Weekly Progress Report #60

It’s been a busy week at uni, and I’ve only managed about 4 hours as a result, consisting of a Durham League game and the analysis of it.  I was pressing for most of the game against a somewhat lower-graded player, but in the end could only draw.  Here it is:

Next weekend I’ll be going the London Classic, which is always one of my favourite events of the year.

5 thoughts on “Weekly Progress Report #60

  1. have you try to use mind maps?
    Gm Smirnov recomends use mind maps , he thinks that it helps very much to improve our play. Xmind is one program free that allows make mind maps, quite easy to use. You can download from Xmind.net, the free version is enough to make the most important things.

    Another question: Waht do you think you´ve improved the most after 13-14 months of study?Wich things Do you feel that you keep doing the same that before you started your journey?

    Thanks
    PS. Sorry for my bad english.

    1. Hi Antonio,

      Sorry for the slow reply.

      Nope, I’ve not tried mind maps – have you got a link to an article where GM Smirnov recommends them?

      I think I improved in a couple of ways in the first 10-12 months of study. Firstly, my toughness at the board and belief that I could beat higher-rated opponents really improved – my recent reasonable results in Open sections wouldn’t be possible without this. Secondly, my knowledge and understanding of a couple of my opening systems has got a lot better, though in others it hasn’t increased significantly (or at all). In the last few months I’m afraid my progress seems to have stagnated somewhat, and I’m currently looking for a trainer to help me remedy that.

      Will

      1. Smirnov told that in one of his courses (self taught grandmaster, i think) but it is not a free video.:((

        There is an example that shows one of the things you can do here
        http://www.xmind.net/share/tonymtbird/chess-thinking-system/

        But its just an example, you can use it to organize your study or to summarize any knowledge (endings,openings,..) you can insert archives(eg. pgn´s with the material you work on) on the mind map to make more complete the information.

        It´s easier than it seems.

        Merry Christmas!

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