What went well?

  • I had a chess lesson this week. That was good, and it confirmed my suspicion that I need to be a little more focused, especially on tactics. I updated my study plan accordingly.
  • There was a game where I was distracted at the beginning (my dog got out) and I was down a piece by move 7. But, I stuck with it and after that played a pretty good game. I found some tactics to get back the piece and then tricked my opponent into a mate. It felt great to be able to fight back, and this was one of the first games I really feel like I did that.

What could have gone better?

  • I feel like I wasted some time watching some ChessMood videos that I just was not ready for yet. I’ll get back to some endgame videos eventually, but not right now.

What will I try next?

Openings

  • Finish the simplified BlackMood ChessMood course (not much left). I want to be able to wrap this up so I can practice.

Tactics

  • I am going to try to finish the Learn Chess the Right Way - Book 2: Winning Material this week. Not sure if I’ll start book 3 this week, I may just keep reviewing Book 2. It depends how much time I need to spend on review.
  • Spend at least 30 minutes on tactics, 45-60 would be better.
  • Watch just the Tactics Ninja ChessMood course this week instead of splitting my time across many different types of videos.