Thursday, April 14, 2005

First week of vision drills done

Well, 6 days anyway. Given my uber-beginner status, I have modified MDLM so that on day 7 of each week I will only play games, no MDLM exercises. I hope to play at least one long game at ICC tomorrow night, with notebook in hand, treating it as an actual tournament game.

I am in a definite rhythm now with the drills: I am finishing them in 20 minutes (queen, bishop, and rook only) when it used to take me an hour. Also, just as advertised I am now almost doing them without thinking, while on my first day my brain told me in no uncertain terms that it had been thinking hard for that hour.

That said, after a little under 2 months of thinking way too much about the game, I am still ridiculously bad at chess. I want to learn an opening system. Right now I use a few strategems like develop your pieces fast and try to control the center, but I think it would be good for me to have a target on my side to aim for (e.g., where, in an ideal world, would I place my pieces?). I am also trying to learn how to develop a pawn structure that establishes a stable territory rather than establishing that I have no idea what I am doing.

On a positive note, one thing I have found helpful is going to ChessFm to watch the flash animations of games with commentary by IM Bill Paschall. They give me a better sense of the game, and how to spot diagonals I should be attacking. My favorite so far was two hypermoderns staying away from the center at all costs in the opening. :)

7 Comments:

Blogger knightwiz said...

Well done, I'm on the same path as you.. trying to get faster on the visual exercises.

4/15/2005 03:44:00 PM  
Blogger Pale Morning Dun - Errant Knight de la Maza said...

I love that rotating head thing you got going up there. Nice!

I think setting aside a day to play actual chess is very important. It gives you a boost when you win, and helps break up the monotony.

4/16/2005 10:30:00 PM  
Blogger Margriet said...

Nice link, there are a lot of interesting things!

4/16/2005 11:21:00 PM  
Blogger Blue Devil Knight said...

I love that rotating head

Thanks.

Many people have wondered what could be more narcissistic than a blog. I have the answer: a blog that includes a prominently displayed picture of oneself at multiple angles! :)

I've had the image for a couple of years. I thought this would be a good place to put it to use. :-)

Off to do concentric circles...somewhat groggily...

4/17/2005 12:07:00 AM  
Blogger Temposchlucker said...

I always thought my blog was masochistic, not narcistic. But yes your blog does remind me of that other narcistic picture at www.fide.com :)
Do you know why my program that monitors your blog always thinks it is updated? Do you have a hidden counter or something? I can't find the reason.

4/17/2005 04:26:00 AM  
Blogger Blue Devil Knight said...

It literally always appears updated? That is strange: I have added nothing to the template except the sidebar stuff that you see and the rotating head.

I do update at least twice a day, often fixing a little typo or something in already posted messages.

4/17/2005 10:28:00 AM  
Blogger Temposchlucker said...

No, not always. I suspect the correction of the typo's to be suffient to explain it.

4/17/2005 12:32:00 PM  

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