Benwick's Intermediate Rapid and Classical Plan

Chess.com ratings: 

Bullet 1159

Blitz 1203

Rapid 1377

Daily 2063

Puzzles 2204

Looking to improve to 1700 Rapid and Blitz by cutting out blunders, playing moves less impulsively when pressure is significantly off or on, and improving positional understanding - here goes !

Here we go!!

Good luck! Also, holy rating on Daily batman!  

Thanks! 

Ok so here's my update at end of Week 1 !

A very satisfying week where I feel I learned a lot and really started enjoying playing chess, not just playing "at" chess.  The limited, but regular, number of games meant I focused more on them, like they mattered.

I managed 15 games in total, winning 9 of them:

8 x  5+5's  =  4 wins , 4 losses

2 x 30+0 = 1 win, 1 loss 

4 x 15+10's = 3 wins, 1 loss

1 x 60min = 1 win

I logged any opening deviations from my repetoire for each of them, in two cases learning a new response.  

I also recorded around 16 mistakes for spaced repetition.  I found that most of them were either a) missing a tactic because of focusing on the "heat of the apparent battle" and not keeping my vision high;  or b) liquidating or being too passive when having full control, instead of building further pressure with more pieces.

Finally, I completed Yusupov Book1 Chapter 7 (on Value of the Pieces), which I found challenging as some of the pseudo sacrifices of knights in particular to gain an even bigger advantage did not come naturally to me.

Ratings now    (start of programme in brackets)

Blitz 1207 (1203)

Rapid 1461 (1377)

Daily 2063 (2063)

Puzzles 2204 (2204)

This was my final match of the week, a nice, quick, Alapin win which I was very pleased with :

  https://www.chess.com/live/game/7948995941

Thanks all for your support!  And good luck in your games!

Ben 

Week 2 update

Not a good week from a results perspective, but I least I have plenty of takeaways to learn from.  Played 23 games and only won 9 of them.

Time and again I turned strong positions into collapses by missing counterplay.  The main cause seemed to be focusing far too much on the "heat of the battle" and failing to scan the whole board.  Failure to play at a decent steady pace in the shorter time controls also increased this risk by leaving me short on time and therefore more stresssed even when ahead.

Puzzle work was solid enough, though disappointing to solve the essence of one particularly tough puzzle but again miss that I need to nudge the Queen away first to avoid counterplay via a check - same issue as above.

Ratings (start of programme in brackets)

Blitz 1193 (1203)

Rapid 1384 (1377)

Daily 2063 (2063)

Puzzles 2200 (2204)

Good luck in your own quests!

Ben

Good takeaways, and onto the next week!

Week 3 update

A better week than last week.  I felt more solid in my thinking process in general.  Still made one or two inexcusable unforced errors when well ahead in games, but better than previous two weeks.

Yusupov Chapter 7 on Discovered Attacks was a little easier than previous chapters but very rewarding and eye-opening nice to get a good score ;-).  

This week I was very busy with life in general and only managed one session a day from the plan.  I played ten games, winning five, drawing two and losing three.

Ratings (start of programme in brackets)

Blitz 1212 (1203)

Rapid 1386 (1377)

Classical 1531 (1512)  (Lichess online league matches for my club)

Daily 2063 (2063)

Puzzles 2200 (2204)

My main takeaways from the week were to keep the opponent's threats in proportion (two or three times I gave too much credit and defended against ghosts), and to visualise very carefully the effect of castling if opponent has any forcing checks straight after.

Good luck all, onto Week 4 now.

Ben

Week 4 update

A fair week that started very well, some tiredness later.  I continue to catalogue and label my mistakes for regular review.

Enjoyed picking up endgame studies again and pushed ahead with Silman's course into some Rook and Pawn endings for Class B.  This actually helped me in one of my games later in the week, though I then inexplicably blundered having done all the hard work with the game totally won (probably due to relaxing).  I also made the same mistake in another game, winning a relentless middlegame battle to get a won king and pawn endgame, and then making a rushed, crazy move with my king to throw it away.  Got to keep runing right through the finishing line!

I played 14 games during the week, winning eight and losing six (two from totally won positions).  So I feel reasonable about my play during the week and need to tidy up on the concentration levels.

Biggest takeaway from my more educational mistakes was to never stop looking hard to play actively in defence if losing, like this:

Instead of continously trying to defend the weak squares and lose slowly, Rxe5 hugely equalises and delivers an unexpected uppercut thanks to Be6 follow up.  I even saw the line-up of the Rooks and the idea of Bc6 but had found myself "defending first" while keeping this in mind for later, and in the position above I then played Bg2, capitulating and giving up on the skewer.  More resilience needed to look for one more idea even when nearly on the canvas.   

Ratings (start of programme in brackets)

Blitz 1228 (1203)

Rapid 1387 (1377)

Classical 1531 (1512)  (Lichess online league matches for my club)

Daily 2063 (2063)

Puzzles 2178 (2204)

Good luck all in your journeys, onto Week 5 now.

Ben

Week 5 update

This felt like a decent week.  I played 14 games during the week, winning 8 and drawing 1.  One of the wins was in an online league match for my local club.

I struggled with the exercises in the Yusupov Book 1 Chapter 8, Centralizing the Pieces, taking a full hour over the first three and still getting them wrong.  Decided to revisit that chapter in the next scheduled book slot.

My games were OK in general, keeping better control of the board.  But I am still guilty of lazy thinking, either when ahead or behind, and need to 1) tighten up on looking for forcing responses my opponent may have within variations and 2) methodically evaluate whether these are problematic rather than see ghosts too quickly.

Ratings (start of programme in brackets)

Blitz 1237 (1203)

Rapid 1405 (1377)

Classical 1582 (1512)  (Lichess online league matches for my club)

Daily 2069 (2063)

Puzzles 2178 (2204)

Good luck all in your journeys, onto Week 6 now.

Ben

Week 6 update

A very depressing week of chess.  I had to take some time off due to work and childcare, so spread the study out over two weeks.  But awful results - played 36 games and won just 15 of them, routinely losing via entirely unforced errors when spoiling good or winning positions by not considering extremely basic moves by my opponent (such as simply taking my piece when checking).  I am finding that as the pressure of a match grows to a crescendo, whether I am winning or losing, my vision and clarity of thought can narrow to such a point that I simply cannot see really basic things any more.  Not quite sure what the fix is, as I do not need to "learn" from these moves as moves, rather learn how to handle this phase of the game pyschologically.

That said, there were of course some genuine learnings too - still generally on the theme of finding more active moves in response to threats, and being sure to scan the board more clearly for threats from range.

Ratings (start of the program in brackets)

Blitz 1211 (1203)

Rapid 1388 (1377)

Classical 1564 (1512)  (Lichess online league matches for my club)

Daily 2069 (2063)

Puzzles 2184 (2204)

Onto Week 7 now - main focus being to try to see each stage of the game as equally coolly and rationally.  Staying ahead on time via looking for practical but not perfect moves coming out of the opening will help (given perfect won't be attained anyway all that often!)

Good luck in your games

Ben

I like your week 7 plan. There will always be weeks like week 6, but you're still incorporating new knowledge every day!