J'adoube
No, not the famous blogger, and not my pieces, but the The Divine Tragedy.
I thought of giving up on the Circles tonight, not because I think they aren't what I need to improve at chess (they are), but because life calls. For instance, I need to focus more intensely on my career (e.g., my Neuroscience Blog, grants, papers, coding, running rats, etc.), and chess is starting to take up too much time and mental energy.
Rather than give up altogether (that would be sort of extreme), I think I'm going to modify things. First, a maximum of one hour a day at chess, unless it is a day I am playing in the 45 45 league. Second, instead of putting a 98% correct rule on myself (where I have to repeat Circles in which I score below 98% correct), I'm just gonna go through the dang Circles and be done with it. If I want, I can go crazy when I'm done, and keep going through them until I get 100% correct or whatever.
In some ways, I am glad I discovered chess so late in life, after I finished school. Given my character (flaws), I probably would have let it devour my life when I was younger.
I thought of giving up on the Circles tonight, not because I think they aren't what I need to improve at chess (they are), but because life calls. For instance, I need to focus more intensely on my career (e.g., my Neuroscience Blog, grants, papers, coding, running rats, etc.), and chess is starting to take up too much time and mental energy.
Rather than give up altogether (that would be sort of extreme), I think I'm going to modify things. First, a maximum of one hour a day at chess, unless it is a day I am playing in the 45 45 league. Second, instead of putting a 98% correct rule on myself (where I have to repeat Circles in which I score below 98% correct), I'm just gonna go through the dang Circles and be done with it. If I want, I can go crazy when I'm done, and keep going through them until I get 100% correct or whatever.
In some ways, I am glad I discovered chess so late in life, after I finished school. Given my character (flaws), I probably would have let it devour my life when I was younger.
posted by Blue Devil Knight at 7/19/2006 03:48:00 AM
10 Comments:
Welcome to the OCD family ;-)
Bummer. I have the same problem. A boss with a wrong idea of the importance of chess in comparison to work. From time to time I have to throw him a bone.
BTW OCD is not in my abbreviations list yet. What does it mean?
OCD = Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. A psychological condition/illness in which a person becomes fixated on certain activities in order to alleviate some sort of inner conflict. Some people wash their hands non-stop, some people check every door in their house to make sure they are locked...three times, others....well they practice tactics problems. I knew some people in med school with OCD. One person had a routine in which they locked their car then went around the car and checked every door and the trunk twice before going off to class. It's a weird one no doubt.
exactly my friend! not to give up chess or flee for cover. not to have OCD (Ivanchuk is reputed to have had a 'working relationship' with his wife :) but, "with Vasily there was only chess, and chess, and chess... that was the problem". He is, as you might know, reputed to be maybe semi-autistic. but what a chess and, as it also turns out, a poetic genius who can recite over 100 russian poems from memory...).
none of that. but to play the game of the game, to see 'see how good can i get within xyz parameters of time'. hopefully todays email helped therein?
if you do four hours a day, you loose your life. if you do twenty minutes a day of chess, you loose your chess.
scale or size or proportion is a key here. what is the right scale of activity for my goals and lifestyle? at what scale can i maintain my pace?
early on, i was a man who would ZOOM breathlessly up the pacific northwest cascade scrambles... 2,200 meters or say 6600~7000'. only to have to stop two or three time along the way while my yogic friends watched me smiling with knowing nods...
i learned latter on to go less fast, but to be able to go up a mountain for five hours without stopping except briefly, and thus more surely to the top.
So this is what we all have in common: a tendency toward life-crippling addiction.
Chess Addicts Anonymous. Step 1: Admit chess is kicking your ass and that your life is a complete mess because of it.
THanks for the thoughts, transformation. I think you are right about 20 minutes: for the first year or so here I only spent about 20 minutes a day, and my resultes were not so great. When I started spending at least an hour a day, my rating went up about a hundred points within a couple of months.
I think an hour, though, is a good limit. We'll see how good I can get within its constraints.
dinomike: I agree. See a previous post about this. Perhaps, since I am now limiting myself to an hour of chess a day, I should impose a "rule of 15". Only 15 minutes out of that hour can be devoted to opening study. That's usually enough to either enter, or freshen up on, some main lines.
And then, should I count time spent blogging into the hour? Probably.
You have to be time efficient of course! Who needs a television? I don't. The news you can hear on your car radio. Saves 3 hours a day.
Who needs a social life? I don't. I meet friends at the tournament hall and at the club (and the web). I don't like anniversaries and thelike so I don't go there. Best way to find out who your friends are. Saves 30-40 evenings per year. Family stays family anyhow. Besides they know it's you. My own birthday is always during the Corus tournament and since I don't want to give a round of beer to 700 people I keep that quiet. Corus is a feast anyway. Quality time? With Margriet behind a chessboard studying the Fajarowitzch.
Be creative and you will find more ways!:)
LMAO, Tempo. Nice.
My two-year wedding anniversary is Monday: maybe I'll suggest to Julia that we go to a tournament. :)
what if chess IS not chess? what if chess is a tool for modifying brain frequencies? what if playing chess is not fun but stressfull, but chess study is fun, and all the interesting folks you get to know through chess is a real charge, a real jolt of java? what if chess is a battleground whereby you get to learn HOW you learn, or learn how to learn? what if chess is a way of freezing time?
I don't know if there are children on the stocks allready but you can go to the restaurant on monday as long as you remember: "NO KIDS":)
the sins of the forefathers will be visited upon the grandchildren.
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