I exceeded the 10 hour target by a large margin this week, doing about 16 hours 50 minutes.  Most of the time was spent playing games; in the British Rapidplay at the weekend and the local Durham league on Thursday.  Here’s the breakdown:

Monday 15th: 15 minutes ICC TrainingBot, 15 minutes Chess Tempo problems, 30 minutes playing 5 0 games online

Tuesday 16th: 15 minutes PlayChess tactics training + 5 minutes reviewing mistakes

Wednesday 17th: 20 minutes TrainingBot, 2 hours group lesson with FM David Eggleston (with two other students of similar strength to me)

Thursday 18th: 20 minutes Chess Tempo, 3 hours playing a local league game

Friday 19th: 15 minutes PlayChess tactics training + 5 minutes reviewing mistakes, ~30 minutes checking some lines in the King’s Indian Defense (Sämisch and Four Pawns Attack)

Saturday 20th: 30 minutes watching Maurice Ashley’s ‘The Secret To Chess’, 4 hours playing rapid (30 minutes each) games

Sunday 21st: 4 hours playing rapid games, 30 minutes looking at Fighting the Anti-King’s Indians by Yelena Dembo

I expect it to be difficult to make the ten hour target this week, as I have a few bits of uni work due in.  What chess training I manage is likely to be focused on reviewing my games from the past week.

This week I fell short of my term-time target for the first time, and only managed 6 hours 20 minutes. However, this was expected as I had a fair amount of uni work to do, and I should exceed the target again this week (I’ll be preparing for the British Rapidplay during the week and playing it at the weekend). Here’s the breakdown:

Monday 8th: 20 minutes Chess Tempo tactics problems

Tuesday 9th: 10 minutes Chess Tempo

Wednesday 10th: 10 minutes Chess Tempo

Thursday 11th: 10 minutes Chess Tempo, 25 minutes playing 3x 5 0 games on PlayChess + brief analysis

Friday 12th: 20 minutes opening preparation for Team 45 45 game, 2 hours playing Team 45 45 game

Saturday 13th: 15 minutes PlayChess tactics training + 10 minutes reviewing mistakes, 20 minutes playing 2x 5 0 games

Sunday 14th: 20 minutes ICC TrainingBot, 40 minutes playing 5 0 games on ChessCube

The training continues to be a bit unstructured, and from this week I’ll be attempting to keep at least the tactics problems element constant by doing it at the same time each day.  I’m going to force myself out of bed in the morning by putting my alarm at the far side of the room, and do at least 20 minutes then, to be topped up later in the day when I have the chance.  I’ll also be changing my problem source each day, between ICC TrainingBot, PlayChess and Chess Tempo.  I expect most of the rest of my week’s training to focus on opening preparation for the weekend, though I also still have my 4NCL games to analyse properly.

I managed to keep to my target, doing about 12 hours 10 minutes.  However, the time was again somewhat unstructured, with most of it being spent on three long games – a local league game and two games in the 4 Nations Chess League (4NCL) Northern League.  I was blown off the board in the local league game, but the 4NCL weekend was a success as I won both of my first FIDE-rated games.  Here’s the breakdown:

Monday 1st: 30 minutes Chess Tempo problems

Tuesday 2nd: 25 minutes playing a 2 20 game (odd time control, I know)

Wednesday 3rd: 20 minutes Chess Eye visualisation training (I was without internet), 100 minutes playing a league game + quick discussion

Thursday 4th: 10 minutes Chess Tempo

Friday 5th: 10 minutes Chess Tempo

Saturday 6th: 45 minutes opening preparation for first 4NCL game, 4 hours playing 4NCL game

Sunday 7th: 1 hour opening preparation for second 4NCL game, 3 hours playing 4NCL game + 20 minutes reviewing

This week I’ll be a bit pressed for time, as I have a few bits of uni work ongoing, so all I’m going to aim for is to keep up some daily tactics and have a look over last week’s games when I have the chance.  I should be able to put in a decent amount of time over the weekend to make it up to the 10 hour mark.  A report on the 4NCL weekend, which was most enjoyable, will follow shortly, and a post about my first three local league games of the season can also be expected at some point this week.

The target was 10 hours again, and I just managed it, with about 10 hours 10 minutes.  Details of the weeks’ training follow:

Monday 25th: 15 minutes visualisation training using ‘Chess Eye’, 15 minutes tactics problems with ICC‘s TrainingBot, 30 minutes playing a 15 0 game

Tuesday 26th: 15 minutes PlayChess tactics problems + 5 minutes reviewing my mistakes

Wednesday 27th: 60 minutes Chess Tempo tactics problems (I only had the use of a computer without ICC or PlayChess software during that hour, so I couldn’t play games or do any varied training)

Thursday 28th: 30 minutes Chess Tempo problems, 45 minutes playing 2x 15 0 games

Friday 29th: 15 minutes Chess Tempo problems, 10 minutes playing 15 0 game (losing quickly in a Dragon), 35 minutes reviewing 1st video of GM Ronen Har-Zvi’s Dragon series on ChessFM

Saturday 30th: 15 minutes TrainingBot problems, 25 minutes Chess Tempo problems, 3 hours at Chess Society (of which I’m counting 2 as useful training time), 1 hour playing 3x 10 0 training games with chessdi + analysis, 1 hour playing 3 0 blitz games with my friend Dave Brogan who used to give me lessons many years ago

Sunday 31st: 30 minutes Chess Tempo problems, 25 minutes playing a 15 0 game (Sunday was more dissertation-focused, following Saturday’s chess gluttony)

I may struggle to make 10 hours this week, as it’s necessary to spend more time investigating and writing about the [sarcasm]neverending fascinations[/sarcasm] of lidar.  It has been suggested that my training plan could do with a bit more structure, as at the moment the only constant element is the daily tactics problems, so I will consider modifying it for next week.

The target this week was ten hours again.  Like last week, I exceeded it, doing about thirteen hours; like last week, the intended subdivision of the time was not exactly followed.  For the coming week I will have the same target, but I will attempt to include some ‘visualisation training’ (e.g. here or here), possibly eating into the tactics allowance a little.  A breakdown of my week’s training follows:

Monday 18th: 40 minutes ICC TrainingBot (tactics problems), 30 minutes looking over Najdorf games (in a database sent by Blitz-King), 20 minutes playing a 15 0 game

Tuesday 19th: 30 minutes TrainingBot

Wednesday 20th: 30 minutes TrainingBot, 2 hours 20 minutes playing a local league game, an hour and a half in the ‘Woody’ (local pub) going over the evening’s games – I have divided this time by three according to the formula Useful training time = Total time / Number of pints consumed + 1.

Thursday 21st: 30 minutes TrainingBot, 25 minutes playing a 15 0 game + brief analysis

Friday 22nd: 30 minutes TrainingBot, 100 minutes playing 3x 15 0 games + brief analysis, 10 minutes PlayChess tactics training, 30 minutes writing notes on the French Defense Tarrasch variation after 3…Nc6

Saturday 23rd: 10 minutes TrainingBot, 15 minutes visualisation training, 2 hours at Durham uni chess society (most of which was spent playing strong opposition, including FM David Eggleston)

Sunday 24th: 10 minutes PlayChess tactics training, 35 minutes blitz with GM derfel, 40 minutes chess.com video: Recent Trends In the French; Tarrasch by IM Thomas Rendle

A post about my last two league games, both of which I won, but neither of which I won by playing well, will follow soon.

The target this week was ten hours, to include half an hour of tactics problems a day.  I exceeded the target by a decent margin, doing eleven and a half hours (after excluding chess-related time of no real training value), but fell half an hour short on the tactics over the course of the week.  Here’s what I did:

Monday 11th: 30 minutes ICC TrainingBot (tactics problems), 20 minutes blitz with GM derfel, 1 hour lesson with GM Damian Lemos

Tuesday 12th: 30 minutes TrainingBot, 20 minutes  chess.com video: The Four Knights Opening: Intro! by Roman Dzindzichashvili, 40 minutes playing weak opposition at St. Cuthbert’s Society chess club – not included in count

Wednesday 13th: 20 minutes TrainingBot, 90 minutes at Durham City chess club (60 studying rook endgames, 30 playing blitz against a strong opponent), 45 minutes studying with chessdi: blitz game & analysis, plus a rook ending

Thursday 14th: 35 minutes PlayChess tactics training + 10 minutes reviewing mistakes, 45 minutes analysing a complex GM game position with chessdi

Friday 15th: 20 minutes PlayChess tactics training, 20 minutes blitz with GM derfel, 25 minutes chess.com video: Shankland Teaches the Najdorf: 6.Be2

Saturday 16th: 30 minutes PlayChess tactics training, 2.5 hours at the university chess society (only counting 40 minutes as training, which was spent playing a tough game), 30 minutes independent analysis of the GM game position mentioned above, 60 minutes analysing a problem with chessdi and playing a guess-the-move GM game (Lputian – Kasparov)

Sunday 17th: 15 minutes TrainingBot, 30 minutes playing a 15 0 game plus brief analysis

I have had two unexpected bonuses on the training front this week: derfel(GM) on ICC has been playing blitz games with me, and chessdi on ICC has been acting as a coach and been very generous with his time.  Thanks to both of them.  The target this week will remain the same, as I have my dissertation to be getting on with.