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Week 5 Plan
I wanted to spend some time working on basic checkmates. This seemed like a good idea, but I found the very basics pretty easy so it was hard to stay motivated.
I started by looking back on the []Checkmate Patterns Manual on Chessable](https://www.chessable.com/the-checkmate-patterns-manual/course/17841/) (there looks to be a new version as well). This has a “pretest” that introduces each pattern that I went through. Most of them were pretty easy.
I would like to know the names of these a bit more, because I think naming things makes them easier to understand. Maybe I should think about creating flashcards or something in the future.
I would also recommend the Susan Polgar Checkmate Book. I went through this course on Chessable about a year ago, which was great. If you haven’t seen this series, do yourself a favor and study them all!
I did have some success playing games this week. I played some online rapid games (15|10) and felt pretty good about them. I tried to use the plan I made last week in Year of Study Week 4 to analyze the games after the way.
Reflections
This week was a bit hard for me because I was a bit under the weather. It was hard to stay focused on my chess plan. Another part of the problem was that I wasn’t specific about what I was going to work on each day, so it was easy to not follow a plan.
So far there has been a lot of bouncing around in topics. I don’t want to always cram in new knowledge without working on the practical side / skill building / applying the skills.
Next Week
Next week I am going to do some basic calculation work. This could be a huge topic, so I just want to start with some basics.