Weekly chess retrospective for November 21

What went well?

• I have been keeping up with “No Blitz November”
• In most of my games, win or lose, my accuracy is pretty good (> 80).
• I had been tracking my games and trying to find one take-away from each one. I tried to improve that this week by having a list of mistakes, and then for each game I pick the top 2-3 mistakes from the list. It helps me really understand where I should focus (see the next section).

What could have gone better?

• The biggest issue I had this week in games was missing my opponent’s resources. I think slowing down and just thinking about what my opponent will do could help a lot.
• Another issue I had was just simple big blunders. I won’t get very far by blundering pieces. Again, slow down and double check!

What will I try next?

• I read this article about how to use your online games as a place to experiment by Nate Solon. It was a good reminder that I don’t need to take myself so seriously in online chess, and that it is OTB that matters.
• I have to decide if I want to try an OTB tournament in a few weeks. It is a tough weekend right before the holidays, but I would like to get a shot to redeem myself before the end of the year.

Time Tracking