of the game to avoid such problems .

Week 4 - Blitz 5/5    October 25-31

Daily Rating: 1056  -75 from last week

Blitz Rating:    828  -60 from Week 2-Bitz

Rapid 15/10:  -------

Puzzles: 2051  -22 from last week

Brutal week, as the numbers show. Blitz games were characterized at the start of the week by pretty good positions that lost on time, devolving into tunnel vision and/or less accurate calculation, resulting in lost games due to poor play.  Hanging pieces, missed winning moves, etc.  As the week progressed, my inability to see the correct moves and stupid blunders seemed to worsen. I am thinking that 5/5 games are detrimental to my rather fragile ability to remember to look at the whole board, developing a list of candidate moves, and then calculating the results of those candidate moves. I also continued to play some puzzle rush, but that did not seem to help quicker choices. In general, I feel that for my current abilities, the shorter game time just reinforces my well ingrained bad habit of only seeing a small fraction of the position.

  Despite my blitz misgivings, I will continue with the study plan of alternating 5/5 blitz and 15/10 rapid, but change my focus of the blitz from trying to win to trying to play correctly, ie, look at the %$%^$ position. I expect to lose on time, but perhaps the combination of best-of-my-ability blitz play, rapid, and daily will help strengthen my ability to look at the entire position. My hopes are that 1) playing better blitz chess at the start and into the middle game will create better chances towards the end, allowing for faster choices nearer the end of the game and 2) I will eventually speed up by practicing good move choice analysis. It is also good practice to get stomped and try to play the next game with an open and positive mind.

Positive Outcomes This Past Week:

   1. I got a fair number of Best and Great moves. The Great category has been added to the chess.com move quality classifications and is somewhere between Brilliant and Best.

   2. Despite the loss of Puzzles rating, I broke 2100 twice this week. 2100 is kind of fun marker because it moves one into a category where the number of people in it are an order of magnitude smaller than the 2000 category (10s of thousands rather than 100s of thousands). A bit of vanity, but it helps foster a more positive outlook on one's progress.

  3. I can save some time today by copy/pasting last week's "To Work On:" statement.

To Work On:

Vision. Look at the entire board, follow the adage "If you see a good move, look for a better one." This is my biggest weakness. I seem to go into a fog and there appears to be a cycle to it. I come out of it, play better chess, then drop back in. Getting off this roller coaster, or at least evening out the elevation changes would be welcome.

Week 5 - Rapid 15/10   Nov. 1 - 7, 2021

Daily Rating: 1124   + 68 from last week

Blitz Rating:    --------

Rapid 15/10:  1177  +35 from Week 3 - Rapid

Puzzles: 2024  -27 from last week

This week was a good week. I am mostly happy with my games. I consistently drew opponents with significantly higher ratings, winning against players rated 1272, 1255, 1189, and 1140; drawing against a 1279 and 1181, and the only loss to a 1301.  When move decisions got more difficult, I worked on looking at basic development ideas - piece activity, king safety, get all pieces into the game, threats, checks captures - to make a decision. This led to some games that got a bit easier as they progressed because the pieces were working together much better than some of my opponent's. This week at least, making decisions based on basic ideas paid off. Perhaps there is a reason every chess book mentions that list...

  My whole-board vision was also better this week. There is still a long ways to go and although my calculation of moves to consider seems significantly better, it needs work. I still had numerous move replies that I did not consider.  My calculation for multiple step situations is improving, but again, more work is needed.

Puzzles took an unexpected crash. I scored 100% the first and second days of the week, resulting in a new all-time high of 2109. Then I fell off a cliff. One of the days I got 0 right! All the others were 2/5.  A lot of the errors were move order mistakes, but some I just could not see for some reason. I think I will work extra puzzles.

Other work included reviewing some openings that I periodically look at and of course, my daily games. The daily games are going better and help me see more response paths for moves I am considering. I think daily games will always be part of my training. Now if I could just quit thinking about certain positions when I should be getting to sleep.

Positive Outcomes This Past Week:

   1. Using the basic ideas of game play to sift through candidate moves helps reinforce better chess and helps make for better play.  I hope to continue this.

   2. 15/10 seemed like all the time in the world, so my blitz thrashings are most likely useful. So is daily, the other end of the time axis, because it seems to help see things to consider sooner. I think I am playing more creative chess because of daily. There is time to explore ideas that I would reject in a short game in order to avoid time trouble.

To Work On:

Continue to work on whole board vision and consider an opponent's move more carefully.

Week 6 - Blitz 5/5    Nov. 8-14, 2021

Daily Rating: 1142   +18 from last week

Blitz Rating:    858   +30 from last week    W:9  L:5   D:1

Rapid 15/10:  -------

Puzzles:          2032   +8 from last week   65.8% accuracy

Daily games have been interesting. I have run into a few openings that I was not familiar with and plan to study them a bit more. One of them is ongoing, soon to be decided. It is a Nimzo-Larsen opening and has presented some situations that were new to me. Presently in a tricky (at least for me) end game. Please, no suggestions while the game is ongoing.  Many of my inaccuracies and mistakes are the result of miscalculation, or giving up on a potential line by not calculating quite far enough. Since miscalculation seems to be one of my common weaknesses, it may not make sense to worry too much about the deeper calculations. In general, more concrete plans come to mind , which has yielded better results or at least a better fight.

Blitz games have gone better. I Several were lost on time or bad moves in time crunches, although I did much better overall with time management. With the exception of one of the days when I was quite tired, I am playing fewer blunders these days. The blunder that chafes the most occurred in the drawn game. I had a simple M2 checkmate and for some reason decided to move a pawn rather than constrict the completely exposed king on the 8th rank with the queen. The pawn move resulted in stalemate!

Puzzles went better this week, but I still am missing the correct move orders. I am back to working just puzzles - no Puzzle Rush as I tend to get into a reactive mode of playing a move that seems right before analyzing it a bit further to find the fly in the ointment. On the plus side, I am starting to see a number of the basic patterns the puzzles use in my games. This week I employed several forks, discovered attacks on queens with a a check sacrifice, Q,N combo checkmates, and x-rays. I has taken a while to start to see these situations in games. I am starting to see stronger tangible results from my puzzle work.

Positive Outcomes This Past Week:

1. Was more relaxed throughout the blitz games and was more aware of the clock without losing game focus.

2. Plans came to mind sooner and were more concrete. Some of this is based on my reinforcement of sticking to basic principles of getting pieces developed and coordinated.

To Work On:

Continue to work on whole board vision and consider an opponent's move more carefully. Also, more precise calculation for multi move situations. The daily games seem to help a lot with this.

Week 6 Addendum.

I am half way through the Beginner plan.  My rating changes from my beginning ratings are :

                                    Start        Post 6th wk.     delta

   chess.com Blitz:         900              858              -42

   chess.com Rapid:    1139             1177             +38

   chess.com Puzzles:  1934             2032           +108

Overall, I am happy with my progress. My Blitz rating dropped, especially week 4 where it bottomed out at 811.  I think I am playing better Blitz than before I started. My starting rating was based on a lot of 3 minute games in the past which although fun, were basically weird chess with junk moves, strange openings and dirty flag wins. I am playing more principled chess in my 5/5 games. I quit playing Blitz and Bullet near the end of 2020 because it reinforced my reactionary, non-analyzed move tendencies. Hence I am happy with the climb back out of my low point which has been done playing better chess.

Puzzles are generally on the rise, although there has recently been a big slump, taking me from my high of 2109 to 2012. It is good to be rising again. I am making an effort to follow the steps of looking at the position, creating a list of candidate moves based on the position, and then calculating those candidate moves several moves deep for both sides. I am working on not playing a move until I can see a path through to checkmate or a significant piece acquisition.