ptSmooth's Expert Efficiency Log - Chess Forums - Page 3

Feb 15, 2021

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#41

You're crushing Yusupov. Very impressive ! I'm struggling with it a lot. I see you're logging 17hrs/week and I'm close to 2hrs/day so 14hrs, but it feels like I need more time for the Yusupov part.

ptSmooth

Feb 15, 2021

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#42

SmarterChess wrote:

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

Well, I just won my 1st blitz game of the day due to an opening blunder by my opponent. Then I lost the next 9 games. I literally hung a piece or more in every single game or was down like 2 minutes on time. I was trying to focus. Oh well. Going to ignore it and see how tomorrow goes .

ptSmooth

Feb 15, 2021

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#43

hicetnunc wrote:

You're crushing Yusupov. Very impressive ! I'm struggling with it a lot. I see you're logging 17hrs/week and I'm close to 2hrs/day so 14hrs, but it feels like I need more time for the Yusupov part.

Maybe? I have done a lot the last few years so in that respect I do have some idea of how to try and "stay live" during tests.

I'm barely getting "good" rankings, though. And last week I went through the chapter pretty quickly - getting cocky because the first 6 exercise questions went well.

I don't think I've ever failed a chapter in 9+ books. However, I for sure have barely passed before.

All of this is somewhat moot. While I do get satisfaction from doing as well as I can, my plan isn't to be a career Yusupov book studier .

ptSmooth

Feb 22, 2021

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#44

Ok, to start with, my dad passed away unexpectedly last Thursday (he was almost 80, so not way too soon, but he was in very good shape/health so it feels quite a bit too soon).

He taught me chess, was at more than decent club player strength at his peak (~1900 although he didn't get a non-provisional rating at his peak) and was a big influence throughout whatever my chess journey has been. Obviously this is only a small part of what he meant to me, but it is directly pertinent to my chess improvement and how I feel about chess.

For now I plan to continue as-is and see how it feels/goes.

Week 6 reflections/summary:

Daily game: 48m - Won the game. I felt in control the entire time and while it feels like I have a lot of phases I could have improved in quite a bit, I played well. The game is quite interesting and I'm looking forward to reviewing it (I haven't yet).
Blitz games: 252m - 59 (23-34-2). Kind of a dumpster fire. I didn't feel sharp any of the days I played. I spend too much time thinking about plans/ideas and not enough on board vision and playing at a more optimal pace.
Game analysis: 75m - Missed plenty of simple tactics and lost lots many games being behind on time.
Tactics: 30m: one 20m puzzle rush survival and 41 high score
Opening Review: 90m - Finally could do this efficiently and ended up with 40 lines to put into chessable (most are just 1 move).
Chessable: 280m. Done with 4 knights. Full gainz realized for now. Maintain.

Total time tracked: 775 minutes.

To improve on:

General board vision and tactical opportunities
Playing at a better pace.

Did well:

Finally hit a "stopping point" in learning openings.
Hit all of the homework.
Didn't get discouraged in blitz and did finally seem to stabilize near the end of the week.

ptSmooth

Mar 1, 2021

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#45

Week 7 reflections/summary:

Daily game: 35m - Paired with an IM, which is pretty cool. I am up 2 pawns already but he has a lot of dynamic compensation. We'll see what happens. I *think* I should be okay if I play precisely and I am hoping since he has 23423523 daily games going that he is less precise.
Rapid games: 294m - Again, I played way too much on some kind of "tilt." I did record my mistakes, which may be helpful to review next week and at the end of the 12 weeks (to see what kind of patterns overall may be). Honestly, I think my biggest goal for all games I play online should simply be to somehow treat them like OTB games that matter. So far I don't seem to be capable of doing that.
Game analysis: 125m - I am pretty sure I hang material (or lose material to 1 move tactics) waaay more than I should given my "level." I'm honestly not sure what to do about this. Probably intentionally practice some kind of blundercheck artificially every move until it's more of a habit. However, I'm not completely sure how to do that. Also, I seem to miss chances to pressurize the center frequently. So I should pay more (really constant) attention to central control and the dynamics concerning it.
Tactics: 39 - puzzle rush survival high of 40 this week.
100 endgames: 20m
Chessable: 117m.
Yusupov: None. I'm "ahead" according to the plan but given that I generally enjoy and can take Yusupov seriously, it's good to get this in.
Chess.com lessons: 25m lesson on Catalan. Looks a lot more interesting than I thought! However, I'm concerned that it's pretty limited given it's a response to QGD and that's it.

Total time tracked: 655 minutes.

NM SmarterChess

Mar 1, 2021

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#46

"I think my biggest goal for all games I play online should simply be to somehow treat them like OTB games that matter. So far I don't seem to be capable of doing that."

I struggle with this. The best thing I've found is to try to play games when I can turn off all digital distractions as much as possible. Trying to simulate the being in the zone feeling of OTB.

VLaurenT

Mar 1, 2021

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#47

SmarterChess wrote:

"I think my biggest goal for all games I play online should simply be to somehow treat them like OTB games that matter. So far I don't seem to be capable of doing that."

I struggle with this. The best thing I've found is to try to play games when I can turn off all digital distractions as much as possible. Trying to simulate the being in the zone feeling of OTB.

What about joining a regulated online league to play longer games ?

ptSmooth

Mar 1, 2021

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#48

I've thought about that. I assume my best bet will be Chess Dojo, which I see you schedule matches on. I will try to take a look at that this week.

ptSmooth

Mar 9, 2021

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#49

Week 8 reflections/summary:

Daily game: 81m - Paired with an IM, which is pretty cool. We just finished today in a draw by repetition. Going after the 2nd pawn was really, really stupid. There is a reason I spent a lot more than just 5m/day on this 1 game. There were multiple times where I spent 15+ minutes (and the analysis tool) to find what felt like "only moves." I think I will change my daily game for the last few weeks to 5m of blindfold puzzle visualization/day instead.
Blitz games: 243m - I went back over 1900. A couple of my sessions went quite well. I walked into stalemates in a couple of games when I had no business doing so. And also a lot of very close time scrambles that could have gone either way. I should try to figure out some kind of pre-session warmup for blitz that gets me in the right mindset to play fast and efficiently. It makes such a massive difference if I'm looking at the board in a different way from rapid or long games. Which makes me wonder how much blitz playing really helps me get better overall.
Game analysis: 75m - I have a lot of games with a lot of moments to review and many are when it's a scramble at the end and leaving pieces en prise premoving is better than not. One interesting trend I see is that with White, I do sometimes build up pressure and a position and win or my opponent blunders. However, with Black I seem to almost always fight for some kind of equality and either my opponent blunders or I do. I very rarely build up any sort of promising position of any kind. E.g. I never really "win" as Black during blitz whereas during Rapid I feel I do plenty.
Tactics: 42m - puzzle rush survival high of 36. I would like to be getting 40 every time. Perhaps using this to work on discipline and concentration is the approach rather than thinking of it as "tactics."
Openings in Chessbase: 85m - went pretty efficiently. Lots more lines in White openings. Probably b/c I "switched" to a 2. Nf3 response vs. 1...d5 and I don't really have a a developed repertoire for that.
Chessable: 34m - Just didn't feel like any big review sessions during the week.
Content: 45m - two chess.com lessons on the Catalan. It sure looks exciting based on the games being presented! I have a feeling White doesn't get that every game, though, ;).

Total time tracked: 605 minutes.

To improve on:

General board vision and tactical opportunities - playing at a better pace.
Maintaining concentration and grit when playing or studying

Did well:

Completed all plan homework even though it looked like I wouldn't going into the weekend.
Did enjoy much of the time I spent on chess despite life situation.

ptSmooth

Mar 15, 2021

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#50

Week 9 reflections/summary:

Visualization - didn't do any :(
Rapid games: 5-1-0. These went very well. In general I took them more seriously than normal. The one game I lost was definitely due to significant mistakes from my side - I even saw material winning tactics and didn't go for it somehow. And botched the endgame quite badly when I let my guard down.
Game analysis: When tracking my mistakes it seems I often make more than 1 similar key mistake in a game. I'm not sure if this is simply that I'm more focused on it when reviewing (so notice 2 instances of it instead of 1) or if there is some narrative in my head that when I am "imprecise at a key moment," I tend to be imprecise at the next key moment. Or once I've misevaluated going into an endgame, then the next time I can go into an endgame I'm more likely to misevaluate it again. Perhaps it's simply a sign that I'm just not in sync with some of the demands of that particular game setup.
Tactics: PR survival - high of 38. I really feel I should be getting to 40+ every single time. There is something about having enough patience for the "harder" exercises after doing easy ones that is very difficult to do.
Yusupov: None :(.
100 endgames: Went through R + P vs. R. I definitely forgot about some key ideas but retained some of the tricks.
Chessable: Reviewed ~30% of 4 knights repertoire instead of 100%. One thing I spent a lot of time doing on Thursday was delving back into the Zukertort for part of my White repertoire. I am going to go back to it and abandon all 1.c4 type stuff for now.

Not tracking time spent any longer. Not sure if it correlates to not being able to finish my homework for the first time. But it kind of feels like a waste of time and unnecessary pressure. I can always start tracking time again if I want to nerd out again!

To improve on:

Prioritizing if I feel my life is too busy and not going down a huge time sink (zukertort research) until I've completed the core tasks.
Maintaining concentration and grit when playing and studying

Did well:

Took rapid games seriously. I think I can take them even more seriously but if I can maintain this as my baseline, playing them will be much more worthwhile than in the past.

ptSmooth

Mar 22, 2021

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#51

Week 10 reflections/summary:

Visualization - Only did a couple of days. Since this really isn't working I'm switching back to 1 daily game and will just try to not spend more than 5-10 minutes on any 1 move, rating be damned, lol. Hmm, won in a few moves since my opponent timed out in the opening. Gave him an extra day but ain't nobody got time for dat.
Blitz games: I need to somehow move fast and always be checking for hanging pieces or superficial tactics, and then spending maybe 10 seconds to calculate when I sense there should be something. I feel I get outplayed often in the opening and middlegame, especially if my opponent plays random junk that I don't have any sort of repertoire for. I end up either spending time to make decent moves and struggle on the clock, or just struggle by playing not great moves.
Key moments: Lots of missed things (as is expected) but what's really frustrating is when I set up good tactics but don't pull the trigger because I need to see the tactic 2 ply beyond. I just can't do that fast enough in blitz or I spend too much time trying to do it when those tactics aren't there. Last session went really well, although I missed several hanging tactics (missed more opportunities but did some hanging myself that was missed). But it seems I was playing healthy moves since overall the standard of my play was *much* better.
Tactics: 39 high on PR survival.
Opening Review: Felt very efficient this time. Probably helped that I played several games against two opponents which was basically the same opening line (which I played poorly of course!)
Chessable: Reviewed 4 Knights course and started looking at Modernized Zukertort book. I've spent so much time on my "new repertoire" but it's just too much theory for d4 d5 c4.

To improve on:

Going easier on myself in terms of accomplishing tasks. This last week was the only time during the plan where I thought about taking some kind of break. However, I think continuing, even if I end up coming short on the plan is better than taking a break.
Maintaining concentration and grit when playing and studying

Did well:

Took games seriously. My blitz is now up almost at its high (with thanks from some refunded points).

NM SmarterChess

Mar 22, 2021

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#52

I like your plan to keep working on things even if you don't finish the whole week within one week. One week can be spread over two, and that's perfectly fine.

ptSmooth

Mar 30, 2021

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#53

Week 11 reflections/summary:

Daily Game: Spent a lot more than 5m/day on this. Opponent walked into a bad opening position but maintained material equality for a long time. I believe I can still win but I expect the computer to have a field day after the game is over saying how many times I blew the win.
Rapid Games: 3-2-2. One draw was hard fought, the other was on move 2 b/c my opponent kept disconnecting and 5-6 minutes had come off of his clock. I probably could have won either on timeout or just b/c he'd get so low on time but I offered a draw. The other draw I felt I really earned although I released tension "lazily" when I had an actual advantage. But then even without too much time was able to draw. The two losses were to the same opponent (back to back, ugh) but were fairly near things and I had a shot at potentially winning in one of them but spazzed out with about 1 minute left on my clock in a critical position.
Game Analysis: My most common mistakes are being imprecise at a critical moment and missing an opponent's resource. It would seem to me thes are both calculation issues - perhaps not having a very disciplined or consistent approach?
Tactics: 23, 42, 48, 37 PR survival scores
Endgames: R+2 pawns vs. R chapter in 100 endgames
Yusupov: ch. 7 - 21/31 good! Barely got it, whew. After only getting partial on anything above 2 points, the last problem I did I saw the full 3/3.
Chessable: reviewed full anti anti-silician lines. Opening review, review. 4N misc review.