Monthly Archives: January 2012

Weekly Progress Reports #67-69

Week #67: I did around 6 hours of chess, with about half of that being a Somerset league game for my home club of Sedgemoor.  I lost the game on the black side of a slightly strange fianchetto King’s Indian where white left his king in the centre and attacked on the kingside, but somewhat embarrassingly I’ve misplaced the game score and so can’t show you the game (yet).  The remainder of the time was split between online blitz games and a little opening work.

Week #68: My first week back at uni, and I did about two and a quarter hours, of which most was a Durham league game.  The opponent for which I had prepared couldn’t make it, so an inexperienced player filled in for him and I won the game.

Week #69: I did about 5 hours of chess work this week, including some online games, watching this video, and playing a Club Championship game.  The game is shown below.  My opponent appeared not to be familiar with the slightly offbeat Arkhangelsk variation which I chose, and I got a pleasant position out of the opening which turned into a crushing attack after a few strange moves from white.

Weekly Progress Reports #65-66

Happy New Year to all my readers.  I only managed about 3 and a half hours in the week after Christmas, consisting of analysis of a recent league game, as well as playing and analysing some online 15-minute games.  In the following week I managed 7 and a half hours, including more analysis of the league game and an online study session (serious games and analysis).

I’ve got a large piece of university work due in soon, which isn’t allowing me to do as much chess as I’d like at the moment, and unfortunately I don’t see the pressure easing much until after my finals at the end of May.  The only tournament I’m currently planning to play in before then is the Blackpool Chess Conference in March, but I may also find time to play in the Durham Congress the following weekend and will continue to have local league games.