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.

CT-ART #379

I've heard it before that CT-ART has its flaws. To be honest, I haven't noticed that many. For the most part I am satisfied with the explanation given. But I came across #379 tonight and I'm not sure I agree with the explanation.



Number 379 is from an actual game (Rashid Gibiatovich Nezhmetdinov vs Vladimir D Sergievsky, 1966). The game ends with 20. Rxf6 gxf6 1-0 (see below).

CT-ART has the position continue with 21. Ne4 Qa7 22. Nf6#. What threw me off was I was expected 21 ... Qe7, not Qa7. Even if Qe7, white will still go on to win, but it's better than letting the game go with Qa7.

For what it's worth, I've seen lots of problems in CT-ART where mate could have at least been avoided, but it is not. It's not big deal, but since I put a little research time into this one, I decided to blog it. Go read the kibitzes on chessgames.com for this game ... they proved to analyze better than CT-ART.

Just Keep Moving

I felt much better tonight after sleeping in this morning. Now if I could just get my exercise in each day ... there are just not enough free hours in a day to do everything!

CT-ART: 301-370
CTS: 156 (1800 total)

My rating dropped dramatically on CTS tonight. I think I just got tired head and couldn't calculate accuratly and quickly enough.

Slowly, But Surely

I'm still here ... I'm slowly going through the tactics.

Currently I've been working my way through 301-400 in CT-ART. I'm up to 350. I've been so tired at night that I can't push beyond 350 and so I've just been reviewing problems 301-350. I'm going to bed early tonight in hopes that I'll feel better tomorrow and can tackle new problems.

Chug, Chug, Chug

I'm upping the ante.

CT-ART: 301-320 memorization
CTS: 63 (1644 total)

I've decided to start working on chunks of 20 rather than 10. IF (and that's a big IF) I can keep up this pace, I may finish some form of the Circles by the end of May. We'll see how it goes.

I won my OCL game on Saturday. I'll post on that later. Nothing spectacular, but I was impressed with a potential tactic that I saw in the game that eventually helped me win it. Although later analysis showed that it wasn't a slam dunk, it did give me a pretty good advantage.

300

Today I decided to do tactics 1 to 300 in CT-ART and then do 300 tactics on CTS.

CT-ART: 1-300 (90%)
CTS: 301 (1581)

I did it!


This morning while in a boring conference call, I plowed through problems 1-300 in CT-ART. I seem to struggle the most with problems 111-200. I had a lot of mouse slips, so that affected my percentage a bit.

Tonight I mowed through 301 tactics on CTS. My rating dropped a bit, but I am so impressed that I stuck with it.

I'm 1/3 done with the circles!

Getting Up

I get the feed for Indexed and I thought this one was applicable for me today.

I haven't done tactics for almost a week now (4 days) and so getting back at them felt good tonight ... I missed doing tactics.

I didn't do a whole lot ... I just felt I needed to do something.

CT-ART: 201-300

Tomorrow I'm hoping to go through 1-300 to get a solid review before proceeding to 301.

Tactical Training Works

Suprise, suprise ... the tactical training seems to be helping. The evidence isn't hard, but I have a premonition it's working. Of course if I don't have a solid thought process and manage my time properly, I'll still lose games. Anyway ... here's the update.

CT-ART: 201-290 review and memorization
CTS: 57 (1280) hit a new high rating of 1417, but currently at 1409

As you may guess, I'm not reporting every single day as I often forget, but I am providing a quick update as to where I'm at. To see detailed progress, click on "New Approach" link to the right ... that spreadsheet tracks all the gory details. I try to upload the current file once a week.

Chipping Away

Bit by bit I'm chipping away at the 1000 tactical chunk.

After going back to problems 1-110 and from 111-200, I've found that I need to review these problems regularly. So I've incorporated a review in each session. This chews into my CTS time, but CT-ART is the primary focus, so I'm not too concerned about missing out on CTS problems.

CT-ART: 1-110, 142-172, 201-280
CTS: 23 (1223)

For CT-ART, I'm taking 10 to 15 minutes to review 1-110. Next I take a chunk of 30 from the 111-200 range. Lastly I work on 201 up to the point of memorization ... so tonight I went up to 280. The whole cycle takes about an hour. It's amazing how I just do the problems without much thought. Tonight I went into "new" territory without knowing and I just hummed right along without missing a beat. It must be working.

Ververific

I had a really good session tonight.

CT-ART: memorized 241-260, reviewed 201-260
CTS: 53 (1174)

I didn't work on tactics last night, so this morning before going to work, I memorized 241-250 and then tonight I memorized 251-260 and then did a review of 201-260 and then 251-260 again.

Then I logged on to CTS and whipped through a bunch of problems, getting most of them correct and thus boosting my rating up to 1397.

Tonight I listened to The Verve (Urban Hymns). I really like that album! I've noticed that I do pretty well on my tactics when I listen to Urban Hymns.

Tired Head

I went through a major slump on CTS tonight.

CT-ART: 201-240 review and memorization
CTS: 64 (1121)

I missed dozens of tactics on CTS tonight making my rating plunge dramatically. Thankfully I was able to recover a bit.

Back on the Tactics

I took 4 days off for no good reason ... other things were going and I an simply didn't take the time to work on tactics.

Last night I fired up CT-ART again.

CT-ART: 201-230 ... reviewed and memorized
CTS: 57 (1057 total)

I actually hit 1400 for a couple of tactics on CTS, but then I blundered several problems and I'm at 1368 currently with a 70.2% success rate.

More problems to work on tonight ...

1000 Complete on CTS

I'm moving along nicely.

CR-ART: 201-220 memorization & review
CTS: 75 (1000) ... 70.7% correct 1386 rating

CT-ART was pretty easy tonight and I've finally hit 1000 problems in CTS. My percentage isn't that great, but I think CTS is helping me. The biggest thing I think that CTS helps me with is the practice of scanning the board and knowing where my pieces are. I've been burned so many times by not seeing a pawn or knight that would deliver the final punch. So I've been practicing scanning the board quickly and getting a feel for where my pieces are.

Fried Brain

My head was tired tonight.

CT-ART: 111-200 (94%)
CTS: 82 (881)

I missed a bunch in a row on CTS and then I started getting them. But it took me longer to solve the tactics ... my head is operating at half speed right now.

200 Down

I keep forgetting to post after I work on tactics. I worked on more memorization last night.

CT-ART: 181-200 ... memorized & reviewed several times
CTS: 64 (799 total)

Tonight I will review 181-200 and then do 111-200 before I move on to new problems.

I Can't Count

I played my first Winter OCL game tonight and I lost because I moved too quickly and didn't count correctly.

My punishment was to stay up late and work on tactics.

CT-ART: 111-190, then 181-190 memorization
CTS: 63 (735 total)

I will keep pounding until it is in my head. These mistakes must stop.