David's Chess Journey - Installment 18

My chess progress typically follows a significant pivot. It is time to pivot again.

Saturday I start with a new chess coach who will be a bit more prescriptive than my previous coach (who I think is amazing). That is, she intentionally divides the lessons between the opening, middlegame and endgame and gives weekly homework that she expects to be completed.

The Dojo Program is, in my opinion, the best study program out there. But, there is no accountability. My coach while I was working through the program was amazing, but there was no connection between the two amazing resources.

So, I'm going to pivot to a new coach and just do whatever she tells me to do. Homework will provide the missing accountability and her curated approach will be more specific to the areas of weakness that she sees in my game (if you have looked at my games you know they are legion).

I am a beginner with very little knowledge and a great love for the game. I still believe that I can improve beyond what the customary wisdom says and am ready to get back to work with some push from a new coach.

My first lesson is on Saturday morning and I'm really excited to get started.

I will say that the high volume of rapid with light review has been good for me. I'm sure there are more effective methods (nod to the Dojo), but I don't think that playing rapid and doing a light review is a bad approach for a beginner at my level. Like Ben Johnson says frequently on Perpetual Chess, playing allows you to practice every area of the game. While a rapid game doesn't matter as much as a OTB tournament game, most of the games still take around 30 minutes and working through the "Learn from Your Mistakes" function can take me anywhere from 2-10 minutes.

Since my journey is continuing to steer away from a strict Dojo approach, I've restyled it as David's Chess Journey. This is nothing against the Dojo. I'm still part of the community and I continue to believe it is the best out there.

We will see how it goes!