I quit chess for 3 years, although I did play a bit of blitz chess during this time. There were times when I went at least a month without playing a single game of chess.
My goal with this blog is to chart my course to going from "expert" to "master". This is not an easy task. Although I have beat 2 official "masters" in over the board play, I am definitely not of "master" strength. In other words, when I'm on form, inspired, and lucky, I can beat strong players. But on the other end of the spectrum, I can completely mis-read a position and have many holes in my game.
I'd like to say that I could realistically achieve this goal in 2 years. I've got tons of chess material to study, a huge backlog of information. Chess software, scores of pdf books, videos, websites, etc.
I've been playing chess seriously since about 1997. I'm 31 years old. I've played thousands - yes- thousands of speed games on ICC, Playchess, Chess.com, Chess.net, and in person. I've played tournament chess for years as well. I was highly under-rated for years: with a 1300 rating I was beating 1800's. My rating finally caught up to my skill when I moved to Kansas City and was able to play more tournaments.
I also like to teach chess. More on that later. I am not looking for students. I like to make chess videos and am thinking about making a chess video site.
I will be posting frequently, attitude willing. In the next few posts I hope to explain a bit about my chess career, the way I view the game, how I improved, etc. Let's just say I'll be mentioning Josh Waitzkin a few times. You may hear the phrase "maintain the tension". Heck - just go buy chessmaster grandmaster edition already and start watching the Josh Waitzkin lectures. There, I got that out of my system. Best lectures available in chess, hands down.
Thanks for your time, and I look forward to your participation as I make the long journey from expert to master.
Drawing on any martial skills for inspiration?
ReplyDeleteGood question. Even though I trained wing chun kung fu for a few years, I was an off and on student and don't feel that I have a ton of skill.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I was thinking of the whole process of training martial arts and how that can apply to chess.
For example, in our kung fu class we would come in every day and do some drills. They seem like very basic drills and you might think that once you have done them enough you wouldn't need to do them anymore. Nevertheless, every class you do these drills.
You could apply that to chess as well...Every day or "class" train your basic "level 1" combinations, that are very easy but solidfy your fundamentals and help later with more complicated or difficult to spot combinations.
In addition, the way we learned in class was a very eastern style where you are encouraged to think of things on your own. In chess often ideas and variations are spoon-fed to the student because it is assumed he is not capable or too lazy to figure things out on his own.
I'll definitely be thinking about this topic and how it can relate to chess study, teaching, and practice.