Yayo's Intermediate Adult Learner Plan

Today will be my first day adding structure to my chess training. I am hoping to improve over the course of the summer and be adequately prepared to enter a tournament this Fall. I look forward to starting my journey and I am really excited to play some chess!

My current ratings are:

Blitz: 693

Rapid: 963

Daily: 970

Good luck!

Today we start week 2 of the plan. Last week I took a lot of losses on my 5+5 time-controlled games. I realized that I was playing way too fast. I wasn't thinking thoroughly through my moves, and it cost me some rating. I learned that I need to slow down and think.

I did end up winning all of my 15+10 games which felt nice. I hope to keep the win streak going through this week.

This week I will focus on playing slower even if it means that I time out for some games. I will also be studying the London system for my openings review day.

I hit 1000 in rapid this past week! While I've hit this milestone before, it feels good to be back where I was a couple of years ago before I burnt out on chess. I haven't lost a rapid game since starting this program and I'm hoping to keep the winning streak up.

Studying and learning the basic ideas of the London System was the primary focus this week. I feel like I get tunnel vision trying to implement some attacking ideas which leads to me hanging pieces. I will keep practicing while taking care of my own pieces this week. Another aspect of my game I would like to work on this week would be learning about knights and how to use them in different positions, especially closed ones.

After 3 weeks, I can say that I feel a lot stronger as a player. I have learned to slow down some and think more about my moves. I have been focusing on tactics while taking care of my side of the board. I went 2-1 in my rapid this week and 7-5 for blitz with some tough losses in there.

Life got in the way this week, so I was unable to fully follow the plan as designed but I managed to play all of my required games. I did not get to study knights this week unfortunately.

This week I will focus on endgames, in particular, the overkill mates and king opposition.

Overall, I like where my progress is going, and I will update my ratings here at the start of week 5.

Sounds like it's going well!

One month in! This post is coming a day early since I will be hitting the road tomorrow with my significant other. We will be celebrating our one-year anniversary along with the 4th of July!

We are also moving in together at the end of the following weekend as well. Alongside this, I will have final papers to write for my summer courses as well as my job teaching summer school for my school district. It's shaping up to be a very busy week! So, this means that I will likely be prioritizing those things over chess.

During week 4, I managed to follow most of the plan for the week. I wasn't able to get all three longer games in, but I was able to disperse my smaller games throughout the day when I needed to. I focused more on finding tactics during my games this week and it has led to some wins. I have been drilling tactics on chessable through a course I purchased a couple of years ago. I also took the time to learn about basic king opposition in Silman's endgame book and took the time to practice drawing against a King and pawn with a lone king.

I went 1-1 in my rapid games and 7-5 in my blitz games. I have entered a daily chess tournament and have already got a win in the first round. When I lost, it was usually by a slim margin or through a small error I committed in the endgame, and when I won, it was usually in the middle game via checkmate.

This week I will do my best to follow everything even though it's likely that life will get in the way. I'll be back next week! Happy 4th!

My ratings after 4 weeks are as follows:

Blitz: 715 (+22)

Rapid: 1009 (+46)

Daily: 977 (+7)

Congrats on the new living situation :-)

Good progress so far!

Last week was really busy. I did not have any time to fully engage in my chess training. I will continue where I left off with the program with week 6. I am not sure what to focus on but I will be expecting some losses this week due to the week off. I played some blitz games here and there but I found myself struggling. Hopefully I get back on track this week!

Time to start week 7. I have been in a bit of a funk with my games recently going 1-2 in my rapid games and 6-6 with my blitz games. This week I will do my best to really internalize where my game is going wrong. If anyone wants to take a look at my last four blitz games and provide one thing to focus on, feel free to do so.

Still focusing on slower play and really thinking through my moves. I will be going through some game strategies this week to hopefully increase my strength and add to my arsenal of knowledge of the game. Not sure what to focus on but I'll do my best to find something interesting!