Additional training completed on Monday (after the aforementioned tactics work):
1. Spent approx 1.5 hours reading Marin book (Opening repertoire w/ White)
2. Spent approx 15 minutes on Black opening repertoire going through game w/ notes on chess.com
3. Correspondence chess.
4. cv.tv videos

Tuesday:
1. Tactics: 5 Chess Tempo + 3 Tactics Trainer. Note - did better on CT today (4/5) but was an easier problem set too, rating continues to drop on TT where I am down to 2250 range after spending most of initial time in the 2400 range.
2. Opening: 45 min on Marin book (Opening repertoire w/ White)
3. Analysis: 45 min on English / Queen's Indian Opening Tabiya from last tournament

Wednesday -
1. Tactics - (1hr 20 min) 5 CT+3TT Note - This was supposed to be my "warm up" but the first 3 problems took me a long time, and the frustrating part was that I missed the first 2. However, I finished strong and aced the TT problems (gaining 28 pts altogether).
2. Analysis - (35 min) More work on English / QID tabiya. Had to cut this short, got a late start this even and it's getting late.
3. Opening - (30 min) Opening repertoire w/ White (Marin Book)

Wish I could spend more time on #2 & #3 above, but it is getting late and I am getting tired.....

Thursday -
1. Tactics - (1 hr, 20min) - 5CT + 3TT, Again, this took longer than it should have! The last two CT problems took me 20 min each, but at least I figured them out.
2. Analysis -(1hr) - More work on English / QID tabiya
3. Opening - (30 min) Opening repertoire w/ White (Marin Book)

I also spent some time earlier today on correspondence chess games (actually this is the case most days, don't know why I'm not listing it here).

Tomorrow I will ease up and do some reading in my new "Reassess" book that I've been anxious to get back to. Maybe the K-K book as well.

Just finished my first round game from the cv.tv Tourny#3. Congrats to Fuzion - he played very well and consistently found the best move in the middlegame. It was pretty disappointing to me as the first ten moves were pretty automatic....when it came time to start thinking / calculating, for some reason my brain never kicked in. As I thought about the game afterwards, I pretty much played in "blitz mode" even though it was a 15+5 time control. I'm not very good at faster time controls to begin with, but I'm not sure why I was playing that way - and I had a substantial lead on the clock so its not like I didn't have time to stop and calculate.

Congrats again to Fuzion - I hope he wins the rest of his games! Here is the game w/ notes for anyone who might be interested:




1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Be3 a6 5.f3 b5 {This is our second time
playing this line as we played this same variation in last year's
tourny.} 6.a3 {An understandable reaction, but I'm not sure this move
is actually necessary.} 6...Nbd7 7.Qd2 Nb6 8.h4 {Also playable here
is ...h6, but I think best is just continuing development by ...Bb7.}
8...h5 ( 8...Bb7 9.h5 Nxh5 10.Rxh5 gxh5 {is nothing to be feared.} )
9.O-O-O Bb7 10.Kb1 Bg7 11.Bd3 O-O $6 {This is dubious, and I realized
it right after making the move. It is too early / too commital. Had
White already played g4-g5, then it would be fine. But since Black
played h7-h5, it would be better to delay castling in order to have
the R help cover the h6 square, and potential opening of the h file.}
( 11...Rc8 {Preparing c7-c5 would have been better.} ) 12.g4 Nc4 13.
Bxc4 bxc4 14.gxh5 ( 14.Qe2 $2 hxg4 15.fxg4 Nxe4 16.Nxe4 Bxe4 17.Rh2
d5 ) 14...Nxh5 15.Nh3 e5 16.Bh6 exd4 $2 {The losing move. Black's
game was difficult, but ...Qf6 here is still holding.} ( 16...Qf6 17.
Bxg7 Kxg7 18.dxe5 Qxe5 19.f4 Qf6 20.Ng5 Rab8 21.Rhg1 {when Black
probably has to try } 21...Qxf4 ) 17.Bxg7 Kxg7 18.Qxd4+ Qf6 19.Qxc4
Ng3 ( 19...Qxf3 {was the move I had been planning, but after} 20.Rdf1
{The open file to my King is more important than the recovered pawn.}
) 20.Rhg1 Qxh4 ( 20...Qxf3 21.Ng5 $1 ( 21.Rd3 $6 {White would still
be winning, but not w/o complications and an opportunity to go wrong}
21...Nxe4 22.Qd4+ Qf6 23.Nxe4 Qxd4 24.Rxd4 c5 ) 21...Qe3 22.Qxc7 Bxe4
23.Ncxe4 Nxe4 24.Rge1 ) 21.Qxc7 Bxe4 22.Nxe4 Nxe4 23.fxe4 Qxh3 24.
Qxd6 {Here I was looking for the best way to complicate things, and
keep all the pieces on in order to salvage some drawing chances and I
completely overlooked the obvious thematic mating threat.} 24...Rab8
$4 25.Qe5+ Kg8 26.Rh1 Rbe8 27.Qd4 Rd8 28.Rxh3 Rxd4 29.Rxd4 Kg7 30.Rd6
Re8 31.Rxa6 Rxe4 32.Rd6 Re1+ 33.Ka2 Re2 34.c4 g5 35.Rc3 g4 36.Rdd3 f5
37.c5 Re7 38.c6 Rc7 39.Rd7+ Rxd7 40.cxd7 Kf6 41.d8=Q+ 1-0

Picking up from where I left off....

Friday -
Opening - Spent 30 min on White repertoire (Marin Book)
Opening - Given my cv.tv Rd 1 games was Sat morning, I spent some time Fri eve reviewing lines, games, light analysis on the line I expected to get in my game w/ Fuzion.

Saturday -
My daughter had a dance recital on this day, and then we went to my nieces High School graduation party. Coupled w/ home projects, I didn't get much training done. I did, however, manage to find time to analyze my game w/ Fuzion. Also, caught up on some correspondence games.

Sunday -
It's raining here (again) so will probably have time later today or tonight for some study. Getting ready to go read my Marin book for a little bit this morning.
Will be going out of town for a couple days to a conference; since I will be on my own, will have tomorrow evening + airplane time free for some study.

Monday -
Augelmo's flashcard video got me thinking.....used airplane time on way to conference to review a game w/n my Black repertoire while also figuring out how to use the Opening Trainer w/n SCID. Ending up not having as much time as I thought I would last night due to follow up discussions w/ associates after meetings were done. Finally got started though on "How to Reassess" book last night before going to bed, reviewed the first couple chapters which I had started several weeks ago. Will work on some more on flight home this afternoon....

Played a short game in my room last night just to try out the SCID / FICS option. Meant to just play a blitz game because I wanted to see how it worked, ended up not getting the settings right and playing a 15+20 TC. I bring this up because I overlooked some obvious things and lost badly.....now, I wasn't really focusing on the game, but this, coupled w/ my loss in Rd 1 of the cv.tv tourny, and my poor recollection of the game I reviewed on the plane yesterday, really has me doubting my abilities right now.

I know this is all part of the normal cycle of highs and lows in any endeavor, but I'm just documenting what my state of mind is right now.... On the flip side, the last speaker before my conference ended to day was Jim Abbott and one of the things he talked about was perseverence, so I guess I need to take that to heart and keep plugging away at my training.

Tuesday -
Used 2 hours of airplane time on way home to work through some more of "Reassess" book. Wow, this is really great stuff! I'm on pg 73 now, almost done with the first of the Chapters on "Pieces in the Middlegame" which focuses on Bishops.

Wednesday -
Analysis: Had several correspondence games on chess.com to catch up on - a handful of them requiring more than some basic evaluation and analysis. I tried to incorporate some of my new learnings from Silman's book (i.e. what to be looking for to help spot tactics / combinations, how to go about evaluating a position, coming up with a move, and only THEN calculating). Interestingly, this made an immediate impact:
1. In one game, I spotted a tactic I'm pretty sure I would've overlooked otherwise.
2. In two other games, evaluating the position before trying to find a plan or move allowed me to find a better move than I think I would've otherwise.

---------------------

So, right now I'm feeling much better about my game than I was just a little over 24 hours ago (last update). Doing pretty well in solving the problems in the "Reassess" book and finding good moves in my correspondence game helps a lot. But also, developing a more disciplined thinking process I think can only help me improve my game. Here's a summary of that thinking discipline right now (for any of you that are following along and can offer any input on improving this further, please chime in):

1. Evaluate the position - inventory of all the imbalances / strengths & weaknesses in my and opponents position.
2. Create fantasy position.
3. Determine candidate moves.
4. Now calculate.
5. After deciding on a move, ask the following questions:
a. What does this do for my position? i.e. if it doesn't somehow improve my position, then go back to step 3.
b. Is it safe? By "safe" I am referring to a lesson from Dan Heisman on ICC where you check to make sure you've evaluated all checks, captures, and threats in order to try and avoid overlooking any tactics, intermezzos, etc.

Finally, as a quick aside, I find it interesting as I "rewire" my thinking that often in analyzing a position or solving problems I find the right move, but w/o really being conscious of WHY it is the best move. I suspect this is from the learnings and playings from when I was younger and this just being internalized. But being able to consciously understand the WHY I suspect helps in developing a plan or following it through.

I made my biggest rating jump after spending a lot of time really thinking about Silman's book. I found the most effective thing was really following his thinking process for a few months until it nearly becomes second nature. Now I don't follow it rigidly, but the entire thing is completely embedded in my brain.

Also, you might want to check out the Reassess Your Chess Workbook (if you don't have it already). It gives you a bunch of study problems!

I think you made a really good point at the end of your post about understanding the "why". Silman's process really helped me understand my intuition better, which has helped me further develop it.

Wednesday -
Tactics - After my last entry, I logged some more time working on tactics (5 CT + 3 TT).

Thursday -
Opening - Spent 30 min on White repertoire (Marin Book)
Watched video from augelmo's cv.tv Rd 2 game
Correspondence games.

Friday -
Correspondence games.
Training Game - Played a G/30 + 5sec game on ICC; sacrificed a pawn out of the opening for an initiative and wasn't able to cash in.
Analysis - Analyzed training game.

This position is from the training game I played yesterday. White has sacrificed a pawn in the opening for the initiative. What should White play and why? And in the spirit of Silman (among others of course), what should White's plan be?



Enjoy!

Saturday, 6/12 -
Spent a large part of the day working outside, but got some training in the morning, as well as the evening:

Play - Woke up early, and after listening to a couple videos, I completed moves in several of my on-line games on chess.com. Currently have about 15 games in progress.

Analyze - Before heading outside, I opened the door to outside, made some coffee, and worked on my training game from Friday for about an hour. Was a nice relaxing start to the day.

Play / Opening Training - Played several games of blitz in the evening, but with a twist. Normally, when playing blitz, I will play several games and just try to remember certain opening variations where I couldn't remember a continuation or the plan or something new or interesting that comes up; the idea is I will come back and review this later. Well, at best I'm probably 50/50 at actually doing this. Now, I'm terrible at blitz, but for some reason I really enjoy playing it. So, what I've bee trying to be disciplined about doing over the last couple weeks is limiting myself to 2-4 games per session so that I can look up the opening afterwards. Saturday, I played several games but simply reviewed the opening after each game. Probably the optimal way to do this...

Sunday, 6/13 -
Play - Made moves in chess.com games.
Watched ICC video on piece mobility - was pretty basic.

Monday, 6/14 -
Didn't really have time for anything other than making moves in chess.com games. Did 4 or 5 blitz games. One thing I did that you all might find interesting is that I stopped by a local coffeehouse where a few chessplayers meet regularly and met cv.tv's very own "augelmo" (Frank Johnson). As some of you may have noted in the replies to one of his recent videos, we recently discovered we live in the same area. Well, sort of, he is only in this area temporarily. Anyway, this coffeehouse is literally two blocks from my office so I went by to meet him, and got a chance to talk w/ him for about 30 min before having to leave. So, I can confirm for you all that he is a very nice guy with a good head on his shoulders and we are fortunate to have him contributing to this site!

(unfortunately, due to the server issue, my journal for Tues-Fri of last week was lost, and I cannot remember specifically what I worked on. Generally however, I believe it was mostly analyzing/making moves in my on-line games as well as opening prep as several of them have just started)

Sat & Sun, 6/19 & 6/20 -

Played in tournament!

Monday, 6/21 -

Since we were gone all weekend, I took a half day off and worked on some projects around the house, so didn't do too much chess-wise. I did manage to get all the moves from last weekends games entered into SCID, and entered my thoughts for my last round game.

Also had some on-line games to make moves in.

I'll post results of this last tournament shortly.....

Very cool to hear! Where are y'all located?

Josh,

We are in Oregon.....or I should say I am.

I believe he has mentioned in his videos that he is from Minnesota; he is out here right now doing an internship and will be returning to MN this summer (unfortunately for Oregon and me personally, but fortunately for chess players back there).

Frank, if you are reading this, I hope I'm not divulging too much info - not that there are any great secrets there, but I am being presumptive in sharing that info with the rest of the "internet world."

Josh, I remember there being a video - or maybe it was just posts on the forum - where a couple of cv.tv members met up and had a mini match.....now that I think about it maybe you were one of the two involved in that. Anyway, maybe Frank & I should get together for something like that; I haven't made any videos (yet) but he's done a ton of them and obviously does good work. Having seen his games, and knowing where my game is at right now, I know I would get crushed. But I would be willing to "get publicly crushed" for the good of the site and I always appreciate the opportunity to play stronger players (1. good benchmark on improvement progression, 2. learning opportunity). What do you think?

SOC

Tuesday, 6/22

1. Entered "in-game" thoughts for Round 5 game from last weekend's tourny.
2. Chess.com games.

Wednesday, 6/23

1. Entered "in-game" thoughts for Rounds 1, 3 & 4 games from last weekend's tourny.
2. Chess.com games.


EDIT - FOR ANYONE FOLLOWING ALONG THAT IS INTERESTED, I WILL POST GAMES FROM LAST WEEKEND SHORTLY.