Apologies for the lack of report last week; you’re getting a double installment now.  The bad news is that last week I didn’t make the target, managing 6 hours and 25 minutes.  The good news is that this week I did, with 10 hours 10 minutes.  Here’s the breakdown:

1st week

Monday: 3 hours playing a local league game

Tuesday: 30 minutes CT-Art

Wednesday: 15 minutes CT-Art

Thursday: 30 minutes Chess Tempo, 15 minutes CT-Art

Friday: 25 minutes playing a 15 0 game

Saturday: 90 minutes opening preparation (on the bus to Tough Guy, so I was limited to the one book I had with me)

Sunday: No chess, but lots of pain, which I’ll write about shortly

2nd week

Monday & Tuesday: Little chess (lots of chemistry and physics practicals)

Wednesday: 60 minutes opening preparation for the evening’s game (some of which hit the mark), 2 hours 40 minutes playing a club championship game + 30 minutes post-mortem analysis

Thursday: 50 minutes analysing Wednesday’s game, 45 minutes analysing last Monday’s game, 10 minutes Chess Tempo

Friday: 15 minutes analysing Wednesday’s game, 30 minutes CT-Art

Saturday: 10 minutes CT-Art, 2 hours playing decent opposition at Durham University Chess Society

Sunday: 10 minutes analysing Wednesday’s game, 20 minutes CT-Art, 50 minutes middlegame study (‘The Secret To Chess’)

From this week until the end of term the target will be 12 hours a week.  Upcoming events I’ll be playing in include the next 4NCL weekend, the British Universities’ Chess Association Team Championships, and the Blackpool Chess Conference.

This week was disappointing, as I only managed a little over half of my target time, with 5 hours and 15 minutes.  I did have a fairly big piece of uni work due in, but still, with better planning I could have managed 10 hours.  The breakdown follows, and as usual I haven’t counted time spent following super-GM tournaments (Tata Steel):

Monday: 15 minutes CT-Art 4.0, 5 minutes playing a blitz game, ~30 minutes analysing and playing moves in my correspondence games (spread over the week)

Tuesday: 30 minutes playing blitz on PlayChess

Wednesday: 10 minutes watching GM Daniel King’s analysis of the recent game between Vishy Anand and Wang Hao

Thursday: 30 minutes playing online blitz

Friday: 40 minutes opening preparation

Saturday: 10 minutes CT-Art, 45 minutes playing a strong player at the university chess club, 20 minutes analysing an endgame position, 25 minutes opening preparation

Sunday: 40 minutes playing a 15 5 game + analysis

In addition to not fitting in enough hours, there’s also clearly been too much blitz this week, so I’m setting myself some rules for this term’s study.  I think my holiday training plan was a good one, so the rules (listed in order of precedence) are based on that.

Rule 1: 30 minutes of tactics training (mostly CT-Art) per day – no other chess can be done on a given day until this is complete, with the exception of scheduled events such as league games or lessons.

Rule 2: The next chess I do following a serious game should be analysis of that game.

Rule 3: At least 1 hour of opening, middlegame and endgame training should be done per week; until these are complete no other chess can be done (with the exception of that specified by previous rules).

I’ll be aiming for 10 hours a week for the next two weeks, increased to 12 hours thereafter.  I’ll also be cutting the number of sources of study material down to one for each area, in an effort to make good progress with that source.  As you can see, these rules make it significantly harder for me to whittle away the hours playing online blitz!  Let me know your thoughts.

I did about ten and a quarter hours of chess study this week, meeting the term-time target of ten hours. The next three weeks will be fairly busy with university work, but after that I hope to be able to increase the number of hours per week somewhat. Here’s the breakdown:

Monday: 15 minutes CT-Art 4.0 (which is finally working, and seems very good!)

Tuesday: 20 minutes CT-Art

Wednesday: ~2 hours researching and playing moves in a series of correspondence games with a friend, designed to target important areas in both of our opening repertoires (this time was spread throughout the week to an extent, but was mostly on Wednesday)

Thursday: 15 minutes CT-Art, ~2 hours analysing and annotating games from the London Classic

Friday: 15 minutes CT-Art

Saturday: 5 hours 10 minutes of opening preparation (watching Jan Gustafsson’s new DVD – not the most balanced day’s training, perhaps, but once I had started watching I was quite unable to stop)

Sunday: Some time watching the games from Wijk aan Zee with live commentary, but I’m not counting that towards my total.

I have no events planned for January (apart from a club game or two), but in February I will be playing for Cheddleton 2 in the 4NCL and for Durham University in the British Universities’ Chess Association Championships.

I exceeded the target this week, managing 32 hours.  I didn’t use my holiday training plan, but instead decided to take advantage of a bimonthly event on the Internet Chess Club, the ‘marathon’.  This is a 24-hour series of continuous tournaments, in several sections, of which I chose the 15-minute section (the longest time control).  I played in every round but one, when I missed the start of a new tournament due to an extended post-mortem with my opponent.  The rationale behind playing this event in preference to studying normally is that I hope the experience may help me to cope better with playing when very tired, such as on the first day of the British Rapidplay.

Playing chess almost continuously for 24 hours was an interesting experience, made more tiring by the fact that I used a lot of the time between rounds to analyse games from previous rounds.  My level fluctuated during the event, and I made a fair number of blunders, but I also had some good games, managing to beat a 2150+ twice and also achieving a winning position against a 2300 (which I later blew).  I finished strongly, winning the last tournament and coming third overall in terms of cumulative points scored over the course of the marathon.  I’d like to share my final game of the event:

I did a small amount of training during the rest of the week, so here’s the usual breakdown:

Monday: 30 minutes opening preparation

Tuesday: 3 hours local league game (Somerset league rather than Durham league, as I’m at home at the moment)

Wednesday: 20 minutes ICC TrainingBot

Thursday: 45 minutes studying Kasparov’s ‘My Great Predecessors, part 1’ – I’m in two minds about whether to play through the games in this quite quickly, as I’m just trying to get a general ‘grounding’ in the classics, or whether to study all the games in depth – thoughts welcome, 2 hours 40 minutes playing games at my local chess club

Friday: 20 minutes opening preparation, 10 minutes PlayChess tactics training + 5 minutes reviewing mistakes

Saturday: 10 minutes playing blitz games with GM derfel, 7 hours playing in the ICC marathon

Sunday: final 17 hours of the ICC marathon

This coming week will be disrupted as I’m travelling back up to Durham tomorrow, and will be spending some time helping my girlfriend collect river water samples for her dissertation.  I’ve been collecting canal water samples today in a very unusual way – more on that later!  Added to this I still have some of the excessive amount of uni work I was set over the holidays to do, so I’m moving back to the term-time 10 hour weekly schedule a week early.

I reached the target this week, doing 30 hours.  Most of this was time spent playing and analysing at the London Junior Chess Championships, where I played in the Under 21 section (merged with the Christmas Open due to lack of entrants).  Here’s the breakdown:

Monday 27th: 20 minutes opening preparation

Tuesday 28th: 6 hours 30 minutes playing 2 LJCC games, 35 minutes doing opponent specific opening preparation beforehand (which largely missed the mark throughout the tournament), 60 minutes analysing the games afterwards with my opponent, an engine and a database

Wednesday 29th: 5 hours 20 minutes playing 2 LJCC games, 20 minutes preparation for the games, 20 minutes analysis of the 1st game, 15 minutes general opening preparation

Thursday 30th: 7 hours 40 minutes playing 2 LJCC games, 20 minutes preparation for the games, 30 minutes analysis of the games

Friday 31st: 55 minutes analysing LJCC games

Saturday 1st: 35 minutes opening preparation, 2 hours 10 minutes endgame work (Dvoretsky’s book), 40 minutes playing blitz on PlayChess

Sunday 2nd: 20 minutes ICC TrainingBot, 20 minutes Chess Tempo problems, 15 minutes PlayChess tactics training + 5 minutes reviewing mistakes, 30 minutes playing a 15-minute pool game on ICC, 30 minutes analysing LJCC games

The training plan at the beginning and end of the week was slightly disrupted by travelling and visiting family, but it was still a good week.  I will probably be returning to uni a little early, and I have, among other things, a physics essay to write, so 30 hours may be too ambitious for the last two weeks of the holiday; we’ll see.

Apologies for the delayed weekly progress report; I’ve been in London playing the London Junior Chess Championships and haven’t had internet access. I managed 7 hours 55 minutes last week, which is alright given that we had family staying for a few days around Christmas. Here’s the breakdown:

Monday 20th: 30 minutes ICC TrainingBot problems, 50 minutes playing 3 0 blitz games with GM derfel, 10 minutes playing a 2 5 blitz games with GM Blitz-King in ICC’s PlayTheMaster

Tuesday 21st: 15 minutes PlayChess tactics training, 1 hour 15 minutes opening preparation

Wednesday 22nd: Quite a while inputting positions from Livshitz’ ‘Test Your Chess IQ 2’ to ChessBase (not counted), 15 minutes ChessTempo problems, 1 hour 15 minutes doing Livshitz test 1 + 15 minutes checking answers

Thursday 23rd: 10 minutes ICC TrainingBot, 15 minutes playing 3x 5 0 games, ages preparing ‘Kirsan Baby’

Friday 24th: 2 hours 15 minutes playing a Team 45 45 league game + brief analysis, 20 minutes opening preparation

Saturday 25th: 10 minutes PlayChess tactics training + 10 minutes reviewing mistakes, 1 hour playing chess with my Great Uncle Maurice (not counted), 40 minutes opening preparation

Sunday 26th: 10 minutes ChessTempo problems

There was some focus on opening preparation as I thought it would be more immediately useful for the London Junior Chess Championships.  This week I seem likely to reach my 30 hour weekly target.

The last week of term was busy with finishing off uni work, tramping around the wilderness collecting river water samples, packing, and travelling home (with long delays), and as a result I only managed a disappointing 3 hours 35 minutes. Over all 10 weeks of term I’ve done 107 hours and 35 minutes, so on average I have met the 10 hour weekly target this term. Here’s the week’s breakdown:

Monday 13th: 15 minutes opening preparation for a Team 45 45 league game, 2 hours 15 minutes playing that game

Tuesday 14th: I listened to ChessFM live commentary on the London Classic for a while, but I do that quite often and haven’t been counting it towards training time

Wednesday 15th: 4 hours playing chess variants, eating mince pieces, and drinking mulled wine at the Durham City Chess Club Christmas Special – although some of the variants were close to real chess, I’m not going to count any of this as training

Thursday 16th: 10 minutes of Chess Tempo problems

Friday 17th: 15 minutes looking over the interesting Anand-Carlsen game from the London Classic, 10 minutes playing 2x 5 0 games, 15 minutes researching the Vienna Game (I had a game against it at the Classic)

Saturday 18th: No training worth recording, though I did go into a G-Star RAW shop and embarrass my girlfriend by telling the shop assistant I was only there to admire the poster of Carlsen 😉

Sunday 19th: 30 minutes watching Shirov’s King’s Indian DVD

I will post the details of my holiday training schedule soon.  This week will be disrupted by family descending on us for Christmas, but I should still be able to fit in a decent number of hours before that happens.

I smashed the 10 hour weekly target this week, doing at least 16 hours 45 minutes.  Most of this was spent playing and analysing at the London Classic, which went very well and about which a report will follow within the next few days.  Here’s the breakdown:

Monday 6th: 15 minutes Chess Tempo problems

Tuesday 7th: 10 minutes ICC TrainingBot problems

Wednesday 8th: 10 minutes watching Maurice Ashley’s ‘The Secret to Chess’, 3 hours playing a local league game + post-mortem analysis

Thursday 9th: 10 minutes PlayChess tactics training

Friday 10th: 30 minutes reading Dembo’s Fighting the Anti-King’s Indians

Saturday 11th: 9 hours playing 3 games at the London Classic, including post-mortem analysis with my opponents and some with FM David Eggleston

Sunday 12th: 6 hours 2 games at the Classic with post-mortem analysis, 30 minutes watching Shirov’s King’s Indian DVD

I expect to be able to make the 10 hour target easily enough this coming week, and then next week I will be on a more intensive holiday training schedule, the details of which I will post soon.

I spent 10 hours 55 minutes on chess this week, but again must subtract some ‘chess relaxation time’ (playing ChessCube’s golden ticket tournaments), making 8 hours 45 minutes of study. This is again short of the 10 hour target, but on average I am still meeting it, managing a little under 11 hours per week. Here’s the breakdown:

Monday 29th: 2 and a half hours playing a Team 45 45 League game, 30 minutes playing a Chess Cube golden ticket tournament

Tuesday 30th: 10 minutes PlayChess tactics training

Wednesday 1st: 2 hours group lesson with FM David Eggleston

Thursday 2nd: 10 minutes Chess Tempo problems, 30 minutes golden ticket tournament

Friday 3rd: 15 minutes PlayChess tactics training + 5 minutes reviewing mistakes, 20 minutes opening preparation (the nature of which will remain secret for now), 20 minutes golden ticket tournament

Saturday 4th: 45 minutes opening preparation + 10 minutes opening prep for a Team 45 45 game, 20 minutes golden ticket tournament

Sunday 5th: 1 hour 15 minutes Team 45 45 League game + brief discussion, 20 minutes ICC TrainingBot problems, 15 minutes Chess Tempo problems, 1 hour Chess Cube golden ticket final (place 28 out of 353)

I am fairly confident of exceeding the 10 hour target this week, as I’ll be playing in the London Classic at the weekend, although my study during the week is likely to suffer because of uni deadlines (dissertation due in on Wednesday).

I fell a little short of the ten hour target this week, managing eight and a half – though this was expected as I had uni deadlines to meet. One thing I’ve managed pretty successfully since starting this project is controlling my online bullet games addiction, but this week I’ve encountered a new form of chess distraction: the incredibly fun Chess Cube golden ticket tournaments.  This is a tiered series of 2-minute material-odds tournaments, where the person to rack up the most points in a thirty minute period is the winner.  There’s a fairly healthy prize pool, so I’ll probably play a few more tournaments in the hope of winning some Cubits (the Chess Cube currency) to spend on instructional DVDs.  However, I think the training value of these tournaments is close to zero so I’ll revise my week’s total to 7 hours 10 minutes, and won’t spend too much time on them this week.  Here’s the breakdown:

Monday 22nd: 2o minutes ICC TrainingBot, 1 hour Team 45 45 League game

Tuesday 23rd: 20 minutes Chess Tempo problems

Wednesday 24th: 2 hours group lesson with FM David Eggleston, 1 hour 45 minutes playing a Durham City club championship game

Thursday 25th: 15 minutes PlayChess tactics training + 5 minutes reviewing mistakes, 30 minutes analysing/annotating British Rapidplay games

Friday 26th: 10 minutes TrainingBot

Saturday 27th: 20 minutes Chess Tempo, 1 hour playing 2 Chess Cube golden ticket tournaments (the second of which I won)

Sunday 28th: 10 minutes PlayChess tactics training, 15 minutes Chess Tempo, 20 minutes playing Chess Cube golden ticket level 2 tournament (qualified for level 3)

There are just two and a half weeks left of term, after which I’ll have more free time.  I’ll have a much more intensive training plan in place for the Christmas holidays; look out for details in the coming weeks.