Is this a reasonable approach to improve? Btw, I'm in a chess class and I am planning to get a coach. My goal is to reach 1800 in about 1-2 years and hopefully reach 2000 later.
Thought process: Analyze games with a strong player and find the mistakes in my thought process. Learn how to evaluate positions better and improve at planning. Make sure to use blunder checks also.
You may not always have a stronger player to help analyze your games - I usually had to remember what I read in books to make sense of some ideas in my games. But yes, if you can, analyze with a stronger player.
Openings: My first goal is understanding the fundamentals well enough to see how the various opeings use the fundamentals. Use Chesspathways.com, simplifychess.com, and some books to study the ideas behind every move and the basic plans. This involves playing through games on my physical board. Understand why the moves I think are good aren't and vice versa. Making sure to get the fundamentals down better (avoiding playing h3 unless needed and aiming for rapid piece development). My goal is to explore as many openings as possible and experiment. I don't want to build a repertoire until about 1800 OTB.
1800 OTB seems a bit late to build a repertoire, it's fine to experiment, but you should stick with what you know best after some experimentation. Playing games through a physical board is fine. I'd also recommend (if you have time) to play the variations against yourself. If a book says, "this is winning for white", close the book, play against yourself. Every time you find a winning variation for white, back up, and see if you can find a better defense for the opposite side, etc. This way you get to learn many things at once.
Middle Game: Learn how to plan and evaluate better. Understand the role of pieces in a given position. Understand what makes a plan good and where the pieces should be placed in the middle game. Later, I'll learn how to use the bishop (I know a little about it) and controlling key squares. Most of my understanding of strategy has come from reviewing my games though.
This is all very vague, but correct.
Endgame: Learn all the typical endgames at the 1400-1599 level in Silman's Endgame Course. Practice playing the endings against the computer. I know how to checkmate with two bishops (learned it long ago) but not with a bishop and knight. I also learned the idea behind some rook endings. I've been analyzing some of my games to see the possible endings that could have occurred and how to win them.
Bishop and knight isn't really a checkmating pattern you need to know. Analyzing rook endgames however is a must, yes.
Tactics: 50 puzzles per week. Spend a few minutes on each puzzle I got wrong. I'm doing the Polgar book and 1001 Progressively Challenging Tactics by Dave Couture. Later, I'll get the book Combinative Motifs by Maxim Blokh. I might also get "Chess tactics Antenna".
50 a week is reasonable. not too much, but not too little. I don't know about the books, I don't have them.
Blunders: Stop playing blitz currently since I blunder much more there than in rapid. Work on improving my thought process and finding the best moves for my opponents. I struggle with time pressure in blitz and play the first move that comes to mind. Another thing is to not assume that the opponent has to recapture when calculating.
Opinion: 10min games are the best for learning. you get time to think about what you've learned and you can try to implement it without falling to cheap tactics, but it's also short enough to squeeze in many games in an hour.
Visualization and calculation: Reach a consistent of 5-7 moves deep with more clear visualization. Learn how to visualize the board while blindfolded. My current progress with blindfold chess is being able to see at most 4-5 moves, but I struggle to visualize all the squares. I can name the color of some squares like g7, but I'm not very good in this area.
Visualization is ok but it's useless if you can't evaluate the end position correctly. I have that problem right now. Either I visualize too deep and analyze it wrong or I don't think enough and fall to a cheap tactic.
Games here: I haven't played too much rapid chess recently, but I plan to play when I have time
Is this a reasonable approach to improve? Btw, I'm in a chess class and I am planning to get a coach. My goal is to reach 1800 in about 1-2 years and hopefully reach 2000 later.
Thought process: Analyze games with a strong player and find the mistakes in my thought process. Learn how to evaluate positions better and improve at planning. Make sure to use blunder checks also.
Openings: My first goal is understanding the fundamentals well enough to see how the various opeings use the fundamentals. Use Chesspathways.com, simplifychess.com, and some books to study the ideas behind every move and the basic plans. This involves playing through games on my physical board. Understand why the moves I think are good aren't and vice versa. Making sure to get the fundamentals down better (avoiding playing h3 unless needed and aiming for rapid piece development). My goal is to explore as many openings as possible and experiment. I don't want to build a repertoire until about 1800 OTB.
Middle Game: Learn how to plan and evaluate better. Understand the role of pieces in a given position. Understand what makes a plan good and where the pieces should be placed in the middle game. Later, I'll learn how to use the bishop (I know a little about it) and controlling key squares. Most of my understanding of strategy has come from reviewing my games though.
Endgame: Learn all the typical endgames at the 1400-1599 level in Silman's Endgame Course. Practice playing the endings against the computer. I know how to checkmate with two bishops (learned it long ago) but not with a bishop and knight. I also learned the idea behind some rook endings. I've been analyzing some of my games to see the possible endings that could have occurred and how to win them.
Tactics: 50 puzzles per week. Spend a few minutes on each puzzle I got wrong. I'm doing the Polgar book and 1001 Progressively Challenging Tactics by Dave Couture. Later, I'll get the book Combinative Motifs by Maxim Blokh. I might also get "Chess tactics Antenna".
Blunders: Stop playing blitz currently since I blunder much more there than in rapid. Work on improving my thought process and finding the best moves for my opponents. I struggle with time pressure in blitz and play the first move that comes to mind. Another thing is to not assume that the opponent has to recapture when calculating.
Visualization and calculation: Reach a consistent of 5-7 moves deep with more clear visualization. Learn how to visualize the board while blindfolded. My current progress with blindfold chess is being able to see at most 4-5 moves, but I struggle to visualize all the squares. I can name the color of some squares like g7, but I'm not very good in this area.
Games here: I haven't played too much rapid chess recently, but I plan to play when I have time