Blunderprone is gathering interested chess bloggers into ACIS (Adult Chess Improvement Seekers). I readily fit into that category.
I played tournament chess in high school and then life interrupted chess, as it does for so many. My interest was rekindled by teaching my kids how to play, and almost seven years ago I started playing tournament chess again.
I was very fortunate to find the MetroWest Chess Club located very close to where I work. It’s pretty easy for me to get there on Tuesday nights to play a slow game. (The standard time control at the club is 40/90 SD/30.)
I started out in February 2003 with my old high school rating of 1192. I took lessons for about a year with Dan Heisman. More recently, I’ve taken a few lessons from two IM Igors: Igor Foygel and Igor Khmelnitsky.
My rating improved fairly steadily until about three years ago. Since that time I’ve been in a plateau in the low- to mid-1600s.
I believe this plateau is largely because of limited playing and study time over the last couple of years. Being an adult chess improvement seeker requires a lot of patience and a long-term view, because life continually interrupts chess.
Still, I believe that gaining another 100 points is a reasonable goal, and I think I have an outside chance of getting to Class A eventually.
Blunderprone wants ACIS to post their thoughts and methods related to chess improvement. I have few things on my mind about my own chess improvement that I will post about soon, including:
- Why I never joined the Knights de la Maza
- My current rating plateau and whether I think I can improve
- What if I fail to improve
- A surprising discovery I made about the disparaged practice of memorizing opening lines
- My experiences with a technique using ChessBase for practicing thought process.
- Why the rating system fools people about how much work it takes to improve
2 Comments
This all sounds too familiar. Welcome aboard! How are you going to approach your first task of overcoming the plateau?
BlunderProne—I suspect the primary reason for my plateau is not nearly enough games the last three years. I don’t see that changing until possibly oldest son gets off to college. But maybe I can find a few one-day tournaments to add to my Tuesday night club play.
Most of my study right now is intensive opening line review, because I decided a year ago that I hated almost all of my opening choices. It’s funny, because both Igors told me not to change my opening choices – it takes too much time for adults with limited study time. But I decided that I’m doing this for me, not for them, and this is what I really wanted to do next in my chess learning.