From a young age, I have had a love of chess. It is the most magnificent and enduring of games, rich in both depth and reward.
Last year, I went into a tournament and had a horrendous experience. I lost all 5 games, spread over 2 days! This was my worst result ever. However, out of the ashes rises the phoenix! This negative experience was actually a blessing in disguise. It prompted me to re-evaluate where I was going with my game and to strive for progress. And the only way I know how to progress is through tiny, incremental but relentless change.
With that in mind, this season I have won 6 games, drew 1 and lost 1. My grade was 169 before the tournament, but that has dropped to 156 because of my appalling result there. But, if you look at the 8 games I have played this season, my playing strength based on those is 180. I am very pleased!
My goal is to get to 200 playing strength. That is a real stretch goal, because to get to that kind of level, you need to be playing a lot of chess and I just don't play enough games for that. At the moment, I play about 22 slow games per year, but that is only because I entered 2 tournaments last year where you play 5 games in each. In any case, I have set goals for my estimated playing strength month by month. When you break it down this way, things seem much more doable.
I've bullet pointed a bunch of tasks I need to do which will nudge up my grade consistently. I am using a website called Chessable that helps you drill your openings, or learn strategies, tactics and so on. By consistently following this route, although I am not playing that many games per year, I still hope (and expect) to boost my grade significantly.
So, this thread is for anyone who wants to talk chess and also doubles up as an accountability thread, to help publicly disclose my improvement intentions and to keep me on track.
Last year, I went into a tournament and had a horrendous experience. I lost all 5 games, spread over 2 days! This was my worst result ever. However, out of the ashes rises the phoenix! This negative experience was actually a blessing in disguise. It prompted me to re-evaluate where I was going with my game and to strive for progress. And the only way I know how to progress is through tiny, incremental but relentless change.
With that in mind, this season I have won 6 games, drew 1 and lost 1. My grade was 169 before the tournament, but that has dropped to 156 because of my appalling result there. But, if you look at the 8 games I have played this season, my playing strength based on those is 180. I am very pleased!
My goal is to get to 200 playing strength. That is a real stretch goal, because to get to that kind of level, you need to be playing a lot of chess and I just don't play enough games for that. At the moment, I play about 22 slow games per year, but that is only because I entered 2 tournaments last year where you play 5 games in each. In any case, I have set goals for my estimated playing strength month by month. When you break it down this way, things seem much more doable.
I've bullet pointed a bunch of tasks I need to do which will nudge up my grade consistently. I am using a website called Chessable that helps you drill your openings, or learn strategies, tactics and so on. By consistently following this route, although I am not playing that many games per year, I still hope (and expect) to boost my grade significantly.
So, this thread is for anyone who wants to talk chess and also doubles up as an accountability thread, to help publicly disclose my improvement intentions and to keep me on track.
