I guess it is about time I started a training journal.

First I'd like to outline my goals.

1. I'd like to play like a 2000 rated player. I don't play in over-the-board tournaments, but I play correspondence through redhotpawn.com and that should give me a feel for my level of play. When I feel I am close to 2000, I may enter an OTB tournament.

2. I'd like to be stronger, tactically. I'd like to be able to look multiple moves ahead and have a clear picture of the board. Right now, about two moves is all I can hold in my head. I'm using professional chess trainer (professionalchesstrainer.com) for tactics training and I do really well on the one or two move mates, but the three move mates are much harder. I'd like to continue using PCT as I like its interface. I'll also use the CTS occasionally and post the results here when I can.

3. I'd like to beat petrovitch on a 50/50 basis. We are good friends and play a lot against each other. He consistently whips me, though I get an occasional win and am beginning to draw more often.

4. I'd like to learn a few openings. I used to know the Dragon really well, but it has changed so much since the soltis variation that I learned that I am hopelessly out of date. I'm trying to learn more positional openings such as the Semi-Slav, Alekhine's Defense, and the English. I think, longer term, I'd like to play the Ruy Lopez against e4, though there are mounds of theory to wade through there.

So, to more succinctly state my opening preferences
1. against e4: Alekhine's, Ruy Lopez
2. against d4: Nimzo Indian, Semi-Slav
3. as White: English or e4

I'm going to use this training journal to analyze my losses against petrovitch and use them (and the readers' help!) to get better. I'll also document work done through PCT, CTS, etc...

I'm currently reading a number of books: Silman's Endgame Course, Strategical Chess (Mednis), and, of course, Chess by Laszlo Polgar. I mainly work through it while sitting in line to pick up my daughter from school, or when taking my kids to McDonalds to play.

Well, that's it for now. I'll be back to post analysis of a game later.

Glad to see a new training journal! That's always exciting. Also it's cool to see you're reading an Edmar Mednis book. I always thought he was one of the most under-rated chess writers. I love his stuff.

I haven't heard that much about the PCT, but I'm gonna check it out now

Today I worked on another tactics lesson in PCT. It was a little over 100 problems, mostly mates in one or two, so I got them quickly. I did notice a new mating pattern though, or at least started to see it more easily. There are certain mating patterns that I can see very quickly, so adding one more to the list is always exciting.

I have some interesting positions in my games with petrovitch. I'll show some of the positions in games currently in progress. Of course, when they finish, I'll post my analysis.

Game 1: I'm black in a Semi-Slav, Botvinnik Variation. I have just played the move f5 and it is White to move.



Game 2: I'm white in a Semi-Slav. I have just played the move Qb3 and it is black to move.



Game 3: I'm black in an Alekhine's Defense. I have just played Rad8 and it is white to move.



Game 4: I'm white in an Alekhine's Defense. I have just played Bxb6 and it is black to move.



Game 5: I'm black in an e5 against the English. I have just played Re8 and it is white to move.



Game 6: I'm white in an English. I have just played Nc3 and it is black to move.



I was trying to focus on ensuring all of my pieces were protected, but that seems to have flown out the window in a few of the games. Oh well I'm sure he'll punish me for those mistakes.

I believe petrovitch and I are also going to start a thread in the games analysis section where we take a grandmaster game and walk through it to the best of our abilities. I'm hoping other forum members will join in with their analysis as well. Probably play the first couple of moves, then dive in and analyze the game a move at a time. Petrovitch would like to study either Morphy, Capablanca, or Alekhine. Probably, we'll rotate through them.

Glad to see another training journal!

I like the idea of analyzing GM games especially the ones of the past masters. I really like the way they played back then: Alekhine, Capablanca and so on

Alekhine's Defense is hardly positional in my opinion. It is one of the more aggressive/tactical openings Black can choose from.

I tend to disagree. Black allows white to build a big centre and then tries to brake it. This a pretty important positional theme of the alekhine's defence.

What I noticed looking through the training journals is that most people talk about openings a lot. Study this opening, study that opening... I'm on the sceptical side of this subject. Although good opening knowledge gives good practical results but in the long term endgame and middlegame studies are WAY more valuable for the development of the chess player. My point is to put away opening studies until one has reached 2000+ or so on the ELO scale

Well, of the games with petrovitch, 1 ended in a draw, the other 5 ended in losses However, the analysis will, I'm sure, help me grow. In one game, I thought I had a tactical win, but overlooked a critical defense leading to a loss for me In another, I played a move under the influence of antihistimines and dropped a knight. The others were just me being outplayed by a much stronger opponent.

I'm continuing to work with PCT and am seeing mates much more easily now. I need to start blindfold training. Also, I picked up a copy of the Art of Attack in Chess by Vukovic . I had an old copy but I wanted the newer version that was in Algebraic notation. I also got HTRYC workbook and a book of Kasparov's games. I'm hoping they will all turn out to be good books.

As for opening discussions on here, you're right armis, it doesn't make too much of a difference at my level. I just want to play something that puts me in a good position and something where I understand the middlegame plans of both sides. I think that will put me in the best position to succeed.

I haven't lost a rated game in a while on RedHotPawn.com (a correspondence site). The games I play with petrovitch are unrated, so they don't count

Anyway, my rating is now up to 1660, which I'm excited about.

Here is a recent win against a 1730 rated player that I thought was particularly exciting.

Very nice game! You punished black for not castling quickly enough (although your king stayed on e1 the whole game...so maybe black wasn't really punished, just beaten in an attack). Anyways, nice work.

I did another 150 problems on PCT. I'm starting to see more and more tactical themes, even in my games. I played a game on FICS the other day where I made a rook sac on h7, brought a queen to the h file and mated with a knight on e7. It was only through tactics training that I would have ever seen that.

My last set of 10 games against petrovitch ended with +1 =5 -4. So, that is an improvement over the +0 =1 -5 of last round.

Here's a quick draw from the last set between petrovitch and myself. We were experimenting with the gruenfeld, neither of us had played it before.

Here's a correspondence game I just finished up. I miscalculated on move 16 and lost a bishop for a pawn(I didn't see 17. Ng5 QxN!!). However, my opponent, rated ~1520 didn't know how to defend and I ended up winning.

Nice game. You had a great position until white snuck through with the forced draw.

I'm leaving tomorrow with the family for Disney World, so I won't be on the computer for a week. I plan to take a few books, maybe HTRYC Workbook and the Art of Attack in Chess. I won't have a lot of time, but there will be some time on the 16 hour ride down

Cool, have a great time
I once took HTRYC workbook to a long ride as well. The nice thing about it is that Silman doesn't give tons of variations but explains the positions instead and really really clearly You might as well take a magnetic chess set just to go trough variations or even 5 little chess sets to play a simul with your family!