ericmittens training journal

Eric,

How do you find the time to do 100 tactics problems daily? Plus 1 chapter from Reassess your chess and several games from McDonald's book?

Easy!

I have absolutely no social life whatsoever.

I dunno, it doesn't take all that much time, I spend most of my evening playing chess when I'm not doing homework. Also I do most of my tactics problems in the morning before class. I guess it's just time management.

Somehow I also find the time to work out 3 days a week and keep my girlfriend content. I'm superman! Also I'm thinking I might start learning the piano soon.

It pays to have no friends. 

Oh and as a minor update I've finished "Reassess your Chess" and have moved on to doing the problems from the Reassess your Chess Workbook. Silman suggests that you write all your solutions down in a notebook as you do them and then go over all the solutions after you've completed the book. I've started with this idea and it's pretty cool. After I finish Neil McDonald's "Giants of Strategy" I think I'll either go through "50 Ways to Win at Chess" by Steve Giddons or "Understanding the King's Indian" by Mikhail Golubev. I haven't decided which yet...probably Giddons.

You Are a Hero!

On a lucky day, I manage 15-30 minutes of tactics problems. 

It helps to not have children too....I suggest getting rid of them. 

What about the wife? Get rid of her too?

Perhaps...maybe just keep her in a box for those rare minutes you're not thinking of chess? 

Every relationship is unique I suppose 

Update:

I've hit something of a slump/wall over the past few months which makes me think I need to reevaluate my training if I am to continue to make progress.

As such I have started using more computer programs like Chessimo and Chess Position Trainer to further develop my pattern recognition. Basically my training these days now includes:

Chess Tactics Server (for tactics)

Chessimo (for the endgame and strategy modules)

Chess Position Trainer (For Openings)

Going over Master Games

Going through "Reassess your Chess Workbook" (This is very slow going because I'm writing all my answers down in a notebook, I do this mostly on weekends when I have more time).

This combined with chess.com/ICC/weekly trips to the club should help me improve more. My goal is to break 1900 OTB by the end of 2010.

Christmas Break Update:

Over the break my goals are to finish Silman's ReAssess Your Chess Workbook and Zurich 1953.

Also I must say that after spending a few months doing Chessimo exercises everyday I can heartily recommend the program. All the exercises are really first rate and my play has been better lately. My only complaint is that the program can be a little unstable, I've had to reinstall it once after a couple of critical errors...not fun.

edit: Oh! and also I've begun inputting my opening repertoire in Chess Position Trainer. I add in the mainlines and important sub-variation as separate sub-repertoire so I can drill them into my brain the way I would a tactics problem. Seems to be working out rather well so far.