David's Chess Journey - Installment 48

Week 1 Training Plan Results

Training chess the right way is hard. While I have produced a lot of quantity in my chess journey, I'm realizing that my quality has been low and the results I have been experiencing are in line with quality rather than quantity. My first task every day this week has been to do the Aimchess daily workout. That is comprised of 15 problems of different types. It used to take me about 10-15 minutes. It now takes me around 45 minutes on average. The change is largely driven my having to write down my moves - which makes me see farther and more variations. I finish the session exhausted now. I used to finish the session like it was a piece of cake. I'm getting 10/15 right most days, so I'm still not seeing a great deal that I should be seeing at my level. Much more work to do!

On the playing front, the questions that I'm to work through during the game when I reach a position where I'm not sure what to do (i.e., most positions) are (1) What is the material balance? (easy enough), (2) What is the main idea for each side? (not so easy for me), (3) Are there any threats? and (4) Based on the answers to the first three questions, what are the logical moves, continuations and plans?

The second question has proved very challenging for me as it really assumes a great deal of chess knowledge. Beginners don't look at a position and intuitively understand it. In fact, I don't understand what is really going on in most chess positions. So, asking that question without a deep understanding of the position hasn't been very fruitful for me. It is good in the sense that it stops and makes me think. But, I honestly feel hopeless when I ask it because answers don't frequently arise, or at least correct/helpful answers. I'm at a bit of a loss here and I wonder if there is another question or series of questions that might help spoon feed my thought process at this point of my journey? I am playing 15+10 games and I wonder, as well, if I should lengthen the time control as I have been at a significant time crunch and deficiency relative to my opponents because of the incremental effort I'm giving in trying to understand the position.

From another perspective, I wonder if it is just getting better at answering the question with more practice, like a language/subject becomes more fluent the more time you spend learning it? I remember the hopeless feeling that I felt at the beginning of law school when they were using words I didn't understand, questions that seemed beyond me and concepts that were foreign to me. Perhaps I'm reaching a transition point in chess where questions like this are taking me away from my comfort zone (where I just pick a move that looks right/feels right) to a new zone where I'm actually having to calculate, evaluate and explore concepts and variations. Either way, I feel like I'm back in that first semester of law school feeling out of my depth and at a task that seems nearly impossible to accomplish. But, like in law school, I will continue on. That is the only choice I know how to make. A mountain is climbed one step at a time and that is how I will continue to move forward.

The requirement to analyze every game that I play has been difficult, as well. Before submitting to Noël's instruction, I got into the habit of just playing without analyzing. Perhaps it was because of the onerous requirements around analyzing in the Dojo Program. Whatever the case, I had given it up (other than just clicking through some moves and seeing big evaluation changes). Noël's method for analyzing Rapid games (to be clear, it is more extensive for Classical games) is simply to note the following: (1) what move in the opening would I do differently next time?, (2) Was there any major oversight in the game (engine difference 2, bigger), (3) What positions are unclear and (4) Did I follow the story of the game?

The first question really helps me use game analysis to continue to develop my understanding of openings. The Lichess opening tool is really helpful on that front. The second question helps me focus on the low hanging fruit and really spend time analyzing where significant errors were made (rather than grinding through every move like I used to do). The third question is a broad one as honestly, as I noted above, most positions in a game are somewhat unclear to me (to different degrees, of course). So I need to learn how to better use that question in a more calibrated way. The Fourth question is similar to the third. To be honest, I am having a significant struggle in following the story of the game.

All in all, a very challenging first week. But, a productive one.

Ending on a High Note for the Week

The week ended on a Saturday morning where I went through my training in about 3 hours. The first game of that session was a real high point for me (okay, I made a significant blunder in the second game and lost a game that should have been a draw because of it). Here is the game. You have to celebrate the good moments as there are so many discouraging and challenging ones!

Until the next installment!