Play

Keep playing rapid games, and try to mainly only play slower rapid games. I got in a bad habit of playing some 5|5 blitz followed by 10|0 rapid, which are basically the same thing. 15|10 or 30|0 are much better for me. Then when I am playing, I need to actually stop and think instead of just playing the first move I think of. Try to have less than 5 minutes on my clock at the end of each game.

After games I want to get back into the habit of writing down a couple key ideas from each game.

Finally, I want to see if there are some more opportunities to play OTB before the end of the year.

Learn

Here are the things I am working on this month:

Lessons

I will have weekly lessons this month with a coach and do all the homework he assigns.

Books

My coach gave me these three books to go over. I will play them out on an actual board and see how far I get.

Openings

In September I got through the 1. e4 quick starter chapter in Keep It Simple for Black. In October I plan to do the same for the 1. d4 quick starter. After that I will just add in lines that I actually face in games and build up the course that way.

Solve

I am still working through these:

  1. Learn Chess the Right Way - Book 1: Must Know Checkmates - review any open puzzles every day
  2. Learn Chess the Right Way - Book 2: Winning Material - review any open puzzles every day
  3. Learn Chess the Right Way - Book 3: Mastering Defensive Technique -I am only 75% done with this course. To finish it by the end of the month I would need to add 4-5 lines per day. That is a good stretch goal.