12 day training plan results
Time to assess the damage ..
I finished in 57th place out of 140. It’s a terrible result as I was aiming for at least top 20. I lost in round 2,3 and 7. Looking back, it was indeed a poor result but not unexpected considering my lack of focus in following thru with training.
1. Opening Repertoire for Black
Happy to say I stuck to the black openings I prepared for. Namely the French and Dutch Stonewall. Not once was I tempted to use my cheap trick Scandinavian. It’s only a sign of impatience in me to try to KO my opponent fast.
I was particularly happy with my 6th round game versus Iskandar Rashid. Iskandar has a 2-0 score over me and I really wanted my revenge. Taking black I played the French defence. Iskandar came at me like a caveman sacrificing an h-pawn to have a King side attack. It was like Tai-chi chess (if there is such a thing 
) I didn’t respond with equal force to the attack - just defended and let my opponent waste his energy. In the end I was up lots of material and Iskandar lost on time.
2. Opening Repertoire for White
No surprises and my opening was satisfactory.
3. Clock Handling
Still lost on time in the final game where my young opponent beat me in the endgame.
Yeah, I should have listen to Seng Teoh’s advice on the endgame. I lost even though was 3 pawns ahead in the endgame. How humiliating.
4. Learn from past mistakes
Failure. Too lazy to even enter one old game. Only game I reviewed was Mok’s Spanish Exchange.
5. Diet and Exercise
Fair. Not much progress on losing weight though.
6. Have lots of fun
This area I had a lot of success. Met many chess friends at the tournament and didn’t even feel the sting of losing 3 games. After all we must not forget the socialising aspect of chess. It’s not all competition.
Conclusion
I have to take a careful look at the wonderful suggestions written in my blog comments by fellow GilaChess readers(Seng Teoh, Papyn Chase, Powerizer,matt, Zabura2002 etc). I really didn’t expect such long and thoughtful comments in my pathethic excuse of a chess training blog
I feel the main weakness this time were in my endgame and tactics.
Also have to go thru the materials presented by Fairin. Although the ’seminar’ was short there was a lot of useful info in it. Especially important was Fairin’s mention of key areas of training one should look into.
Good news is there are several chess competitions coming up where I can (hopefully) make better plans and have more progress in my training. Also, I have to set up a better log of my daily progress (probably in an excel file).
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- 14 day training plan
- 14 day training plan results
- Selangor Open 2006: Training Results
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Comments
I think that was still a great result. It’s not like you have lost all your games. And even if one did lost all of the games, the preparation before the tournament must have increased the understanding in chess. Make sure to review your games afterward. That always help.
I guess you should reduce bullet chess. I believe you have practised this to improve your clock handling.
Anyway, like Kotov said “do not move without thinking”.
Papyn: Yes it’s no use making the same mistakes over and over again. Better to make NEW mistakes
zabbura2002: There is defintely a better understanding of the middlegame positions (I feel) after going thru the training exercises. Next time, have to be more systematic and consistent, as well as recording the number of exercises done and frequency/score.
Kevin: I agree I should reduce the number of bullet chess. I also discover moving chess pieces on the computer is not the same as moving real chess pieces. If left with one minute, my pieces will be falling down left and right and I have to waste time picking and adjusting them..
haha….leong dah ‘pump cik’ ke…nanti i am joining dat 2nd stonemaster challenge..hehe…gd luck n study hard everyone….!!!
somebody is posting comments and shouts under my name…please ignore any comments written previously by ‘me’ because I never write any of those comments in the first place..thanks a lot in advance
Capablance once said that in order to be a good player, one must lose 100 games. That doesn’t mean you’ll be stronger everytime you lose, otherwise my 25,000 losses on the internet, coffee shops and to Fritz the past 2, 3 years would ultimately make me a full-fledged GM…
Take time with yourself and annotate your losses. There’s a lesson to be learned in each and every one of them but under one condition: you put your heart in the games, know why (right or wrong) you played the moves. Otherwise, coaches and Fritztators pointers on where you went wrong won’t make a deep impression.