Hi everybody, this is mainly used as reference for me since im doing a lot of chess training right now and i thought this would be the perfect place to organize my ideas and accomplishments.

Ultimate Goal: Become a Grandmaster.


sub goals
NM uscf 2200
FM
IM



Training schedule put together from my coach (GM by the way).
2 hour tactics using chesstempo
30 min endgames using Dvoretsky's endgame manual
30 min openings using chess position trainer
every day rotates the schedule so that a different subject is in the 2 hour slot.

after that i will look over the chess lessons i had with my coach that are on strategy, read chess books, watch some videos and play and analyze my games.
Also i will be studying the games of world champions.

http://www.chessville.com/instruction/C ... Advice.htm
and lastly I will be trying to apply the information that I find in those articles to my games.

Playing Schedule
2x a week 60 0 weekends
5x a week 15 0 weekdays
5 0 for all other games
with short analysis after each game, then checking analysis with computer


list of random stuff and achievements

2006-started playing chess age 13
2007-rating strength approx 1400
2008-rating strength approx 1600
played board 1 for high school chess team and won city championship.
won an individual championship tying for first place while playing first board for the team.
beat my first FM in simul and in 15 min game.
Drew my first IM in simul
Drew my first GM in simul
uscf rating of 1297 from 4 games (not accurate yet)
2009-rating approx 1700+ most likely higher by now.


closing note
I looked up everything i could about chess improvement and i have read it all and am still confused on what exactly i need to do. The turning point was when i hired a coach. He saw what i needed to do and we meet online once a week and i am improving a lot. And i believe that my system of chess training will help me achieve my goal.

Good luck on your way to becoming a grandmaster.

But maybe you would like to make a few other goals (short term and long term goals) next to your ultimate goal of becoming a grandmaster. For example: Reaching a rating of X in 6 months. Also you should try goals that you can always reach when you put enough effort in to them. Like doing X tactics a day for a month, finishing a certain book in X weeks, watching X videos in a week etc. That way you'll feel a lot better about your achievements and also you will stay motivated.

I'm looking forward to seeing some of your games.

BTW how old are you and which grandmaster are you taking lessons from? (is it expensive?)

Greetings With a training schedule like that and lessons from a GM you are well on your way!

That's an interesting link you posted. I'll most likely check it out thoroughly tomorrow

Ah, beat me to it I was about to ask the same

I will try to come up with some short term goals and add them maybe tomorrow or something.

I am 16 years old right now, but my birthday is august 16 so i am about to be 17 (yay i start drivers ed next week lol).

i take lessons from Predrag Trajkovic,GrandMaster from Serbia,ELO Fide 2481
he charges 20 dollars an hour on the icc.
http://www.chessclub.com/finger/PTrajkovic

Edit: wow today i went to the cts server and having not been there in a while and broke my old record of 1435 to 1601 in 1 day. most likely because of RD though...

Just looking at the first post, it sounds like a good plan with a lot of hard work ahead. Also thanks for mentioning "chesstempo." I wasn't aware of it before, and it's the best tactics training site I've seen.

Carl

PS: I've been trying to hit the top 1200 in Standard on Chess Tempo this afternoon. After a few ups and down I managed a rating of 1626.8 and 1198 ranking.

Also ... oh, to be 16 again.