New year... new plan... old story!

The year has ended, and I've not make the planned amount of progress on the Circles. Oh well, many other good things happened so perhaps it's not a bad thing after all.

I have spent a fair amount of time following the blogs of the rest of the Knights. A dedicated bunch by any standard and full of keen insights. I wonder how you all manage to find the time and energy to make so much progress.

I think I will need to develop a somewhat less aggressive plan if I'm to have any chance of success. Maybe I shouldn't make it quite so structured. This time of the year is notorious for the development of plans that die in mid-February so I will resist.

I'd like to spend a couple of hours a week practicing/studying and an hour or so playing OTB or on FICS. After all, it's a game not a life. I may get kicked out of the Knights with such a slack attitude!

CT-Art muddles the careful plan

It seems I don't understand how CT-Art works! As I was working through the testing last night, I somehow got the thing out of my normal testing regimen. I was intending to do a fixed number of problems from Level 20, where I’m currently focused. As the program doesn’t give you much indication how far along you are, I just keep banging away at problems until it finally says I’m done. These problems seemed a lot harder than what I had been used to, but I put it down to being tired and soldiered on. After what seemed like forever, I finally got suspicious and ended the test. Much to my amazement, I found I had done nearly double the number of problems I was planning on, with many of them from higher levels. No wonder they seemed harder!

Anyway, I’ve decided to simply get back on track in Level 20 and ignore the whole thing for now. I don’t know how to reset CT-Art to show me the higher level problems again, and I guess I don’t care at this point.

Problems Solved	Circle 1	Circle 2	Circle 3	Circle 4	Circle 5	Circle 6	Circle 7
Start	22-Nov	-	-	-	-	-	-
Level 10	82%	-	-	-	-	-	-
Level 20	72%	-	-	-	-	-	-
Level 30	83%	-	-	-	-	-	-
Level 40	61%	-	-	-	-	-	-
Level 50	41%	-	-	-	-	-	-
Level 60	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Level 70	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Level 80	38%	-	-	-	-	-	-
Level 90	51%	-	-	-	-	-	-

An Opening Obsession

"Turkey Week" has not been very helpful to my study discipline...but wait...I have no discipline! Of course, that explains everything!

I've dropped a full week behind my schedule by not looking at CT-Art all week. The good news is I'm back on the treadmill again and intend to stick with it this week. One week at a time is the best I can muster at this point!

I've been worrying some about my "opening repertoire," or lack thereof. Everything about the tactics-tactics-tactics approach to chess improvement implies that I should simply learn the first 2-3 moves of a couple of reasonable openings and then wing it from there. I'm not a strong enough player to need dozens of moves of theory memorized. I'll leave a piece hanging and toss any advantage I might have built up anyway. However, I still fiddle around and fuss over getting the opening right. I really should just get over it!

Losing at Chess

I have been thinking about my attitude toward losing chess games. As I read the other Knight blogs, I get the impression that losing is a universally unpleasant experience. This lines up nicely with my own attitude. I really hate to lose...but more than that, it bothers me to lose...almost enough to make me not want to play much.

So, now you'll be thinking, "This guy has a problem with his ego. He needs to get over it and get on with the game." Perhaps. I understand that losing is part of playing. I understand that to learn and improve I must play against stronger players and will therefore lose games. In fact, I understand that losing will make me a better player. That's why I'm flailing away at these #@$%* tactical problems, right? I want to be a better chess player.

Still, I hate to lose, and it bothers me every time it happens.

On the other hand, I think I'd quit faster if I always won every game I played. Never losing isn't interesting enough to keep my attention. I would certainly not put much effort into improving my play if I never lost.

I'm also not interested in playing if there is no winner and loser. I'm not especially captivated by chess as a "beautiful art form." I don't get much pleasure from the elegance of a combination. Sorry...call me an ignorant barbarian. Chess is a contest of minds. There is no such thing as an ugly win.

So...I really hate to lose...but I have to lose to stay interested. Strange.

Circle 1, Day 5, into Level 20

Completed Level 10 yesterday and I'm now well into Level 20. I continue to be somewhat surprised by the kinds of problems that I miss at these initial levels. There seems to be a pattern of some kind to them, but I can't put my finger on it. Often they are positions in which there is a series of sacrifices with forced responses ending in an odd mate with a pawn or something. Initially I was missing smothered mates and pieces sitting off in the opposite corner of the board, but I've seen the last few of those that have come up.

With my poor performance (~80% so far) on the "easy" part of the course, I look forward to the more difficult problems ahead with some trepidation. Maybe I'll get suddenly smarter?