I am super excited to improve this year! Lets start by setting some goals.
Love the SMART Goals approach!
Goals should be Process based goals over Outcome based. Yes I want a high ELO or a title, but staring a the numbers is not the way to get there. State the actions and make doing them the goal
SMART goals are:
- Specific (exactly what you want)
- Measurable (track your progress)
- Achievable (challenging but doable stretch from the past but not insane, you can make them harder in 30 days)
- Relevant (makes sense for your chess improvement)
- Time-bound (BY DATE X with regular check ins)
Post your Goals Bellow and give feedback on other peoples goals.
Here are 3 goals for me this year using SMART and Process
Goal 1 (Tactics): Maintain Daily Tactical Practice
Specifics:
- 30 to 120 minutes a day
- Use Structured Tactics Study with known resources
- 50 Day Tactical Challenge Part 2 for 1st 100 days on day 8 today
Measurable:
- Keep track daily of time and share publicly (likely Notion )
- Puzzle Rush Survival ( Starting 52 / Monthly Jan 30 1.7.25 / End)
- Puzzle Rush 5 min ( Starting 28 / Monthly (to do 1.15.25) / End)
Achievable: Yes!
Relevant: Yes, this will help my calculation and pattern recognition
Time-bound: 1 year
Goal 2 (Play): Play 75 Classical Games Rated in 2025
- Play in Dojo Classical
- Play in 6 OTB that include Classical
Annotate 1 Game every 2 week (tough I did not do this last year) How to improve this, Make these videos for YouTube for community feedback.
Measurable:
- Total Number of Games (0/50 (Online / IRL ))
- USCF Rating ( Starting 1564 / Monthly / End / Peak 1596 )
- Lichess Classical Rating ( Starting 1982 / Monthly / End / Peak 2118 )
- Chess.com Daily Rating ( Starting 1879 / Monthly / End / Peak 2199 )
Achievable: yes I did 54 in 2024 (34 online + 20 OTB )
Goal 3 (Endgames): Master 50 endgames from 100 Essential Endgames
Measurable:
- Number Done (0/50)
- Create a Checklist of 100 and share publicly progress
- Spar them with ELO = or higher and score 75% at 5+10
- Make 1 video a month explaining one I master
- Keep track of how many classical endgames I convert or save
