Morning:
1. Chess Tempo: 29/34, 1755 blitz tactics rating (60 minutes - I took some time exploring some variations on some problems)
A little better than yesterday and ran into some really interesting problems. Besides getting better at tactics. I do enjoy creative and interesting problems that happen in real games.
2. Reviewed tactics errors (30 minutes)

Evening:
1. Played some blitz chess - 30 minutes
2. Art of the Checkmate - 60 minutes
I felt like a little relaxation. I'm a little under the weather and the last week of intense study has me a little tired. I want to get back to it tomorrow, but the Art of the Checkmate was fun as well as instructive. I tried to guess the moves, but didn't take too much time to analyze (at least until the mating combination).

Morning:
1. Chess Tempo: 16/21, 1754 Blitz Tactics Rating
Been feeling a little tired during these sessions. However, part of the training idea I think is to keep focus in less than ideal situations.
2. Reviewed incorrect problems - 20 minutes
3. A couple of blitz games to finish off the session. Actually had a couple good games that has content to learn from. Mainly tactical, but still good stuff.

Morning:
1. Chess Tempo: 29/36, 1743 Blitz Tactics Rating
2. Reviewing incorrect problems ~30 minutes

I have been spending the last few days playing way too much blitz and not enough training. The results have been quick to manifest themselves, as I lost a game due to a horrible blunder and my chesstempo rating has gone down quite a bit. I'm not too distraught, but if I want to reach my future goals, I need to moderate this play.

In any case, here is my long game tonight, which I lost. With regards to the tournament, I also may have thrown away first place in my chess9030 tournament. On the positive, I met a new chess friend online in my opponent, who had a nice chat afterwards. In any case, a good learning experience.



Lessons from this game:
1. Play what you know - even though I'm usually a 1.d4 player, I switched for this game as I saw that he played the Sicilian and years ago I used to play the Smith-Morra Gambit. However, instead of preparing for my opponent's opening, I went on a blitz binge this weekend and thought I could rely on my experience to get me through.
2. Play every move with care - My position was not great, but it was okay until my 23rd move, where I made a blitz-like move after about 10 seconds of thought, which ended up being a blunder.
3. Don't underestimate your opponent - I am a little embarrassed by this, but perhaps there was a small bit of relaxation due to my opponent's lower rating. I don't think I do this very much, but I have to be objective in my assessment of this if I am to improve.

All in all, with so many lessons, this has turned out to be an important game for me.

Morning:
1.Game analysis - 60 minutes
2.Chess Tempo - 14/20, 1719 blitz tactics rating
Trying to get back on track.

One of the hardest things to do is ignore your opponent's rating. Recently I've had a lot of trouble with a lower-rated opponent during turn-based games on chess.com. I have been overlooking his tactical shots, and he keeps finding them! (So why is his rating so low? Probably because he is not investing as much effort against others as he does against me.)

Whenever I've played a GM in a simul, he has always just played soundly and then jumped on my mistakes. This would seem to be the right policy for any game: play soundly, work hard for opportunities and be tactically vigilant. Oh, and ignore the opponent's rating!

I discussed this with my opponent. We both agreed that under say rating 2000, a larger percentage of wins and losses occur to errors caused by carelessness and tactical blunders rather than being "ground down" by chess ideas and brilliant play.

In any case, i write a little note to myself before each of my games that basically says a) make sure your moves are safe, b) If you see a good move, look for a better one and c) Don't underestimate your opponent's moves. I just have it there near my laptop during my online games as a little reminded. Of course, sometimes I ignore it!

Bryan, What's up recently? Haven't heard from you in a while, either here or on your blog....

Chris

Hope he's alright.

It was such a pleasure to see that people cared and also a little sorry for dropping off the face of the earth.

It's a long story, but life sometimes gets in the way of chess, but I'm hoping to be back at least on a moderate basis.

After nearly a year from playing chess, I'm trying to get back into it again. I'm going to start back moderately, and not go crazy. With that, I have just a couple little chess projects to get back into. I've enjoyed being on this forum and having the support of you all, so I'm going to continue my training journal here.

Here are my current chess projects I'm starting:
1. Finish studying my book on the French Defense - started over a year ago.
2. Daily tactical training on Chess Tempo - basic plan will be to go through the blitz tactics training daily until I get 2-3 incorrect - about 15 minutes daily. I plan to do this for a while, until my blitz tactical rating on Chess Tempo reaches 2100 or so or basically until I feel I'm really good at tactics.
3. Start a systematic reading/studying of Fundamental Chess Endings - definitely a long term project which I expect to take 12-18 months to complete.

Besides these three things, I'll just get back into playing and enjoying chess! I don't want to get too sappy, but I've missed conversing and reading the posts of everyone here.

Best regards!

Welcome back, Bryan! Better to run the marathon at a sustainable pace than to sprint the first mile and drop out, I suppose. To those projects might I suggest analyzing one of your own games per week? I would cut back on the reading, if your schedule requires, in order to accommodate analyzing your games at least a little.

Chris,

I agree...I guess I kind of put that on it's own "track." Pretty much planning on 50/50 Study Projects/Playing and Analysis.

I'm excited to get started again. I think one thing I want to focus on is looking at the long term goal and also staying present and enjoying the "work" while I do it. Chess is a hobby, but it has been an important part of my life since I was in college.

Best regards,
Bryan

I started Mueller's FCE, but never finished it; it's a fine reference, but not particularly entertaining. Have you considered Silman's endgame book? I love Silman's writing style and learn a lot because of it, so I'll recommend it even though I haven't read it yet.

I can add a recommendation to Silman's book.