regnskog's training journal

I picked up chess for real last summer. Before then I had only been playing occasional blitz games with my friends every now and then. Now I study chess every day. In school when I'm not in class I like to solve tactics exercises or to challenge my friends on the little chess board I always carry with me in my backpack.

One slow game a week should probably be managable for me. I started playing in a chess club some months ago and it is going quite well even though the club is small and we mostly play blitz games. So far I've only played one rated OTB game, which I lost to a 1410-player about 8 years younger than me or so :)

I like queens pawn openings a lot! When I started playing chess I read a lot of books and watched video clips in order to improve. Because of that I think I have quite a good understanding on positional play, which is quite ironic because recently I have come to realize that not before you really start approaching the 2000 FIDE barrier will you probably need to know any positional stuff as long as you study your tactics enough.

Chess books I have read so far are: Play like a tiger by Simon Webb, The Amateurs mind by Jeremy Silman and half of Logical Chess move by move.

Oh and I like Lasker even though I don't understand Grandmaster play at all really and I don't believe anyone with approximately the same rating as me (1300 OTB) if he states that he does!

You play a very solid game for someone who has been playing for about half a year! Well Done! Maybe Silman's endgame course should be next book?

Hi regskog how are you ?

 Please can you help me with endgames?

I think you've come to the worng guy if you want endgame help :) I have never in my life studied any sort of endgame. I realize it is of great importance but until now I have always regarded endgames as dull. What I know about endgames is basically: every single pawn is important, rook activity is everything, and keep your rooks on your opponents second rank whenever possible.

Having said that, I am glad to give a shot at answering any questions you might have! Good luck!

I think "My System" will arrive tomorrow! I am sleeping under the mailbox.

Sorry! I guess the ESP link didn't work properly! No hurry, Mate!

Alright! 10 months have passed. I believe I left this group sometime during that time because I didn't have anything to write and school was haunting me but I think I'll give it another try :p

In my first post I wrote that I had quite a good understanding of position play. That is wrong. I have none. And my tactics are bad. I am a ~2000 player at this site at the moment.

10 months back I was 1600 or so and that 400 point difference is all due to tactics.

My REAL [OTB] rating should arrive next week (it is being recalculated since I just finished Rilton Open here in Stockholm) but I can say it will probably be slightly below 1400 which, judging by my achievements in said tournament, seems quite accurate.

I don't know what else to write. I play a lot of chess. I take every chance I get to play OTB. This friday is my next game! Previously I spent 15-60 minutes every day studying tactics but now I'm not sure. My losing games in the tournament were not due to tactics any more. Maybe The Art of Attack in chess might be a good book to actually finish reading?

Books I have: Lasker's Manual, Silman's Amateurs mind and Endgame book, Understanding Chess move by move (the ones by Chernev and Nunn), Pawn Power Chess, Attack in Chess and some bad ones.

Oh, and do you guys meet and play slow games over the internet? I think I would like to try that as well :)

Yes, Internet OTB games have been discussed. Most players seem to prefere, say, FICS over Live Chess at this site 

Update! I got my new OTB rating and it is as high as 1433, wee :) Here's a game I played recently, just to celebrate!

And since you are my study buddies now, I expect you all to comment! Especially if you are stronger than 1433 OTB!

EDIT: opening explorer has games recorded that share the same opening moves up to move 12(!) So I suppose you might say that I wasn't out of theory with a3 after all...

That makes a lot of sense. I recently spoke to a FM who didn't like my set up against 1.d4. Maybe all of my openings are bad! I think I need to spend some time looking for good beginner-level openings. I know the Colle is one. But what more should I look into?

Time for an update :)

I've kept been busy this spring. My OTB rating has now risen from 1433 (around christmas) to 1564! A number which I am quite proud of since it isn't rare that I get into trouble with players rated around 1400-1500. Though I am proud to say that I also managed to beat two 1700s!

I have now almost completely given up reading chess litterature for any other purpose than for recreation. My chess training now consists completely of chess tactics exercises. Mostly at Chess Tactics Server where I am slowly but surely approaching the 1700 barrier (I am at 1690 at the moment!!). Here on chess.com's own tactics trainer I have managed to stay quite stable at 2200 for a while but I am having trouble finding motivation to do those excercises because very many seem just ridiculous and would never happen OTB..

Also, my games here are decreasing. I just don't like having the pressure of having to make 10+ moves everytime I get home from school, especially since I am often too tired to make reasonable moves. I think I take it too hard when I lose (because that's what happens if I try) so I focus on improving my "real" play through instead..

Currently I am looking for a nice little chess tournament to participate in during summer holidays, but unfortunately the only good one I have found thus far was scheduled right in the middle of my exams

Oh well, time to get back to CTS

Update! Seems like all the time at CTS finally paid off! I am now at a relatively stable 1765 CTS and ~2300 on tactics trainer. And it seems it has helped my game as well. I've felt now for a while that I should at least have a rating of 1900 and I have been climbing the correspondence rating ladder at a steady pace since about May.

I feel my 1904 at present is stable enough to say that it is a quite good approximation of my playing strength :)

I've noticed now that I've FINALLY come to the point where I can really feel that it isn't all about tactics. IE I and my opponent see so much of the available tactics that strategy starts to matter. And I think that is awesome because I can finally study positional play, which I consider to be the 'real' chess, properly.

So I figured I try to give Nimzowitch's My System another go seeing as it is the strategy book that almost all players attribute their success somehow.

Anyway, the first time I read it it was alright. I mean felt I gained some good advice from it. I was rated about 1600-1700 chess.com and 1300~ OTB. I felt that the chapter about open files was the most informative, and though I didn't really understand much about what was said in the other chapters I still read them and enjoyed the humorous language and interesting games. What it did for me then was to open my eyes to 'putting' pressure and forcing the opponent to weaken himself.

Now, however, I feel it gives me much more that that. Every chapter has so far given me valuable ideas and made me understand the logic behind Nimzowich's moves better. How easy he makes everything! It is as though with his system you only really have to worry about concrete moves and calculation when you are at the very end of a game! Until then all you have to do is think about what would be the move that is most 'true to the position', what move best helps the lust to expand of your pawn mass etc :) It is now a book that I can recommend wholeheartedly. Maybe it would be a good idea to re-read it every 200 rating points or so?

My chess training on a 'work' day consists of a minimum of 30 minutes of tactics (alternating between CTS and tactics trainer as I see fit) and going through a couple of pages in My System. I am currently at the end of Part 1 of the book.

An excellent suggestion! I try a mixed bag of Tactics Trainer and ChessTempo. I am just too old and slow for CTS.

Alright, a year has passed. I have to admit I've pretty much lost my enthusiasm when it comes to correspondence chess but I figured it might be a good idea to try to keep this journal at least moderately accurate, both for my own part, because it is nice to see how I progressed, but also for any newcomer. This is my chess journey. This is how long it took ME to reach a certain rating level starting from being more or less a complete novice, and this is what training I used to get there.

Anyway, so I am as of May a 1750 OTB player. I feel I could probably rise a bit more easily but there just wasn't enough time for more games. I believe I played around 30 games and I think I lost 2-3 and drew only one. On chess.com my rating is presently 2083 and I really have no idea how accurate it is. On the one hand, I feel that certain players of approx 2300 strength make some strange moves and haven't given me too much trouble. But on the other hand I've been beaten by some 2000-raters as well (granted, mostly because of blunders but still). Maybe it's just not possible to compare different rating pools anymore like I used to do. I mean maybe I as a 1750 OTB player can correspond to both 2300 and 2000 strength depending on blunder-proneness (because I usually make moves faster here than OTB).

My training? Virtually none actually. I have come to the stage where I feel that the only thing that can really improve my chess is either playing a game myself or analysing a game. Every now and then I pick up a book with commented games and read a little, but mostly I just play. I suppose you could say my training consists of trying crazy ideas. Like for instance I frequently try to sacrifice material in correspondence chess whereas I would normally not dare to take as many risks OTB. Also I have become quite interested in openings for really the first time in my chess life. This is mainly due to my playing blitz on FICS when it is very important to get a good start against experienced players. So what I do is I play my favourite openings and if I encounter a move or a variation I have never seen before I always look it up afterwards to try and understand the nuances of that move. The difference can be quite surprising in the French defence for instance!

I know for a fact that is still mostly due to tactical blunders that I lose my games. And I have this theory that this 'tactical blindeness' diminishes with experience. Because I have done so many many tactical problems that I now know that it's not working for me. Tactical problems probably helped me reach my present rating level but it won't rid me of my blunders :(

Oh and I thought I might try to 'characterize' my present chess strength. It might be interesting to read later ;) I feel like I've finally started to get a sort of 'feel' for the game. Most of the time I just 'know' if a move is right or wrong by simply asking myself 'is this move natural?'. I have started to take interest in how different openings affect the pawn structure and thus the use of dark/light squared bishops. Sacrifises are becoming more common both from my opponents and from myself. The engame is the only part of the game where I still feel like a novice. This is mainly because I usually manage to win/blunder long before any endgame where the battle isn't completely onesided appears.

Ratings where I play: FICS 5 min pool: ~1550, chess.com ~2050, OTB ~1750 and schackonline.com ~2500