2024 Training Plan

My Training Plan

1. Play/Analyze (8 hrs/week)
   1. Play 2 slow games/week (minimum 30|30, preferably slower); review/analyze afterward
   2. Play in 2 OTB rapid tournaments per quarter
   3. Play 1 structured blitz session (four games/session) per week
   4. Build opening files out 1 move per game
2. Tactics/Puzzles (6 hrs/week)
   1. Tactics/puzzle books* – this is the core of my tactics program with a focus on intermediate tactics/calculation
   2. Chessable tactics reviews – review of basic tactical patterns using spaced repetition (5-10 min/day)
3. Strategy/Annotated Games (2 hrs/week)
   1. Strategy/annotated game books*
4. Other (2 hrs/week)
   1. One lesson per month with coach; homework as assigned
   2. Dojo endgame sparring with colleagues; consult Silman’s endgame course as needed
   3. Weekly planning & review

The “hours per week” are an estimate of course, and in practice vary somewhat from week to week.

*See below for specific study material

Sources of Inspiration
My thinking for putting together a training plan, as well as which material to use, has been most heavily influenced by the following:

1. Dan Heisman
2. The Dojo Training Program
3. Ben Johnson (both his podcast and his book "Perpetual Chess Improvement")

I also have to give shout-outs to Neal Bruce, Nate Solon, and Noël Studer, all of whom have also had some influence on the structure of my training plan and/or which resources to use.

The Thinking Behind the Plan
Here I will provide details of my training plan which summarizes my overall chess improvement philosophy for adults who play chess as a hobby.

1. I have come to believe that playing slow chess games and analyzing them afterward is the most critical component of chess improvement. Playing slow chess allows engaging in “System 2 Thinking” which is not possible in speed games.
2. I believe that playing OTB tournament chess with standard time controls is the ideal way to improve, but right now I have no access to such tournaments (my local chess club only hosts rapid and blitz tournaments). Before this year I played most of my slow games online with a 30|30 time control, either through the Lichess Lonewolf League or setting up a random custom game. However, I recently started playing more 60|30 slow games OTB with friends around my level so that the games count toward the Dojo Training Program requirements. I also decided to play in the Lichess 45|45 league instead of the Lonewolf League at the start of this year. I have certainly developed a strong preference for 60|30 or 45|45 over 30|30 because it gives me more time to complete my thought process before each move.
3. I have realized the importance of analyzing games for several years now, but I recently decided to put more effort into this by dedicating 90 minutes of analysis for each slow game. I recently saw a quote from the Dojo that said something along the lines of “Your improvement lies in the hard work you’ve been avoiding.” I realized that putting sweat work into game analysis was probably the hard work I have been most avoiding. This is how I am now doing my game analysis:
   1. Import the game into a Lichess Study.
   2. Use the Lichess Master Database to analyze the opening line played in the game. I am building my opening files in Lichess Studies and my approach is to add one move to my repertoire after each game (the first move where I decide I should play something differently in the future than I did in my game).
   3. Annotate the game (keeping the engine off). I focus on writing why I did what I did at key points and analyzing key positions in the game more closely to try to find better moves. I try very hard to identify which of my moves were mistakes/blunders and find which move(s) I should have played instead. I usually spend at least one hour on this step alone.
   4. Turn on the engine to check my analysis. If I was able to correctly identify most of my mistakes before turning the engine on, I consider my work to be a success.
   5. I import the positions where I blundered or missed a tactic into a custom Chessable course, then review with the Move Trainer technology on a spaced repetition schedule.
   6. Handwrite about half a page of notes in my chess notebook with short notes on the following three categories: 1) Safety/Tactics; 2) Time Management; 3) Activity/Development. I really focus on improving in these three areas and I find it helpful to document what I did well and what I did poorly in these areas for every game.
   7. Occasionally I will go through my chess notebook to do some “macro” analysis of my game review notes. This helps me identify patterns and areas of focus for my training plan.
4. While I do not have easy access to OTB tournaments with standard time controls, I do have a goal of playing in 2 OTB rapid tournaments per quarter. I think there is at least some benefit to tournament chess of any time control, and it is also a good way to build chess community which is also important for long-term improvement.
5. I now play blitz only in structured sessions of four consecutive games using a 5|3 time control. The point of doing it this way is to stay alert, focused, avoid tilt, and maximize learning from the process. After each session, I review my openings from each game and build my opening files using the same approach as for my slow games, as well as do a quick engine analysis to see what I missed during the games.
6. I do not do any opening study apart from building my opening files as described above, though I am currently experimenting with adding my key opening lines from my Lichess Studies into Chessbook for spaced repetition review.
7. When it comes to tactics, I have come to think of two different categories: 1) Basic tactics which need to be studied for pattern recognition, and 2) intermediate/advanced tactics which require calculation. I have spent the last 2+ years focusing on the first category, and I am now moving into intermediate tactics which may fall more into the second category (though there is undoubtedly overlap between the two categories). In the first category, I think there is some benefit to doing tactical sets repeatedly and grouped by motif, especially for the first few years of training when the patterns are really being ingrained. I have 4-5 such tactical sets on Chessable which I review regularly using spaced repetition. For the second category, I think it is better to solve random/mixed motifs and I do not think there is much value in repeating the same problems.
8. The point of studying basic tactics is not only to execute those tactical patterns in games (such opportunities may come only 1-2 times per game), but more so to help make sure that a candidate move is “safe” before playing it (i.e. making sure that opponents cannot execute a tactic against you). Basic tactics can be utilized for this second purpose pretty much every move in a game (apart from the first few opening moves).
9. I have found significant value in using physical tactics books and writing down the answers to problems, including all reasonable variations, before checking the solution key. Not only does this build the discipline to actually solve the problem and not just guess, but it also forces you to prove that you considered all possible lines. A major defect of most online tactics trainers is that they only play one line and you may never know if you were prepared to meet other possible responses.
10. Up to this point, I have rarely set up tactical problems on a board to solve them. However, as I move into intermediate tactics to improve my calculation abilities, I plan to experiment with setting up problems on the board. I do not think it is worth the time to set up a physical board for problems that take 1-2 minutes to solve, but it is likely a good idea for problems that take 5-10 minutes to solve.
11. As I have moved into studying intermediate tactics, I have set a 10-minute limit on each problem. If I have not solved it by then, I simply consider it “wrong” and move on (if I am close to solving the problem, I usually spend a couple of additional minutes to solve it to completion but do not give myself full credit since I did not do it within the fixed time limit). My current understanding is that you can better simulate game conditions during a training session with the added pressure of a time limit. Further, I have heard some argue that if you cannot correctly solve around 70% of tactical problems with a 10-minute limit per problem, you are probably doing problems that are too hard for your current ability. (Fun tip: I use a chess clock on “byo-yomi mode” with 10-minute byo-yomi periods for my tactics training, which is far more enjoyable than setting a timer on my phone and resetting it for each problem).
12. While “strategy” and “annotated games” may be two separate areas of study for some, I have combined them in my training plan for simplicity because there seems to be so much overlap between the two. The point is to learn strategy by playing through games that have been annotated for instructive purposes. Whenever I go through a book in this category, I set up a physical board and play through all the moves (spending on average 20-40 minutes per game). When reading through alternative variations (some of which I skip), I try to follow them without moving pieces as much as possible to practical my visualization. I developed a list of strategy/annotated game books by starting with Dan Heisman’s list of recommended instructive anthologies, and then inserting various other strategy books that I would like to study along the way.
13. I have enjoyed my coaching lessons with Dan Heisman. He is a great coach and understands the challenges faced by adult improvers. His Novice Nook articles, YouTube videos, and several of his books that I have read have been very helpful for me.
14. I intentionally limit my study of books at this stage of my chess improvement. Why add more to my knowledge base when it seems the primary reason I do not make more progress is my inability to consistently implement the things I already know? Chess is a game where both knowledge and skill matter, but if I am not careful, I am prone to increasing my knowledge far beyond my skill level. This would not align with my goal of getting better at playing chess. For this reason, I have allocated more time to the “Play/Analyze” element of my training plan (roughly 45% of my total training time) than any other element to focus on building my practical skills. I never have more than two chess books in progress at a time – one for tactics/puzzles and one for strategy/annotated games – and I finish each book before moving on to the next one.
15. I like the sparring component of the Dojo Training Program. I have spent only minimal time on opening/middlegame sparring up to this point, but I have incorporated the endgame sparring into my weekly training plan and I find it quite useful. It helps to solidify the concepts I have already learned from Silman’s Endgame Course (which I have completed up through Part 4-Class C).
16. I recently started a practice of taking about 30 minutes at the end of each week to review my progress over the prior week and set a plan for the week ahead (including specific timeslots for all elements of my training plan). I have done a similar weekly review/planning process for my work for many years now, so I simply adapted my template to apply to my chess training! I have found this to be quite useful and I plan to keep it up. I have shared my template for this in another section below.
17. I believe that nutrition, exercise, and good sleep are also important components of a chess training plan. Good sleep is tough these days with two young children who often wake up during the night, but at least I can do my part by going to bed in good time.

Resources/Study Material 2024
I keep a spreadsheet with categorized lists of chess books that I want to study at some point. In this post, I am going to focus on the two general categories that are most important to my 2024 training plan. These categories are “Tactics/Puzzles” and “Strategy/Annotated Games.” I simultaneously study one book from each category in alignment with my training plan. Following are the books that I plan to complete in 2024:

Tactics/Puzzle Books

• Chess Tactics for Champions by Polgar and Truong
• Learn Chess Tactics by John Nunn
• Checkmate Patterns Manual by CraftyRaf*
• Learning Chess: Workbook Step 2 Thinking Ahead by Cor van Wijgerden (visualization exercises)
• Winning Chess Exercises for Kids by Jeff Coakley

*I will do the first pass through the Checkmate Patterns Manual using the physical book and writing down all answers, and then do another pass on Chessable since I want to add this set to my collection of basic tactical patterns which I review using Chessable’s spaced repetition feature.

Strategy/Annotated Game Books

• Winning Chess Strategies by Yasser Seirawan
• Winning Chess Brilliancies by Yasser Seirawan
• Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur by Euwe and Meiden
• Best Lessons of a Chess Coach by Weeramantry and Eusebi
• Simple Chess by Michael Stean

My “Ideal Week”
And here is my “ideal week” of chess training. Of course, I have to be somewhat flexible with times and dates on a week-to-week basis, but I start with this blueprint and adjust accordingly during my weekly planning/review session.

My Weekly Chess Review & Planning Template
1-My Biggest Wins (3-5 accomplishments from the past week)

2-After Action Review (refer to last week's training plan)

Did I complete my training plan? Why or why not?

What Did I Learn? (Notable insights)

Improvements (What could I improve or change for future training sessions?)

3-Additional Notes

4- Plan for the Coming Week

Play/Analyze - 8 Hours

• Lichess 45|45 game (date & time)
• OTB 60|30 w/ [name] (date & time); (Plan B = 60|30 online through Dojo; Plan C = 30|30 online)
• Blitz session 4 games 5|3 (12:00pm day/date)
• Weekend tournament (date & time)
• Analyze games & build opening files

Tactics/Puzzles - 6 Hours

• Tactics/puzzle book (morning training sessions)
• Clear Chessable tactics reviews (in the margins of my time)

Strategy/Annotated Games - 2 Hours

• Strategy/annotated game book (evening training sessions)

Other - 2 Hours

• Lesson w/ coach (date & time)
• Endgame sparring w/ [name](date & time)
• Other homework as assigned by coach
• Exercise at least 3 times