My Opening consists of Dutch Stonewall vs d4 and Centre Counter/Scandinavian vs e4.
As White I play 1.e4 only and specialise in the Sicilian Grand Prix and Vienna Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 … f4 at some point).
I’ve used this so often on WCN, that many of the opening moves can be played almost “without thinking”. [...]

It’s so hard to give up online bullet chess. It’s just too addictive!
The original purpose of bullet was to reduce losing on time during the 1-2 minute time scramble. I think that has worked as I have not lost on time in any games recently.
However, there are negative effects as can be seen in my [...]

2 major local tournaments are coming up this month. It’s the RSC Open and JKR Open and I want to be properly prepared. As usual time is short, so I am making these plans. A bad plan is better than not having a plan at all right?
1. Opening Repertoire for Black
Already chose 2 main systems.
Against [...]

Failure. My targeted 1800 rating at WCN could not be reached.
In fact my bullet rating is still pathetic 1460 .
At least, my blitz rating has risen to 1727.
I discovered that 10 minute chess is still considered only ‘blitz’ and so I did not play any standard game time control to increase my Standard [...]

Last night I was in the cyber cafe for several hours watching game 4 of Topalaov-Kramnik. It was also the first session in my quest to push my WCN rating to 1800. The deadline I give myself to achieve it is end of October. Compared to my previous rating it is now up by 187 [...]

For the month of October I have an ambitious plan. To increase my online rating at WCN by 470 points.
I am targeting a rating of 1800 overall rating. My current rating is only 1331.

The plan is simple. As mentioned by the recent discussion in the Yahoo Newsgroup, I’ll take all my games played and [...]

The Taylor Tourney #2 is just 15 days away. I’ll start my training tomorrow so it will be exactly 2 weeks till D-day. Here is my 14 days training plan:
1. Opening Repertoire for Black
Carry on my study on 2 defences against 1.d4 and 1.e4 each.
2. Opening Repertoire for White
Continue my study on Sicilian Grand Prix/Dragon. [...]

The Olympiad has really ignited my interest for chess training again so here I am making some training plans for the upcoming Stonemaster tournament.… Continue reading | 5 Comments

Nasi lemak
Originally uploaded by gilachess.
There was a reader comment on the blog I wrote about being tired.Thanks to Vincent, for highlighting the fact that in my chess training, I neglected the physical aspect of training. Sure, chess is basically a mental activity. You have to be pretty experienced, knowledgeable, intelligent and [...]

There is nothing much to report on my training results because there was no plans, and there was no training specifically for the Royal Selangor 2006.
I only had the WCN bullet sessions as preparations.… Continue reading | 1 Comment

Online Training: First session - marathon

Originally uploaded by gilachess.
I played exclusively bullet chess yesterday night at WCN.
That’s 2 minutes for each player. Well it’s not really conscious chess training. More like making reflex moves as fast as your mind can translate into mouse movements by your hands. I know many people feel that playing [...]

I’ve been procrastinating with my chess training plans. Now to get on with it..… Continue reading

I have kept quiet on my personal results in the recent CAS 2nd Allegro.… Continue reading | 1 Comment

Ok. Time to get serious in training again.
The CAS allegro tournament is only 10 days away.… Continue reading

I didn’t follow thru with my one week training plan and as I crashed and burn in last Sunday’s Rapid KL tournament. Won 4 games but lost 3 games. One game I was up 2 pawns with a better position and still manage to lose.
I did some CT-Art exercises but only on the last 2 [...]

Ok there will be another allegro tournament at The Chess Network KL and I’ve refined the old One Week Training Plan based on my past two tournament experience. Again I only have 7 days to prepare.
1. Tactics:
Using Pocket CT-Art on my ‘new’ Dell Axim to train my tactics.
2. Conditioning:
Instead of going online to play chess [...]

One of the biggest problems that I face is choosing a decent opening to play as White and Black. Even Grandmaster and Novices must figure out what openings to be part of their “Opening Repertoire”.
In the past I’ve played King Indian Defence (KID) for the Black side and employing KIA (King Indian Attack) as White [...]

Just an update on point no 1 of my one week plan for the coming CAS tournament.
1. Tactics:
Many advice from the net and some strong players say that tactics training is a sure way to boost chess performance.
Now the problem is what tools to use.
Will use Renko chess tactics puzzle for this on a daily [...]