Day 48

Yesterday I did 64 problems from "365 Ways to Checkmate." My dad and I are planning on playing a few games at home. Every once in awhile in each game, we'll discuss the positional and tactical ideas in the position.

Also, I might be teaching one chess class at the upcoming GATE Mini-Conference. GATE stands for Gifted and Talented Education. I will probably make handouts: for beginners, intermediate players, and advanced players. The kids will probably be in the 4th to 6th grades, so about 7-11 years of age. I will provide exercises, and suggested books and websites for improvement. I might ask one of my chess-playing friends to help me out. If anyone has tips, suggestions, or good references, please let me know.

On Monday I bought "How to Beat your Dad at Chess." The title is sort of cheesy, but the content is great. It contains 50 common checkmates with several examples for each one. Additionally, it contains advice and tests. I really enjoy it and recommend it to help in categorizing mating patterns. Recently, I have studied some of my books and played some online games.

It is good to be back! I would like to give a warm (but late) welcome to Cetic Death, Temposchlucker, Yet Another Patzer, King of the Spill, and Fussy Lizard. I wish them good luck and I hope that they all improve to the extent that they desire.

48 days left
2 hrs. completed, 41.5 total
64 out of 968, 904 left

Day 38 - Do You Hear That? ... It's the Winds of Change ...

I personally think that it is exciting and cool that we are the subject of a chess article. I hope that Jan's excitement in our blogs is reflected in his article. He could potentially affect many chess players with his article.

Today I did 0! problems in "The ChessCafe Puzzle Book."

I have been thinking about changing the 6-Circles after viewing the posts by Sancho and MDLM. I agree with their view that the basics of mates and tactics need to be gained and retained. Mulling over this, I have decided to change my plan to 8 Circles:

48 Days (My current Circle) = 10 min. = mates
48 Days = 5 min. = mates
24 Days = 2.5 min. = mates
24 Days = 1.25 min. = mates and ChessCafe Puzzle Book
24 Days = 1 min. = mates and CCPB
12 Days = 37.5 sec. = m and CCPB
6 Days = 30 sec. = m and CCPB
3 Days = 30 sec. = m and CCPB

Day 37

I have recently decided to apply the Silman technique of finding tactics: looking for weak/undefended pieces and/or an unprotected king. I don't know of any other ways to notice tactics, and this will hopefully allow me to find solutions I wouldn't have found otherwise.

In the month of January, I did a total of about 623 problems at a rate of about 20 a day.

Today I did 30 problems from "The ChessCafe Puzzle Book."

59 days left
2 hrs. completed, 39.5 total
1078 out of 1373, 295 left