Weekly Progress Report #18

I easily exceeded the 12 hour target this week, doing 16 hours 55 minutes.  I’ve done some good opening, middlegame and endgame study, the last aided by getting Müller’s rook endgames DVD, and have managed to steer clear of online blitz.  The only thing to improve on for next week is the tactics problems, which I’ve let slip a bit.  Here’s the breakdown:

Monday: 10 minutes CT-Art 4.0, 20 minutes ICC TrainingBot, 65 minutes watching ‘The Secret To Chess’

Tuesday: 60 minutes opening preparation for Wednesday’s local league game, 30 minutes Chess Tempo problems

Wednesday: 15 minutes preparation for the evening’s league game, 2 hours group lesson with FM David Eggleston, 2 hours 40 minutes playing a local league game (against a different person from expected, so the preparation missed its target this time)

Thursday: ~30 minutes analysing Wednesday’s game, ~20 minutes opening work

Friday: 35 minutes studying Müller’s endgame DVD, 65 minutes studying Ashley’s ‘The Secret To Chess’

Saturday: ~2 hours playing and analysing with players of similar strength at and after the uni chess society, 35 minutes analysing Wednesday’s game, ~15 minutes opening work

Sunday: ~40 minutes opening preparation for a Team 45 45 league game, 90 minutes playing that game, 110 minutes endgame work (based on the Müller DVD), 25 minutes analysing a game from Saturday, 15 minutes analysing another game from Saturday

The target is 12 hours again next week, which I expect to manage fairly comfortably as I’ll be playing in the 4NCL Northern Division at the weekend.

5 thoughts on “Weekly Progress Report #18

  1. Good luck for the weekend, Will.

    Was wondering how you go about studying openings, btw? I must confess I have no clear idea on proper “studying” in chess – it’d be great to know how it’s actually done.

    1. Thanks.

      I’m not sure if my way of studying openings is the best or proper way, but I’ll describe it. Take a source, which could be a book or chapter of a book, a DVD, or a lesson from a stronger player. Watch/listen/read it all the way through, picking up the basic ideas. Then make a ChessBase database called, for example, ‘King’s Indian’, if that’s what you’re studying. Within this database you will have games for each of the major variations, e.g. ‘Saemisch’, ‘Fianchetto’, ‘Four Pawns’, ‘Petrosian’, and probably several for the subvariations of the complicated ‘Mar del Plata’. Now review your DVD/book chapter/lesson notes or memory, writing down the main moves and assessments in your database. At this point I also use other sources to check moves I’m not sure about, such as a strong engine or a database search. Hopefully at the end of this process you will have all your repertoire written out in ChessBase databases, with evaluations and key ideas written in them, and you can quickly click through them before a game or at other times to refresh your memory. The databases should ideally be constantly updated by looking at new sources, seeing recent top games in the lines, and playing and analysing yourself. It’s hard work, and so far I only have a small fraction of my repertoire written out like this.

      Hope that helped, and let me know if you have any questions.

  2. Hi,

    It’s a good effort what your doing but I think your just kidding yourself. Although 17hrs of Chess is all good how much of it is really ‘that’ benficial? e.g. anyone can sit and watch videos. I think you know your just avoiding the ‘real’ hardwork. Also you don’t even have a FIDE rating yet – you might find it useful in getting a title.

    I’m considering starting a blog called ‘Road to FM’ as i’m studying and more sceptical about my ability to a achieve a title.

    Good luck in the 4NCL 😉

    1. I think ChessBase Fritztrainers are often pretty useful actually, and I don’t just ‘sit and watch’ them. I pause when I don’t understand bits, take notes, consult other sources etc. I’ve played 8 FIDE-rated games so far, and will be playing 2 more this weekend.

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