David's Chess Journey - Installment 50

Week 3 Study Plan

Here is the study plan for Week 3:

The main differences this week are: (1) studying during the week and then playing on the weekends, (2) even more concentration on the Tactics Ninja course from Chessmood, (3) taking a day off, (4) lengthening the games back to 15+10 from 10+5 and (5) adjusting my game range from 0 to +250 to -100 to +200.

I like the cadence of extended times of study (especially since it is tactics) and then focused time of play. That will give me space to dive deep into tactics, let the lessons set in and then play game sets on the weekend when I have a bit more time. I continue to really enjoy the Tactics Ninja course from ChessMood. I am learning a good amount and the course is very interactive and enjoyable to work through. I'm thankful that we have lengthened the games as I was getting into time trouble in the shorter games because I'm taking more time to think. I like the game range adjustment because it gives me a wider range of players and doesn't always put me with an opponent with a higher rating.

I was in NYC again for work this week, so my training was much less than I would have liked it to be. But, I still got some chess in every day. My biggest distractions are in this photo:) It is such a wonderful thing to be an Uncle and I squeezed every moment that I could with these amazing kids when I wasn't working. The work trip this week was presenting on a panel discussing contemporary issues in securities regulation (I know, really interesting stuff!) and going to the "Oscars for Lawyers" - an award ceremony where my company was up for deal of the year (sadly, we didn't win). This picture was taken right before I left for the event and it was the first time I have worn a tux since my wedding back in 2002!

While chess is important to me, it is just a hobby and there are things that are so much more important. Always good for me to remember.

The playing session over the weekend was encouraging. I won 5 of the 8 games, drew 2 and lost 1. The loss was quite painful because it was the result of a significant blunder when I was totally winning. One of the draws was the result of a more subtle blunder, but still painful. The wins were not always clean, but we both though that the games evidenced improvement. I am at the point of the journey where noticeable improvement is possible because we are grabbing the low hanging fruit. All that to say, positive growth for sure this week.

Lesson 3 Reflections

The theme of this week's lesson was "What Will My Opponent Do?." We looked at positions where the question made me calculate different lines based on the potential options and helped me see how the question can help shift my thinking from System 1 to System 2 thinking in Kahneman's framework. That is, from the intuitive (just making a move) to the logical (doing to work of calculation). The goal is to think more concretely and see more of my opponent's resources, which I often miss in my games. It was a very helpful session, though difficult.

A good portion of the discussion was also around my general approach to chess. One area of focus was emphasizing the process over results. That is, train hard and enjoy/focus on the work while focusing less on the results. Easy to say, hard to do, but worth the effort for sure.

Also, when I have a busy week, keep the discipline of practice, but scale down the scope of the practice. If I only have 15 minutes, fine, do what I can and move on.

Finally, focus on systems rather than discipline. That is, create a structure that makes chess training inevitable without having to rely on sheer will to get it done. I think that will become more important in seasons where my love of training wanes, which it does. So, good to get ahead of it now. I think the biggest system that I have put in place at this point is a coach that provides a training program for me, the obligation to mark my level of focus, time spent and comments on each item of the plan and the weekly session where I will be accountable to all of that. Very helpful system for me indeed.

During our discussion, George Leonard's great book Mastery came up again and I read it on the plan on the way to yet another work trip this week. So incredibly helpful and very much in line with everything I'm learning in my lessons. Can't recommend it enough for the adult improvers out there!

Until the next installment!