!?

My memory ain't what it used to be....

2009-03-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

In my quest for the Ultimate chess truth a'la De La Maza I've come to a conclusion that repetitions are not for me. I just learn the solution and on second time round recall, "Oh, it's this and that sack" and miss all the little funny things in position, which are really the key why the position "works". The problem is probably related to the fact that I really really really feel disgusted when repeating those problems...
Another memory failure I noticed is what I would call an autodrive-mode. I can go through games or play a game or two and afterwards I have only vague reflections, like "there were some interesting bishop move" or "the opening move was e4" etc etc.
Gives me a feeling that if I can't recall anything concrete on what I've just trained then how am I supposed to improve at all...
Curiously a blindfold check after doing something chess related seems to cure this autodrive syndrome.
On a more positive note, I've been reading books by Iain M Banks and even if my chess is stalling, reading is still very enjoyable...

Kakkakakkara

2009-03-01T02:57:00.000-08:00

Cts is proving to be a lot harder nut to crack than I thought. The reason for this is because, (surprise surprise) I suck;-). Funny thing is I can't even recall problems rated 1900+ right, somehow my mind just tricks me to focus on different aspects on a position and afterwards I can only wonder how I didn't see the obvious right away...
This "head banging" and reading about other bloggers trying to master "the art of visualization" gave me an idea that I should try visualization as well. So I'll try reading some games on "blindfolded guess a move mode" and solve tactics blindfolded. Maybe cts would go better if I could understand the piece relations and filter out the unwanted noise in positions...

Sheer dumb luck

2009-02-15T04:26:00.000-08:00

I won a game. I guess this "coin tossing", - what chess is at my level, sometimes favours me (De la Maza's secret doings may also have something to do with it ). I was pretty happy that I didn't have to sit full 5 hours, instead I managed with 3...
trallala.pgn

Circles 4

2009-02-11T19:56:00.000-08:00

I'll have to modify my "circles" plan a bit. To this day I've at least tried to solve an exercise before looking up the answer. From now on, I'll just look it up instantly. So I move from delayed cheating to cheating...
I need somekind of forward "flow" and these "circles" aren't providing it (my retardedness may have something to do with it...).
So understanding goes to backseat and speed/accuracy/memorization takes the driver's seat...

"...if you don't improve fast enough the experience will be so painful that you probably will not want to play chess at all after a while..." IM Ignacio Marin

Another historic landmark

2009-02-09T17:09:00.000-08:00

Yep, I finally did it. It only took me 10 years to complete this task but it really was worth it...
I've read a chess book from the very first sentence to the very last one and the book was De la Maza's "rapid chess improvement".
Content of the book was pretty much what I thought, a typical selfhelp book with a flavour of chess in it, but funnily it made me think a bit (it almost allways happens when one rejects something e.g. "I ain't going to drink my own piss, why would I?"). So for that reason I'll rate this book as best chess book I have ever read, (of course I could also rate it as the only chess book I've ever...).

Here's yet another interesting post on "general improvement", like there isn't enough of those allready. ;-)

Circles 3

2009-02-05T10:19:00.000-08:00

I managed to pass Troyis lev 25 with flying colors, so guess I won't be playing that anymore... (good thing that I reached my "goal", 'cause I was starting to wonder if there's something else wrong with me besides being a total moron)

Blitz

2009-02-04T07:28:00.000-08:00

Finally managed to play some 3min games at Fics. Quality of my play is pretty crappy but with a co-operative opponent anything can happen... (my opponents chess training has relied last couple of months on Wow and it shows...)
Here's a link for the last game...

Circles 2

2009-01-30T05:55:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to get myself to log on to fics but somehow I can't pull it off. Interesting part is that it feels as repulsive as studying for an exam - I was never able to do that either...
Circles are also in some sort of stagnation stage, it just feels too much work at the moment, -who would have guessed...
I'm thinking of taking a little break from circles and just practicing on cts, maybe I can force myself back to circles after a while...

Circles 1

2009-01-25T03:25:00.000-08:00

I've practiced with ct-art about a week now and so far" the circles" have been as promised, -maybe a bit more boring than I originally thought...
My "status" at the moment:
ct-art lev1 x5, lev2 x3,
with troyis I'm stuck on lev 25 and Fritz attack training average is 32.

I'm thinking that I should add some playing elements to this training regime so I'm going to start playing at fics again. Couple of 3min games a day should be just fine.
So far, So good... So what!

First post

2009-01-19T01:32:00.000-08:00

I've got some spare time so I decided to work through this "circle-thingy" and hopefully get something out of it. I'm going to use Ct-art for the circles and roll with it 7 times. As for the solving process I'm thinking of using my "secret method" of looking up the answer if I can't solve the position in 1 minute, -this because my attention span is very short and the problems are a bit hard for me even with answers in hand...
I don't really understand the use of those other De la Maza exercises (microdrills etc etc) so I'll replace them with intensive use of "attack training" in Fritz and 15min of "Troyis" on a daily basis.

Well, this seems to be quite enough for this test/first post so I wish myself good luck and off I go;-)