I started on some new homework from my coach. It is reading and playing through (with a real board) 3 books: Chess: The Art of Logical Thinking - McDonald, Secrets of Positional Chess - Marović, and Tactical Chess Endings - Nunn. I only got through the first game in each book, but it took a bit to get everything set up. I have the book on an iPad, the games on Chessbase on my laptop, and then a physical board in front of me. He suggested that I play through the game in a “guess-the-move” style first, then read the annotations in the book.
I wrote down a recap of my tournament. I also started to review the games with my coach. He saw that I had issues right out of the opening, and that some of the opening lines I played were not great.
I got to “Hero” level on Chessable today. My streak is 422 currently. Every day I work on the “Learn Chess the Right Way” series for tactics. Now I am also starting the “Keep it Simple: Black” course and have some private opening courses for White.
I was sick for a couple of days. I knew it was bad when I didn’t even want to play any chess.
I lost more games last week than I won, which isn’t a trend I like. For the past month I’m now at 48% losses and 47% wins. Games where I play as black are worse, with 62% losses.
I played a few too many blitz games last week… and I was doing so well! I think that was easier to do when I didn’t feel well. Time to lock it up!