Finally a Plan I Can Follow

I've been having a really hard time accepting the fact that I can "memorize" a tactic. I drill it and drill it but then review it several days later and go completly blank ... no idea how to solve it. So I decided that I need to review previously covered problems. As I started to review I found that all my time was being spent on review and that I didn't have time to cover new problems ... it's like I'm an over-worked piece!

I decided to divide all 1039 problems by 7 (days a week). This came about to be 148. To make things even, I say 150. Now I'm reviewing all the problems at least once a week and I have time to study and memorize new problems.

Generally the schedule will go like this:
Sun: 1-150
Mon: 151-300
Tue: 301-396 (396 is the last "memorized" problem)
Wed: 397-410 (adding new problems)
Thu: 397-420 (review new and adding more new problems)
Fri: 397-430 (review new and adding more new problems)
Sat: 397-440 (review new and adding more new problems)

Sunday I start over with 1-110. Eventually Tuesday will be 301-450 and then I'll only have Wednesday through Saturday to add new problems. I think you get the drift.

Assuming I keep up every day with this pace, which is completly do-able, then I'll finish around the 3rd week of September.

Last night I had some time to work on tactics.

CT-ART: 397-410
CTS: 40 (2056 total) 1393 rating

Continued Review

I finished my review of the first 396 problems. I think I'll move on now to new problems. I'm still not satisfied with my poor memory retention. I plan on continuing to review 111-396 as I add new problems.

CT-ART: 201-396

I'm also trying not to get burned out (as I've read how some Knights have burned out). My view is to steadily study tactics every day and try to avoid burn-out. We'll see how it goes.

Backwards and then Forwards

I've been slumping with my tactics the last few days. Tonight I got back into it. A couple of nights ago I did 111-200. Tonight I worked on 201-300 again. I'll probably go over 111-396 again this week before moving on to 397 and beyond.

Barrier Broken

Here is some more proof that the tactical studies are at least helping. I broke the 1700 barrier on FICS for the first time. Granted, the players accepting my seeks are usually lower than me (although I've beaten a fair share of those rated higher). Even still, a few years ago I was dropping games right and left to these same rated players. That's not the case these days.

Here is the winning tactic that took me over the edge:

White to play and win.

Before logging on to FICS tonight, I worked some more on CT-ART and CTS. In CT-ART, I feel like I really need to go back and solidify problems 1-396 ... so I'm doing a hard review of all those tactics and trying to get them down pat ... speed and accuracy.

CT-ART: 1-110 with a multi-review of those I struggled with
CTS: 75 (1966 total)

L10 and L20

Today and yesterday I worked on problems 1 to 396. I did OK for L10, but for L20, I forgot a lot of the problems.

CT-ART: 1-396

I'm thinking about switching up the next 604 problems a bit ... I'm thinking maybe I should do some form of mini-circles ... such as this:

I'd continue to memorize chunks of 20 and then work my way up to a chunk of 100 problems. Once I get to the 100th problem, I'd review that set 6 more times. So I'd do 7 mini-circles for each 100 problem set until I finish the 1000th problem. Also I wouldn't go back to review as often, if at all. I'd just focus on the 100 problem chunk and then move on to the next 100 problems without going back to review previous chunks.