Dave Busse's Study Plan

Week 09 Update (12/27/2021 - 1/02/2022)

Sunday night is the end of week 09 in my Study Plan. Did not get as much accomplished as I had hoped. But trying to keep this fun and not turn it into a job.

Ratings & Games

Ignoring ratings for the most part. Won one daily game and started a new one to keep the number of daily games at 5. Only played 1 rapid and two blitz games this week. Won the rapid and one of the blitz. The blitz game I lost by giving away a won position by making a mistake. Did not look at all the moves.

Tactics

Made 1490 rating in puzzles on chess.com this week. Also have been using other tactics resources. At least 5 per day.

Logical Chess Move by Move

Reviewed the games for this week: #’s 22, 23 and 24. I try to guess the moves on these. The commentary on each move keeps me interested in this book.

Extra Credit

None this week.

Endgame Study & Openings

Spent some time on the London opening and some end game tactics.

Takeaways for the week.

1. Nothing really new here.

Next

Starting week 10, on Monday 1/3.

Week 10 Update (1/03/2022 - 1/09/2022)

Sunday night is the end of week 10 in my Study Plan.

Ratings & Games

It’s kind of hard to put a positive spin on this; At the end of week 10 here is how my ratings have gone from the end of week 01.

It would not be so bad after 10 weeks if I was seeing some sort of turn-around, but the current ratings for Blitz and Rapid are pretty much the low values. Strangely enough, the blitz rating change looks like it’s bottomed out, slope on the curve is about zero for the last 2-3 weeks. But the slope on the Rapid ratings is still negative.

In the games this week lost 2 blitz and won 2. Blundered both my rapid games badly. Very stupid mistakes. Ended up just resigning game two in the opening in disgust. Probably should have played it out, but I did analyze it and learned how to handle a particular position. A simple enough idea, but I needed a chess engine to point it out.

Tactics

Made 1500+ rating in puzzles on chess.com this week but then it dropped off some. Also have been using other tactics resources. At least 5 per day.

Logical Chess Move by Move

Reviewed the games for this week: #’s 25, 24 and 25. I try to guess the moves on these. The commentary on each move keeps me interested in this book.

Extra Credit

None this week.

Endgame Study & Openings

Spent some time on the London opening and some end game tactics.

Takeaways for the week.

1. Nothing really new here.

Next

Starting week 11, on Monday 1/10.

Sorry to hear you are struggling. Seems like you’ve been putting the hours and playing consistently. A big part of the plan is to try to learn from each game. I find it hard to do that immediately after the games because I get emotional. If you look back at the past 10 weeks are there any trends in your games? Typical mistakes you are doing (e.g. I’m a much worse defender than attacker, I play badly when low on time, I don’t feel confident in endgames)

@krolth45: Thanks for the support and ideas.  Part of what we are looking at here is my original blitz rating was provisional.  So that drop is just me finding my level in blitz.  I've never been a fan of blitz but have come to understand it's training value, even if it's not much fun from my perspective. I've been saving my games in a database (SCID vs PC) and of late have been analyzing each game pretty carefully and putting my takeaways in the pgn before uploading.  Hope to be able to track trends that way.  You asked about trends; one I have noticed is that I tend to get too focused on my immediate plan and as a result sometimes miss simple tactics.  I understand from watching videos by Bartholomew and Gotham that this is not uncommon at under 1100 or so.  Should get better with practice.   In my case I'm an academic and enjoy chess study. In the past, spent my time studying chess at the expense of practicing chess.  The ChessGoals plans are valuable to me because they explicitly put practice into the plan as tasks you have to complete (unlike many chess books I've read).

Thanks again for your comments.  Hope you are doing well in your plan.

Week 11 Update (1/010/2022 - 1/16/2022)

Sunday night is the end of week 11 in my Study Plan.

Ratings & Games

At the end of week 11 here is how my ratings look in graph form.

I took a hit on Puzzles, Rapid games continue to decline and I’m gaining on Daily games. Blitz has evened out. No significant change in the last few weeks. My initial blitz rating was provisional so this just means I’ve found my level at blitz. Daily games is where I have had the most experience in recent years, so these numbers make some sort of sense.

In the games this week I only played one blitz game and won it. Won a daily game on time. Blundered in both my rapid games this week, which put me in an inferior position I was not able to recover from. Lost both.

Tactics

Lost some ground on chess.com puzzles. Mostly using a puzzles book on Chessable. At least 5 per day. Usually more.

Logical Chess Move by Move

Reviewed the games for this week: #’s 28, 29 and 30. I try to guess the moves on these. The commentary on each move often points out ideas I would have never thought of. Very interesting stuff.

Extra Credit

Took a serious look at how to create takeaways from analysis of games.  Also decided on recording these in the comments of the pgn for the game.  Then upload the games into a SCID vs PC database.  Hope to be able to track these ideas and learn from them that way.

Also started looking at what kind of study plan I want to try after this one.

Endgame Study & Openings

Spent some time on the London opening and some end game tactics.

Takeaways for the week.

1. Critical Takeaway: Basic stuff. Need to scan the board. I get too focused on my plan an don’t notice tactics. I think this is the thing I need to focus on to improve.

2. Critical Takeaway: Study endgames and Openings.

3. Positive Takeaway: I’m not blundering pieces as often.

Next

Starting week 12, on Monday 1/17.

Keeping the takeaways in a database is a good idea. I do something similar! I think focusing on your plan and then missing a basic tactic is super common specially in blitz. Some trainers propose always doing a checklist before making a move (is my move safe? Where they attacking something that I ignored?) . After doing it for a while it starts being second nature. Good luck!

Just had to share this:  I blundered a one move checkmate that I know.  Very simple stuff, but I missed it.  Doggone pawn grabbing reflex! See move 29 and commiserate with me.

Week 12 Update (1/017/2022 - 1/23/2022)

Sunday night is the end of week 12 and the official end of my Novice Study Plan.

Ratings & Games

At the end of week 12 here is how my ratings look in graph form.

What have I learned in this 12 week plan? I’ve gotten better at puzzles and daily chess. I have found my level in blitz and I think in rapid as well. My primary interest is in rapid and classical. Coming into this plan I had not played blitz but I now understand why one wants it as part of their study plan.

In the games this week I only played three rapid games (won one and lost two) and mistook what day I was on and did not do my four blitz. Also played my daily games and won two of those on time. Was in a winning position in only one of them though.

Logical Chess Move by Move

Reviewed the games for this week: #’s 31, 32 and 33. I have finished the book. This is the second time I’ve gone through it and really enjoy Chernev’s writing.

Extra Credit

I’ve loaded all the games I played in this study plan into my SCID vs PC database. That is where I note my games summary and takeaways as comments in the beginning of each game. Spent some time going over those games and others cleaning up the game information, comments etc. Also ran the Engine Annotate feature against all the games. This uses an engine (Stockfish in this case) to score each move in a game as annotation. I can then display a “Score Graph” for a game. This is a bar graph showing the engine score for each move. This makes it really easy to find your mistakes or brilliant moves in a game. Any sharp change in the graph indicates such. Just click on that part of the graph and you are taken to that move in the game window. Any comments can be seen/edited in the Comment Editor window. Kind of similar to what you can do in the Chess.com Game Review and Analysis windows, but stored locally on my laptop. A number of other features as well. I’m also looking at a way to store my opening repertoire (once I have one) in the database.

Endgame Study & Openings

Spent some time on the London opening and some end game tactics in Silman.

Takeaways for the week.

1. Critical Takeaway: I get too focused on my plan an don’t notice tactics. I think this is the thing I need to focus on to improve

2. Critical Takeaway: Study endgames and Openings. Blew a pawn and king endgame because I forgot about establishing opposition.

3. Positive Takeaway: I’m not blundering pieces as often, down to 0-2 in a game.

4. Positive Takeaway: Beginning to see my mistakes when I make them (rather than later in analysis). Now to just avoid them...

Next

I’m finished with this 12 week novice plan. I asked for Matt’s advice for what I should study next given my interests and he suggested the Intermediate Rapid & Classical Plan with some alternatives. I may give chess study a rest next week and then start on the new plan after that.  I'll be back.