I guess I'm asking for some help or suggestions on how I can improve. I practice my tactics on CTS and have a rating of about 1500 there. I also play 5 min blitz games on ICC. My blitz rating there is also around 1500. I'm starting to play at more slower tournaments (G/2 SD/1). I was also thinking about getting "reassess your chess" by silman. Should I also start playing some more slower games on ICC? I just dont like the idea of staring into a computer screen for so long in one sitting

Welcome!

Play in an OTB tournament then you can stare into some faces.

Crash

Welcome Ccmolitoris

My advice would be to play way LONGER games. 5min are awfully short. 60min per side at least and if you hate starring at the PC screen for so long why not set up the position on your chess board? That's what I do

Actually if you really want to improve then Correspondence chess is the solution. I've learned most of I know playing coresp. chess

cool another training journal. i agree with armis you should play longer games. when playing them remember you have ttime theres no need for you to make the first ten moves of a 1 hour game in 1 minute (thats what i would do when i was playing to much blitz andwanted to play slowr games).

i think ill start playing 15 min games on icc.. get my standard rating going

That's the problem, it's not rating that counts but the effort you put into the game. Thus I'll repeat myself again, sorry if that's annoying 15min are just way too short

might be too short but its a start

thanks biike. 15 min is a start for me and is a jump from playing 5 min games constantly. 15 min is a whole different game from 5 min... its weird. By the way my CTS rating is now 1537

15 minutes is alright, but I suggest 15 10. The extra 10 seconds per move adds up a lot and it doesn't feel like it's that long of a game, but you get an extra 5 minutes or so from the added time by the end.

Ok so i ordered "How to reassess your chess". Should I also get "amateur's mind"? Some people say its very similar to reassess your chess so its a waste to have both.

CTS Rating is now 1550

Silman himself recommends going through amateur's mind first. I've recently finished reading it and now am 100 pages through "reasees your chess". I think Silman is right about his recommended reading order. Amateur's mind is kind of simpler

Heres a 15 min game i played on ICC against a person with a 1524 ICC 15 min rating. I was 1618.

Heres another game I played. My opponent was 1652 15 min ICC rating. Can someone please gimme some feedback on this game? I know i should have won this game. I know 21. f5 was a bad move

Got over 1550 on CTS. I'm now getting some 1700 problems

Nice work! And those 1700 problems can be pretty tricky.