April Study Plan
In March, I went all-in on ChessMood, and it has been going well. Read about my first month with ChessMood. I plan to continue using ChessMood in April. It is a busy month with family activities, so I will need to be sure to find a good balance with chess.
Play
In March I played all 10-minute games as I was trying to learn the new openings. I sometimes used Chess.com’s Game Review, but that was the extend of my analysis. This worked out and was a lot of fun, but I want to get back to playing longer games and doing the analysis.
So my goals are to:
- Return to 30-Minute Games - 2-3 serious games per week. Playing the moves on a physical board.
- Analyze Every Game - Combination of reviewing the game without an engine first, then using the Chess.com Game Review feature
Learn
Continue on the endless ChessMood video content:
- Openings (20%): I should be able to finish the WhiteMood Opening this month, having about 90 minutes of videos left. I debated if I should dig into the detailed courses for white like the Anti-Sicilian course, but I think I will take the recommendation of the ChessMood GMs and move on to the BlackMood opening course. I’m a little nervous about starting in on a new opening for black as well, concerned that I will have issues remembering everything. On the other hand, I feel like every game I play now as black is a waste of time until I learn a new opening.
- Tactics (20%): Tactics Ninja - I still have 12 hours of videos left, so I’m going to keep working on this.
- Master Games (10%): 100 Classical Masterpieces - I’ve only gotten through 10 of the 100 games, so I am just going to keep working on this.
- Middle Game (20%): Happy Pieces - I have about 3 hours left in this course, so I should be able to complete this. Next will be Speedboat Adventures (Rooks).
- Endgame (20%): Pawn Endgames - I should be able to finish this in April. Next will be Queen vs Pawns.
Solve
- Chessable Tactics - 10 minutes a day between reviewing Learn Chess the Right Way - Book 1: Must Know Checkmates and learning/reviewing Book 2: Winning Material
- Continue studying the tactics videos from ChessMood (above). There are the specific courses on tactics, but the middle game and endgame courses have some tactics as well.