ptSmooth's Expert Efficiency Log

!remindme Ask ptSmooth to write a blog post about opening review algorithm.

Looks great!

Thanks! I think I said via email at some point to you that coming up with study planning and such is not my issue, I've spent too much meta time on that already lol. Playing and doing high quality study is likely the main issue. Which is really everyone's issue. Because if they were doing that, then they wouldn't have any issues!

• Study plan post: yes!
• Daily game: yes!
• Rapid games: Cheated and played 3 since I was mad at myself with the 2nd one. Although the 3rd one went arguably worse (although I luckily drew). The 2nd game I spent too much time going for the wrong plan and didn't take my time when the critical moment happened. In the first game my opponent played quickly and really poorly so that wasn't much of anything.
• Game analysis: Need to play ...f5 in KID and not just wonder about playing it. I also missed a simple tactic to win a pinned piece...which is odd since I pinned it the move before to threaten winning it. I guess the threat was so obvious I forgot about it?
• Tactics: 10 minutes puzzle storm. The lack of animation is very jarring. It seems cool but I also hate it at the same time lol.
• Chessable opening review (all 'extra credit'): 50 minutes. Learned 8 new lines as part of this.

• Study plan post: yes!
• Daily game: yes!
• Rapid games: Played 1 game instead of 4 blitz. I won and was "winning" most of the game. However, I used so much time I had to play several moves in a very complex position more or less on increment, including a couple of moves where there was more or less an "only move." 
• Game analysis: If I'm going to take that much time in a rapid game I think I need to go for a clarifying line earlier that I know will still be good for me, rather than continue to look for some concrete line that mates or wins overwhelming material.
• Tactics: Did Woodpecker easy problem set again in 32 minutes instead of 47 minutes. I did miss 7 moves instead of 6, though for 98% accuracy.
• Chessable opening review (all 'extra credit'): 70 minutes, including learning some new lines.

• Study plan post: yes!
• Daily game: yes!
• Rapid games: Two games. Won 1 and lost 1 where I had a great endgame up a pawn that for sure would be winning. However, I didn't even consider the winning plan and then was fine going into a K+P endgame which I assumed would only give me winning chances but the opposite happened. Oh man, I should have taken more time rather than try to avoid getting to increment.
• Game analysis: First game I played quite well, finding one key move in particular that helped me hammer home my attack without letting anything slip away. In the second game I should have spent my time thinking schematically once in the endgame and played faster before then since the only thing really going on was trading down into an endgame. I just played randomly in the endgame, throwing away a big advantage and then bungling a K+P endgame playing automatically. I should know better than that!
• Tactics: 20m puzzle storm. High of 43.
• Chessable opening review (all 'extra credit'): 66m - only 305 moves left in 4 knights repertoire to learn! Then maybe I take a break from learning new opening lines.

I really like how you're doing the main plan and adding Chessable openings for extra credit. Looking good PT!

Thanks! I will be at a big "crossroads" once I finish 4 knights. I will have the entire "1.d4 go for the throat" repertoire I can/should learn at some point but may just stick with knowing the quickstarter (and I did learn it over a year ago but didn't review it much so only know the quickstarter well).

w3d5

• Study plan post: yes!
• Daily game: yes!
• Rapid games: Two games. Drew 1 and won 1. The draw was an endgame where I had a piece for 3 pawns - I'm glad I knew the opening theory since it is probably just a winning endgame but I spent a lot of time not finding a good way to break through. Then I missed the crucial tactic to win a pawn and make my job easier. As it was we repeated moves once I got down to increment, although I realized my position is probably supposed to be winning at that point. In the second game I didn't realize we were transposing into a KIA and I wasted a tempo as black. The good news is that I remembered the plan from my repertoire and got a very good game. I missed a winning tactic but my opponent ended up giving up lots of material for an attack a few moves later. I spent a couple of minutes checking different defensive setups and while I maybe shouldn't have gotten so low on time (almost increment) I was able to fend off the attack "easily" although it looked scary!
• Game analysis: I need to look for candidate moves each time, not just make moves based on what I saw a move or two ago. I also need to spend an extra few seconds at the end of a tactic that looks promising to make sure there isn't a resource I'm forgetting about. This may have to do with visualization and it just being much easier to dismiss something 3 or 4 moves in rather than keep it in mind and think properly.
• Yusupov: 135m. Did all of ch. 4 but two problems. Whiffed on two 3 star problems but got a 2 star problem admittedly not knowing why the move was correct but just assuming it must be based on the chapter theme. No "excellent" in the cards but I can finish strong and make sure I get a "good" ranking for the chapter.
• Chessable opening review (all 'extra credit'): 14m

W4D1

• Study plan post: yes!
• Daily game: yes!
• Rapid games: 46m. Went 6-1-3. The game I lost very easily could have been winning and two of the draws. Quite a bit of run good!
• Game analysis: I missed a couple of capture and fork tactics, I missed a hanging piece. I missed a stalemate trap in one of the drawn games. I didn't seem to miss too many big opponent resources, so that is nice.
• Chessable opening review (all 'extra credit'): 29m

If extra credit is listed daily and in quotes is it still considered extra credit?!  :-p

If it's only 1 minute, does it even exist at all?

Perhaps it should be rounded off .

haha it's for the streak though!

You don't get a 1613 day streak without just playing one move/line and calling it a day sometimes!

W4D3

• Study plan post: yes!
• Daily game: yes!
• Blitz games: Hit a new high early and then played one guy a bunch of games and didn't do that great against him. Overall 8-6-3.
• Game analysis: A lot of messy games with a ton of missed tactics for both sides. If I'm going to play such crazy games all the time I think I need to get better at playing fine moves until things are critical and then really try to spot tactics and opponent resources.
• Chessable: 38m

W4D4

• Study plan post: yes!
• Daily game: yes!
• Blitz games: 9-9. Won my 1st game then lost 7 in a row and chased my losses, finishing with winning 5 in a row. I felt very fuzzy at the start of the session and I also lost a couple of games in a time scramble by seconds. Once I finally won again I got into a better groove. Glad that even on an "off" day my performance is above 1900 in 3+0. I would not have believed it a few weeks ago!
• Game analysis: I haven't gone through key moments yet.
• Chessable: 78 minutes

Wow, what a streak on blitz haha!

Sorry to hear about the doggo - Hope he recovers quickly!

Getting back to pre-COVID is gonna be amazing. We should meet up at an OTB event sometime in the future.

Love this log, Peter. You're putting in a ton of work. Keep it up!