William's Novice Study Plan

Saw a lot of others are doing for accountability so I figured I'd give that a go as well. Feel free to add my account we can get a game going.

Have fun

> Feel free to add my account we can get a game going.

How do I add your account? (I think that I was able to setup games before without doing anything special).

1/17/22 Week 1 Day 1

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed, no games finished yet
  • 1 Rapid Game: Completed
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435
  • Blitz: 420
  • Rapid: 672
  • Daily: 1165
  • Puzzles: 1304

1/18/22 Week 1 Day 2

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed, one game finished started another
  • 1 Rapid Game: Completed, lost to 766
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435
  • Blitz: 420
  • Rapid: 648
  • Daily: 1174
  • Puzzles: 1310

1/19/22 Week 1 Day 3

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed, no games finished yet
  • Blitz Game 1: Won (353)
  • Blitz Game 2: Won (539)
  • Blitz Game 3: Won (515)
  • Blitz Game 4: Stalemate (551)
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435
  • Blitz: 450
  • Rapid: 648
  • Daily: 1174
  • Puzzles: 1312

1/20/22 Week 1 Day 4

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed, started a new game since one person quit
  • Rapid Game 1: Won, aborted (670)
  • Rapid Game 2: Won, resigned after move 15 (610)
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435 
  • Blitz: 450 
  • Rapid:701 
  • Daily: 1174
  • Puzzles: 1295

1/21/22 Week 1 Day 5

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed, lost one
  • 1 Rapid Game: Completed, won against 753
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435
  • Blitz: 450
  • Rapid: 732
  • Daily: 1163
  • Puzzles: 1406

1/22/22 Week 1 Day 6

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed
  • Lessons: Completed 4 lessons on capturing pieces
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435
  • Blitz: 450
  • Rapid: 732
  • Daily: 1163
  • Puzzles: 1442

1/23/22 Week 1 Day 7

First week in the books! I had a lot of fun with this and thought the time commitment was pretty manageable. Excited to get into the book this upcoming week and play some more blitz. Although my improvement feel a bit intangible and I'm still prone to some careless blunders, I would still say it feels like I've improved this past week. Shame that the daily rating decreased a bit, but I'm happy with the progress I've made in rapid chess. Aside from daily, ratings have moved in the right direction, and will hopefully break 800 for the first time in timed formats soon.

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed, lost one
  • Rapid Game 1: Lost, opponent resigned even though they had mate in 1 next turn (739)
  • Lessons: Completed (had previously done these lessons)
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435 (+0)
  • Blitz: 455 (+35)
  • Rapid: 757 (+60)
  • Daily: 1149 (-16)
  • Puzzles: 1446 (+142)

1/24/22 Week 2 Day 1

Played a terrible game 2 and 3. In game 2, I hung my queen twice, absolutely did not deserve to win it. Game 4 I only won because my opponent resigned after miscalculating and blundering a rook. Not a great performance today, but at least still broke even. Puzzles was an absolute dumpster fire though.

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed, won one
  • Blitz Game 1: Won (485)
  • Blitz Game 2: Lost (400)
  • Blitz Game 3: Lost (523)
  • Blitz Game 4: Won (562)
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435
  • Blitz: 459
  • Rapid: 757
  • Daily: 1163
  • Puzzles: 1353

1/25/22 Week 2 Day 2

Have been having a pretty hard time with puzzles these past couple days. Really enjoyed going through game one of the book. Got a little tripped up with some of the moves and was surprised that there were a couple positional advantages that I completely missed.

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed
  • MBM Game 1: Completed
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435
  • Blitz: 459
  • Rapid: 757
  • Daily: 1163
  • Puzzles: 1355

1/26/22 Week 2 Day 3

Played a pretty strong first and second game. The third game was in an unfamiliar system and got blindsided by mate. Fourth game I blundered pretty early and was fighting from behind in the clock but managed to keep the time pressure on him and he made a wrong move that gave me the stalemate. Finally stopped some of the bleeding on puzzles. Daily games have been pretty hard, two of the games are against players much better than me.

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed, won one
  • Blitz Game 1: Won (485)
  • Blitz Game 2: Won (432)
  • Blitz Game 3: Lost (504)
  • Blitz Game 4: Draw (371)
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435
  • Blitz: 466
  • Rapid: 757
  • Daily: 1155
  • Puzzles: 1382

1/27/22 Week 2 Day 4

Feeling stuck in one of the daily games, the attack on one side just isn't quite there so I've tried shifting around to the other side. I think he has a solid position but I still feel like I should be winning here. Puzzles continue to be a dumpster fire as I have really stagnated around 1350. Played a blitz game for fun and it went very well. My position was weak at the start but found a way to break through on the kingside and managed to pull out the win.

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed, lost one
  • MBM Game 2: Completed
  • Extra Blitz Game: Won (499)
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435
  • Blitz: 475
  • Rapid: 757
  • Daily: 1155
  • Puzzles: 1353

1/28/22 Week 2 Day 5

Finally bucked the trend with puzzles. Got on a much better role with some of them. Still missing the one with the queen sack-knight smother mate but I think I'll remember it now. Have somehow squeezed my way back into one of the daily games where I was losing very hard. I think the position is still losing for me, but my opponent is one mistake away from getting mated. This would be a good win for me both for the comeback and because my opponent is typically much stronger than me. First blitz game I threw away by blundering my knight. Second game was a little touch and go but pulled it out. feeling very boxed in by the french opening as black. Game 3 was decent but he kind of handed me the mate at the end. Game 4 ended up in a crazy end game. I managed to come from behind to get that one (blundered my bishop in the early midgame). Happy to have gone 3-4 today.

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed
  • Blitz Game 1: Lost (472)
  • Blitz Game 2: Won (428)
  • Blitz Game 3: Won (596)
  • Blitz Game 4: Won (509)
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435
  • Blitz: 494
  • Rapid: 757
  • Daily: 1155
  • Puzzles: 1495

1/29/22-1/30/22 Week 2 Day 6-7

Completed all tasks for the previous day, just missed the post. Enjoyed the MBM game on the d4 pawn opening, it has inspired to give that a shot in some of my games. All ratings moved in the right direction this week. I did not enjoy the openings lessons and the endgame practice.

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed
  • 45 Min Openings: Incomplete
  • Practice 5 Basic Endgames: Completed
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435 (+0)
  • Blitz: 494 (+39)
  • Rapid: 757 (+0)
  • Daily: 1159 (+10)
  • Puzzles: 1495 (+49)

1/31/22 Week 3 Day 1

Opponent blundered his queen early in the first rapid game so I played a second. Thought I played white's opening against the sicilian pretty decent, I actually got through 6 moves in the main line which I think is a first. The second game was much more of a battle. In the end I compromised my king side pawn structure but it let my fork his bishop and queen. After about 3 minutes of waiting he finally moved his knight which left the queen hanging and he resigned after I took it. Thought that even tho I blundered a piece early in that game, I was able to get the game back into a winning position. If I can win one more game, I'll finally break 800!

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed
  • Rapid Game 1: Won (703)
  • Rapid Game 2: Won (735)
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435
  • Blitz: 494
  • Rapid: 798
  • Daily: 1159
  • Puzzles: 1510

2/2/22 Week 3 Day 3

Unfortunately had my first real miss yesterday in terms of practice. No worries because I'm back today and making up for missing the MBM study yesterday. Played a pretty solid rapid game with 88% accuracy (even with one blunder). Managed to get the advantage and hold on to it, despite almost missing a mate in 1 my opponent had on me. Broke 800 for the first time which is exciting! Tanked pretty hard in puzzles, but I think my focus just wasn't there.

• Tasks
  • 5 Puzzles: Completed
  • Daily Games: Completed
  • Rapid Game 1: Won (681)
  • MBM Game 3: Completed
• Ratings
  • Bullet: 435
  • Blitz: 494
  • Rapid: 813 
  • Daily: 1163
  • Puzzles: 1472

2/4/22 Week 3 Day 5

Completed my tasks yesterday, just didn't update the board. Had a really good win today in a daily game where an opponent resigned after they saw I was guaranteed to win their queen after a couple moves. Thought I had set a really good trap there. Barely squeaked out the draw in game 1. Did not manage my clock well at all and was playing from behind. With less than 10 seconds on the clock I gave him the opportunity to blow it and he did. Funnily enough played the same guy in the second game. Went for the King's Indian as black which he ruined with a Queen trade. Thanks to a blunder from him I was able to win that one. Game 3 I tried a nonsense opening and lost very early for it. Played a very poor game 4. Just not a good mental today.

Tasks:

• 5 Puzzles: Completed
• Daily Games: Completed
• Blitz Game 1: Draw (508)
• Blitz Game 2: Won (500)
• Blitz Game 3: Lost (446)
• Blitz Game 4: Lost (445)

Ratings

• Bullet: 435
• Blitz: 484
• Rapid: 813
• Daily: 1175
• Puzzles: 1540

2/10/22 Week 4 Day 4

Well it's been a minute since my last check in. I have fall behind in assignments and can definitely feel like I've gotten worse in the process. Game 1 my opponent blundered his bishop in the first couple moves and resigned. Game 2 was lost on some painful blunders. Did not deserve game 3 but won it on time. Bad blunders but had some decent play at the end to put some clock pressure on them. Blundered the queen early in game 4 so resigned and played another. All of the play felt pretty poor today but I snagged a cool mate in the last one.

Tasks:

• 5 Puzzles: Completed
• Daily Games: Completed
• Blitz Game 1: Won (479)
• Blitz Game 2: Lost (498)
• Blitz Game 3: Won (470)
• Blitz Game 4: Lost (360)
• Blitz Game 5: Won (477)
• MBM Game 7: Completed

Ratings:

• Bullet: 435
• Blitz: 475
• Rapid: 874
• Daily: 1163
• Puzzles: 1491

Completely fell of with this but fun to share a rating update!

Ratings:

• Bullet: 912
• Blitz: 890 (was at 1000 just a month ago but tanked hard)
• Rapid: 1116 (personal best!)
• Daily: 1113 (don't really care about this one)
• Puzzles: 2121 (was one puzzle shy of 2300 at one point but have not been able to get back)