Success!

I have started the 2-2-2 plan, which is perfect for me, as you never spend too much time on tactics, and I have very little time to spare. I have also started winning a few games on FICS and turned my rating around a little. I'm really enjoying my reentry into the chess world. I need to really pick one opening and stick with it, so I'm experimenting right now with the Italian Gambit, trying out d4, and other things. I hope I can stop the blundering, because I am often leading in a position and then blow it.

Thought Process and Circles

I have been thinking about two matters of importance: resuming my tactics training and a thought process. For my tactics training, I am going to do the 2-2-2 plan with 100 problems. I like the level of repetition and the (hopefully) high level of retention. For that, i will be using dejascacchi's tactics problems, which are organized in convenient 100-problem packages.

I have been reading Qxh7#'s blog, and I really liked his comment that "I try to improve one of my minor peices, or increase my space on one side of the board. What I've found is that once you find one plan to work on in a game (following silmans techniques) your plan continually adapts and transforms almost on its own." It makes a lot of sense. Maybe i'm just stupid not to have thought of it that way before, but I'm glad that it has now been presented to me. So I'm going to try to use Qxh7#'s advice.

In recent games at FICS, I have had an advantage for most of the game only to squander it by missing a tactical shot by an opponent. but I feel very hopeful. So my rating is slowly stabilizing and I hope to get back up to 1700.