Concentric Square: Completed

I've completed the Concentric Square exercises. I found a rhythm as I worked my way through each piece. The first day or two, I had to calculate and really make sure I found all the squares. But after that, it was rather easy.

I generally looked at the diagonals the rook was on to find most of the squares. For the bishop, I looked at the horizontals and verticals the bishop was on. For the knight, I would look at all three. I began to see the patterns and easily recognize the squares to place the queen on for the fork or skewer. The queen was easy ... just had to look for skewers.

Now on to Knight Sight. I'll do the vision drills for a week and then I'll do the concentric square portion of it.

Chess Vision Drills

I'm not sure how many Knights Errant went through the chess vision drills outlined by the program. Did anyone do them?

To remain true to MDLM's program, I am going to go through the drills between now and when I start the circles. Since I'll be playing almost all my games on a computer, I'm using the computer to go through these drills.

I'll go through the concentric square, knight sight and then the other drills he recommends in his book. I've posted the schedule I'll follow. It is pretty rigorous. But I figure I can put an hour in at lunch for the vision drills. Then by the time I'm ready to start the circles, I'll have much less homework and can afford to put in an hour or so at night along with the hour at lunch. By the time I graduate, I'll be on the 4th circle and then I'll have a lot more time to dedicate to the quest.

I'll post a link to my planned schedule. I'll use that schedule to track my progress too (cells in orange).

The Stars Must be Aligned

I've been itching to get this blog up. Ever since I read Don de la Maza's blog and his extraordinary quest, I've been wanting to do the same. Back in 2004, when I started my first blog, I intended to start a chess blog. But school got in the way. You can read all about that here.

This blog will have a beginning, a middle with many posts and an end. One day, this blog will end. It will stand as a solitary quest.

Today, on the sixth day of the sixth month in the sixth year of two-thousand, I introduce my quest. In sixty-six days, the quest will begin.

Thirty-three days from now, on July 9, 2006 I'll post my plan to complete the Circles.

Then on August 11, 2006 I'll begin the Circles.

May God have mercy on my soul.