What went well?

  • I played in a rated tournament at my local chess club. It was 3 30+5 games. I won 1 game as white (with a mate after 10 moves!) and lost my 2 games as black. My game against white was against a lower rated opponent, and against black they were both higher rated (1715 and 1080). This time control is dual-rated, so my regular rating went from 887->877 and I got my first provisional quick rating of 917.
  • I finished the ChessMood course for black against 1. e4, created Chessbase files, and loaded them into Chessable. I still need to study these more, but I’m feeling better about these lines now.

What could have gone better?

  • I did not get as much time studying in this week. The OTB games on Monday night meant that I didn’t do my Tuesday morning study routine. Not a bad trade-off, but I was hoping to finish a few ChessMood courses this week and that didn’t happen.
  • I have been playing faster time controls and I want to get back to slower games where I can work on my calculation skills.

What will I try next?

  • Start the ChessMood course for black against 1. d4 (and others). I’m excited to have a response to the London system, which I used to play and I’ve been wanting to find a reply to for a long time.