LaerDM's Study Plan

I started week one of Beginner 1 today and completed the assignments for day 1. 

My performance in the games I've played so far is nothing to brag about. What matters is I am learning and enjoying myself, even enjoying the losses. 

I am looking forward to a casual game with a physical board and a human being across from me, live in person. I'd like to be able to chat a bit while playing as well. 

I didn't think I'd like timed games (rapid 15+10) but it resolved a conflict I have had in the back of my mind about chess for years. I suspect I didn't play because I had the perception chess games would drag on for hours. Maybe it's the attention deficit disorder or something that made me reluctant to invest in something that could stretch on for longer than a half-hour. I discovered I actually like timed games. I've played two. Now I see I can set a timer and play only for the duration I'm willing to invest at a particular time. 

I'm a bit challenged when it turns out I'm playing the dark side. I've spent most of the time since I decided to dig into chess looking at things from the light side. The board looks strange to me when I flip it around.

I  started my first daily game playing the light-colored side. I made the first move, and now my opponent has 3 days. I'm still waiting after nearly 24 hours to see the dark side make the second half of move 1.

Enough for today. Thank you for stopping by to read. 

I started to make an update here yesterday but became distracted by other interesting things going on here at Chess.com. It's early enough now in the day today for me to get down in writing my chess progress yesterday.

I have put together a spreadsheet to map my progress.

I suppose this information might be tucked away somewhere on Chess.com but I enjoy fiddling around with spreadsheets.

As you can see I made a little improvement. I won a rapid game. I think it may have had the most effect on my rating. I went through the initial analysis of the game and went through the recommended lessons, including the challenges.

I also advanced from number 42 in a division of the Wood League to number 8, putting me in position (if I can hold it) to get into Stone League for week 48.

I also took advantage of the Cyber Monday deal to get a Diamond Membership, kicking it off with a free month (rather than just a free week).

Oh, I should mention I had the opportunity to play a couple of games live, in person, the night before last. I lost them all. One was open-ended. The other one or two were timed. I did not know my opponent had been fairly active on Chess.com for two years. I probably hadn't played more games than I could count on the fingers of one hand in the last two years.

I looked for a cheap, cardboard chess board I think I have around the house somewhere. I didn't find it but I did find a large, plastic chess set I forgot I had. We have games stuffed in cabinets here and there. I found the chess set residing next to the backgammon. I ended up moving the backgammon case to another location. It was so large it was causing the back of the cabinet to pull loose from the side.

I have two daily games going. I set one with a 3-day window for moves and the other with 1 day to move. The 3-day is not moving but the 1-day is moving right along. It started with a Sicilian Defence and has morphed into who-knows-what. We are both down one light-side bishop. My opponent came at me with what under other circumstances may have been a fool's checkmate but resulted in a light-side bishop trade.

I hope I haven't put my foot in my mouth as I have begun to try to describe what I've got going in some chess jargon.

Thanks for stopping by.

Congrats on the improvement! I like your idea of playing OTB. Contact with others who share our interests makes a difference. :-)

It's Wednesday morning. I went to the Chess Club meeting last night for the first time. I didn't get home until 9:30 or so. Hence, I am writing my update now rather than last night.

Because it is a holiday week in the U.S. I suspect attendance was lower than usual. The organizer was also ill and did not attend. We live about twelve miles from where the club meets. It was fortunate we were able to accomplish two meetings with one trip. My ride, who is also the one I played live chess with on Sunday evening, was driving in any way to attend another meeting. He also joined for the last half hour or so of the Chess Club.

When I first arrived there were three of us who did not know where in the building the group actually had congregated. We just grabbed a clock and played a 15/05 game. By the time we finished, I received a text message telling me where the group was in a conference room. One of the three of us was actually on break from an evening shift and needed to return to work. The remaining pair of us put the clock away and joined the group in the conference room. The group was going over matches from a tournament two weekends ago. Then they ran through some Puzzle Rush. By the way, I lost the 15/05 match. I have much to learn and much-needed practice.

The first Daily game I started actually was aborted because, after as white, I made my first move, my opponent never made a move within the 3 days. I've got two other Daily games going.

Here's how my scores are trending. I have yet to win a Blitz. Maybe I should do some Bullets so the conditioning might cause me to perceive Blitz as less hectic.

Today started week 2 of my study plan.

I guess I didn't get an entry in yesterday. It was not a day when I made progress in Rapid. I lost one and went down. The study plan only asks for updates on the first day of the week, so I guess I'm doing well trying to get an update every day.

Today I finally one a Blitz match. It got me off sitting on 100. I'm up to a whole 169.

I made it to the Stone League. I'm number 4 in my division. Somehow, probably the Blitz win, I received 9 trophies.

It's now Friday morning.

I won another Rapid match yesterday.

I'm up to date on my assignments.

My son used his 3D printer to fashion 4 chess pieces for a mobile chess set I've had for years but lost a white pawn, broke the stem off another white pawn, and lost the white queen and a white bishop. Now I can play chess in the car, etc. However, having a set like this is not quite so necessary when we can now play on our smartphones.

The cutest part of our U.S. 3rd Thursday in November Thanksgiving holiday was when our toddler grandchild asked me to play chess and maintained attention to it for nearly an hour.

It's now Friday evening, 11/24.

I spent time going through some lessons and the challenges today.

I went through a few puzzles and increased the rating slightly.

I have been listening to some audiobooks related to chess: Bobby Fischer Goes to War by David Edmonds, How Life Imitates Chess by Garry Kasparov, Chess for Beginners by Gary Williams, and Chess Opening Names by Nathan Rose.

It's Blitz week. I'm Blitz weak. The last two days have been discouraging.

I'm doing ok at puzzles but not playing Blitz matches.

Don't get too discouraged. It takes time.

Yesterday both of the Daily games I was playing finished. I lost both. One was close. The other was with a member of my family. This family member has had a Diamond membership in Chess.com for 2 years and has played over 1200 games. I've played 27 and been a member of Chess.com for less than 2 weeks. That being considered, it's amazing I hung on for as long as I did.

I've worked through the first three games in Logical Chess Move by Move.

I have started week 3 of my study plan. I've got 2 Daily games going against friends. I won another Rapid game.

I started reading Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman. It's a bit ahead of where I'm at.

I participated in the live Calculation online class this morning.

This format for a table fits better...

Did I mention I hate Blitz? I'm glad Chess.com doesn't let my rating go below 100. I would be in negative numbers.

I'm creeping up in my score with the puzzles only because after I screw up the puzzles get easier and I can work my score up above where I started that day.

Those who are encouraging me keep telling me to stick at it; they tell me I will get better. I believe them, but my brain seems scrambled right now.

My weeks start on Sundays for the ChessGoals study plan. Today, Sunday, December 10, 2023, I am looking forward to a whole week of Blitz matches, Oh boy!

There are times I have been thoroughly disgusted with myself. Why am I not getting this? I have never played timed chess before. I suspect my brain refuses to reset itself to assess my positions quickly.

I do a bit better with Rapid games. I bet I'd be miserable at Bullet games.

Daily games are getting better. Daily games give me time to see how things like the London System might work.

I'm three weeks into this. Before three weeks ago all I knew about chess was how the pieces moved. I didn't even know about en passant. I'd picked up some chess language from movies I've watched like "The Queen's Gambit" and "Searching for Bobby Fischer", but I had to research the definitions of things like "The Sicilian Defense".

In the past three weeks, I've spent every spare minute immersing myself in chess. I've listened to podcasts, particularly The Chess Angle from the Long Island Chess Club. I thought it was interesting there was a Long Island (LI) Chess Club and a Chess site called Lichess.com.

If anyone is interested I could tell the story of what prompted me to get the board out and apply myself to chess.

I'm writing this update to my study plan while waiting for Chess.com to find me another opponent for a Blitz match. I'm starting to become impatient enough to increase the upper limit of my rating range. It doesn't matter what the lower limit of the range is. I'm sitting on the bottom.

I'm keeping up my spreadsheet but it's getting to the point of being embarrassing to post it.

This is day one of Week 5 in my journey through the Novice/Beginner Chess Goals Plan.

As you can see from my compressed spreadsheet above, I am not making much progress.

I have played around three or four unrated daily games. I think I lost more than I won so it probably wouldn't have helped my rating much if I had played them rated.

Yes, I am discouraged. I'm going to plunge on. I look forward to involving myself in chess so it is not burdensome for me, just discouraging.

Playing a rapid game this afternoon, though I lost, must have awakened my mind because afterward, I did better at the puzzles than I ever have; the first day with no fails since day one.

I am amazed at how much data Chess.com keeps on each one of us, like our puzzle scores, and our games. In addition to all of those things, it also provides room for blogs and clubs.

I watched bits and pieces of the Champions Chess Tour. It was good to see Wesley So give Magnus Carlsen a run for his money ($200K of it).

I still much prefer playing Rapid to Blitz. I tried a couple of Bullet matches to see what they were like. The benefit of Bullet over Blitz is the torture doesn't last as long.

The rapid match I played today dragged out to just our kings and one pawn each. Of course, my opponent's pawn got promoted. I did ok in the middle game but I crashed and burned in the end game. The computer coach said "Sharp — That could have gone either way - a very dynamic game!" and "Your opponent got the better of you in that game. Your opponent played better than you in the opening. The middlegame battle was fairly even. Your opponent really came to play in the endgame."

I'm beginning to wonder if this old dog can learn new tricks.

People have been advising me on the Chess Goals Discord server about books to read and reference ratings of 1200, 1300, 1800, etc. For the most part, I'm only halfway to 1000.

I've been watching videos, going through some of the lessons, etc. I am going to work on analyzing better to see if it helps.

I've got another unrated daily game going with my son. He's been winning two out of three in our matches so far. My son-in-law has won all the matches I've played against him.

Speaking of sons and fathers. this is the chess set on which my father taught me to play. A couple of pawns are missing, so do you notice the replacement pawns standing "bolt" upright? Do you also see the black knight, one white pawn, and the two black pawns my father carved probably around 60 to 70 years ago?

One helpful suggestion I got when I started playing chess was to focus on games with a longer playing time. Doing this gives you a chance to think more carefully without the sense of time pressure. It has been helpful for me; maybe it can help you, too.

Bending the study plan a bit. This week was Rapid. Instead of 15/10, I followed the advice of @MikeBrooklet and played a couple of 30-minute games. I was able to take a little bit more time to think and enjoyed the games much more. If I remember right, I won two of them. Thank you, Mike, for the advice.

I also finally won a daily game match against my son-in-law.

I participated in the middle game planning class this morning (12/23/23).

Happy Holidays!

I have purchased The Amateur's Mind. I've started reading it and following along with the .pgn I found in Lichess.
 
On Sunday our family was together to celebrate Christmas a day early. We exchanged gifts, I received a chess clock, a chess openings memory game, and Levy Rozman's book How to Win at Chess. I have read through page 28 (mostly skimming through stuff I already knew, but I enjoyed how he wrote about it). I don’t know what my family would have given me for Christmas if I hadn’t taken up chess a month ago. They said chess made it easy for them to find gifts for me.
 
I question his statement on page 28 about all the pieces being defended in the ideal setup he pictured as he started introducing opening principles. I don't think the pawn on b2 and the bishop on c4 are defended. Am I missing something?

I have been recording my progress on a spreadsheet almost daily. I may be sorry if I don’t keep it up but I think I will back off and just keep track of my week-to-week progress. As I am considering it now I think I will post where I started and what my stats are now. I started on November 19th, so it’s been a little over a month. I am on week 6 of the first Beginners Chess Goals plan.

Our daughter is with us now celebrating the holiday season with us. She provided the catalyst influencing me to start playing chess seriously for the first time in my life.

Many people started playing chess for the first time or returned to playing chess because The Queen’s Gambit Netflix series was an influence in one way or another. The show influenced me to get serious about playing chess, but an interesting thing is what inspired me to watch the series in the first place.

We had not been subscribing to Netflix for years, but we were offered a deal and decided to go ahead and take it. We were reminded our daughter is receiving royalty checks from Netflix for her contribution to The Queen’s Gambit Netflix recorded her singing, thinking of using selections in various scenes for the soundtrack. As it turned out, her singing was only used in one scene, but she is earning passive income nonetheless. Knowing this motivated us to watch The Queen’s Gambit which, in turn, motivated several people in our family to get serious about chess.

Bottom line = Please watch The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix repeatedly, or at least leave it playing on your devices over and over again, so it remains popular. Our daughter is in graduate school and appreciates all the help she can get. Thank you.

It's cool your daughter sang in The Queen's Gambit! Very cool!

Today my Beginner 1 plan says to update my study plan post.

I'm short on time and other resources today so I'm making it short.

When I started I recorded many of the initial statistics Chess.com gave me. Some haven't changed. They're still sitting at 800 because I haven't done anything with them.

Others started at 400 or 500 and I've gone down from there. Luckily there seems to be a bottom to each of the ratings, like 100 for Blitz.

I'm articulating I have nowhere to go but up. I'm sitting at the bottom. I don't get credit in those ratings for close games, only wins. The only thing that goes up is my rating on the puzzles, and my percentage there is sneaking downward.

I've read through half of Rozman's How to Win at Chess. I've started The Amateur's Mind.

Today I started week 8 of the Beginner 1 plan.

I need to spend more time analyzing my games and trying to figure out how to see threats and not allow my pieces to be captured simply because I wasn't taking the whole board into account.

My experience playing a game in the first round of ChessGoals current classic tournament has shown me I need to have a better idea of how I will play during the opening. As it is I am in a kind of react mode.

I am spending time experimenting with various helpful options on Chess.com and a little on Lichess.

Today I started week 9 of the Beginner 1 plan.

I still need to spend more time analyzing my games and trying to figure out how to see threats and not allow my pieces to be captured simply because I wasn't taking the whole board into account. I am bad at hanging my pieces.

Today I hope to play round 2 of the ChessGoals current classic tournament. I've been playing games against the computer bots, working my way up into the intermediate bots. I don't set time limits on the games but they are usually done in a relatively short time anyway. This may be a problem, because, as I have written, I tend to rush off and make moves without considering the whole board.

I have been trying to figure out how to set up a woodpecker method somehow. So far I've just gone to custom on Chess.com puzzles and redone the ones I got wrong the first time around. I connected Chess.com to Chassable and it also has created a sequence of puzzles to go back over my mistakes. 
This week is a Rapid week. (I'm terrible at Blitz). 
There have been some instructive discussions on the ChessGoals Discord server. I especially enjoyed the Zwischenzug article "Your rating's not going up. What now?". Thank you @DreamDare for pointing it out. 

I also picked up some ideas from the No Pawn Intended pawncast.