Road to 2100: T-39 Review

Following my post four weeks ago, here is the next in my series of ‘T- reviews’.

Ratings

FIDE standard: 1957 – 1962, +5 points

FIDE Arena rapid: 1920 – 1920, +0 points (no games)

FIDE Arena blitz: 1936 – 1944, +8 points

I picked up a few points at the first 4NCL weekend, where I drew with a 1989 after missing a chance to be considerably better, and beat an 1810-rated junior rather comfortably.  The 24 points I gained at the European Railway Chess tournament have yet to appear on the list, but assuming they do at some point I will be up to 1986.  I have played very few Arena games, so tracking those ratings remains of little importance.

Assessment: Green (little cause for concern)

Study

The amount of study I am managing to do remains well below target; I have now done 1010 minutes of deliberate practice against a target of 3600.  The same reporting issues remain as in the last report – i.e. I am still not recording time spent analysing my games or doing other chess activities as I am not convinced it meets a strict definition of deliberate practice.

The crumb of comfort in this area is that I may be having some success establishing a pre-work study habit.  Initial attempts to establish a post-work study habit in a coffee shop before going home proved unsuccessful, as I was tired and hungry after my long day and just wanted to get home.  Instead I have been trying to get into work a little earlier and do some study before starting my day, and I managed this in four of the last five working days in the period I am reporting on.  It has been an exceptionally busy time at work, so I have reason to hope that I will fit in more early morning study in the future.

Assessment: Red (cause for concern)

The first big test of this phase of my project starts tomorrow: the London Classic.  I will be playing in the FIDE Open – nine gruelling rounds of classical chess over eight days – and following that with the ten round ‘Super Rapidplay’.  A post with some of my games will follow after the Classic, possibly incorporated into my T-36 review which is due on the 20th.

4 thoughts on “Road to 2100: T-39 Review

  1. Hi,
    All the best for your games. I have just started playing chess a little seriously and have a question about the same.
    Do you have any suggestions on how one can prepare/learn an opening?
    Say for example, I wanted to learn about Ruy Lopez, where and how do I begin?

    1. Hi Proto,
      Thank you. I would suggest first playing through a number of high level games in the opening quite quickly, to give you a rough idea of the available plans and ideas. A ‘Starting Out’ or similar type of book would also be a good idea – maybe ‘Ruy Lopez: Move by Move’ by Everyman, which is good. After that you might want to make a pgn file with a few lines in it which you want to memorise – you can prepare this using an engine, database and any other sources you have such as books/DVDs. Playing some blitz games in the opening and looking up your mistakes afterwards is also quite a good way to quickly get familiar with it. Having said all that, if you are just starting out opening knowledge is much less important than practising tactics; you certainly don’t need to be memorising lots of 20-move long lines etc.
      Best of luck!
      Will

Leave a Reply