PapaShepherd's Beginner 2 Study Plan

yeah... a real knightmare. 

Well...I am both very proud of this game and also incredibly embarrassed. I played the most solid game I've ever played over this many moves only to suffer a complete mental break on the final move. Takeaways: I played the opening as well as I could have played it and was up material by move 8. I played the endgame, maybe not flawlessly, but methodically kept him at bay and had the win locked up. Constructive takeaway as you have to THINK about every...single...move.

That was quite a nice game! Often in the endgame when I am low on time and worried about stalemate, my strategy is just to make every move a check. Then I know I don't have to worry about a stalemate. That said, I 100% made this mistake before. It's so tilting! 

There is nothing to be embarrassed about! This same mistake happens at elite levels too. 

Here is an example of Levy doing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlVyVfWRags There is some video of Danny Rensch doing it too but I couldn't find it. It happens all the time. Age old mistake. 

Thanks for the video of Levy, that helps.

And thanks for the tips on checking. For some reason, giving him a check didn't even cross my mind and I don't know why. Ah well, on to the next! Still happy with how I played throughout the game.

I have crossed the rubicon into 1200 land! This was, I think, another solid game. I again almost ran out of time and barely found the move that won it - and even then I only saw the easy continuation and not the M6. 

Two positive takeaways - My opening play was good. I don't understand one engine suggestion but all-in-all good opening play. Other positive takeaway is staying cool when time was running low. I knew I was winning and just had to keep looking for a way to get at him with my queen. 

Two constructive takeaways - I simply have to see better. I look at the board but I do not "see" things. Multiple times I did not make the best move because it didn't register that what I thought was a threat wasn't a threat. I think Dan Heisman calls these "quiescence errors" - not calculating because you think you see a roadblock. Second, I need to manage my time a bit better. I'm playing 40-move game pace and not leaving much left. That's fine if over in 40 but if not...one option is play only increment games, the other is play more of a 50-move pace to not be so rushed in the end. 

Super nice find at the end! And I got a kick out of all the times you had to play Qe8 to block the mate threat. 

Was bxb the move that you struggled to understand why the computer likes it better? My guess is that its a matter of "time" if you take white must respond and then I think you can play d5 quickly and put pressure on the center while white is still struggling to find time to castle. I didn't check with engine, but that is my impression. 

Yes it was after 9. Be3 - engine said I should have taken. I see what you are saying, though. 9...Bxe3 10. fxe3 d5 does put a lot of pressure. He takes and I have two central pawns,  both defended. Thanks!

I also struggle to take my time on daily. I basically play it like a bullet game where I have to wait a long time for my opponent to move. Certainly not an ideal way to play. I really prefer to play a whole game at once. 

I recently had a similar struggle with puzzles. I was spending 20+ minute per puzzle (if needed) and got a rating of 3120 but then got a little unfocused and careless and lost 70 or or so rating points. 

Which paper puzzle books do you have? I think the only one I still have is Lazlo's book called "Chess"

Game from earlier today. This was a lucky win although I didn't realize it. Positive takeaway - I recalled an opening sequence I'd learned from my opening studies and earned a checkmate in nine moves. Constructive takeaway - I didn't learn it exactly right and made one move out of sequence that had I been really paying attention, would have shown me my opponent could have escaped. The early d4 before I remembered the sequence left my king wide open to being checked and ruining the whole thing. Be wary that you understand what you are doing in memorized lines...

That is a super slick opening trap! Seems like your opponent should have gotten the chessgoal caro-kann course  

Hah, indeed! I have that course and started into it. It seems very thorough and I do want to learn the CK one day, but it felt a bit much for me at this stage. Going to wait a little longer before I start devoting time to a new opening.

Makes sense. I recommend only working on one at a time myself, though I am trying a new approach that I think I like so far. I am keeping a database of my game sorted by ECO and spending my time studying only the most common lines I face with the idea that is where I should be playing the best since I see them the most. 

I don't think I've ever heard the term ECO. I had to look it up. Is this something you pull out of chess.com or how are you generating the database? I did something similar, albeit lower tech, in tabulating which opening I saw the most often but didn't know much about. That helped me narrow in on a few things, which is why I just won that game against the caro-kann so easily.  I did this going through my games and sorting by general opening, but I didn't look at a particular line - just Philidor, CK, etc.

Edit to add: Oh, now I see the ECO number on the top of the game I posted.

I had a lesson Wednesday and my coach has asked that I analyze at least my first game of each day, so here are the two from yesterday and today. Two good wins, particularly excited about seeing a M6 in the first game and playing about as well as I can play in the second. Best win ever in Rapid. Comments in the games.

Not a good game today. Off my thought process after a few moves and never really recovered. 

Not my best, but at least came out on top. The high-pressure attacks early in a game concern me and I play a bit too slowly. I then find I often rush a decision later and blunder a piece. In this case, I chose to apply a lot of pressure after my mistake and he blundered a piece and then mate.

@jdcannon - are you manually making this database? Ex. adding the ECO to an Excel file and then reviewing after so many games the most common lines?

Week #5 Tasks & Updates

Daily Games :: My daily games are running thin but I have a tournament that will go into the next round soon so will not add many games. Getting in my 5-10min/day.

Puzzles :: Use a book this week for puzzles/tactics. I had never finished Giannatos's Everyone's First Chess Workbook and so dug back into the final part of the book this past week. Took my time on all of the problems and did very well. Granted, these are lower level than what I was getting on Chess.com puzzles, but I am focusing better and solving them with very high accuracy. I hope to finish that book over the next 2 weeks and then go back to online puzzles.

Games :: 7 Rapid games this week, going +4/-3. Not my best week but I did play probably the best game of my life and finally defeated a player 1300+. Two of the three losses were blundering out of a winning position. Must keep thinking.

Lessons/Endgames :: Reviewed Chess.com lessons for the allotted 45 minutes this week.

Total Time ~9 hours

Yes. I hope to get chess.com to build the service in the future, but we are currently working too much on getting the server load under control. 

But I just inject the game and accuracy score into my database and scripts returned all the data for me.