What went well?

  • I went to New York for a couple of days and managed to play a game in Washington Square Park, a goal of mine. I was happy that I had been studying ChessMood because I opened with the Scotch Game, and I think that threw my opponent off a bit. But then I blundered my queen about 10 moves in. Luckily, I kept on playing. It was a 5+0 game and he tried to psych me out by telling me he was going to win on time when I had about 2 minutes left. I did not work. I forked his king and queen, winning back my lost material. In the endgame I eventually had to trade off rooks and it came down to his king and pawn against just my king. Again I was happy that I had just learned how to turn that into a draw in some ChessMood course, which I did. I considered a draw a success!
  • I also got to visit the Marshall Chess Club in New York. It was not quite what I was expecting, but still fun to peek inside and see what it looked like.
  • I am keeping up with all my Chessable work, both the openings and tactics.

What could have gone better?

  • I am still trying to find the balance of how much ChessMood content to plan for each week. This week I didn’t quite get everything accomplished that I had planned. Not a big deal, I just want to try to stick to my plan as much as possible.

What will I try next?

  • I need to make sure that I spend 10 minutes a day on Chessable tactics. I feel like that has suffered a bit as I am not adding new puzzles. I actually want to set a timer this week.
  • I want to get back to playing some 30-minute games with an actual board. I haven’t done that in at least a month. I want to stop playing the fast 10-minute games and take my time again.