Three-week reflections

It's been almost two months since I started studying chess seriously and three weeks since I started this blog. I have to admit that, despite some frustrations, I am actually very pleased with the progress I've made. In objective terms, I had a 1217 ICC standard rating for my first post, and as I type now it stands at 1364, an all-time high. I'm estimating there's about a 150-point rating difference between ICC standard and FICS standard, so we are talking about maybe 400 rating points improvement since I started studying. (Unfortunately, those are relatively easy rating points. 1000>1400 is a orders of magnitude easier than 1400>1800). The ICC survey here: http://www.chessclub.com/help/survey indicates that from ICC to USCF, the median difference is -100, with 58% of players within 200 points. I think realistically I'm closer to a 1275 player on ICC right now who happens to be at a high-point in the ebb and flow of ratings, and so I think I could reasonably place my UCSF skill level at between 1050 and 1100, or your basic social or scholastic player.

The biggest improvement, as I've written before, is knowing how far I have to go now. I used to think I lost because I didn't know openings and sometimes made mistakes. Now I know that I lose for a lot more reasons and I often make mistakes. Strategy guides will say something like "Under UCSF 1500, players frequently hang pieces and make basic counting errors." And almost everyone reading that will say "Nah, that's not me, I'm different. I lose for other reasons." But now that I'm keeping this blog and annotating and analyzing my games, sure enough, I'm hanging pieces way more often than I thought and making a counting error almost every game. I'm not a unique snowflake, I'm exactly the player my rating and experience says I am. Fortunately, that means if I do the things they say make you better, I will get better.

Immediate steps to getting better:

1) Time management and thought process!!!!! It sound so simple. "In important situations, take your time and work through all possible replies from your opponent." I read it and I nod my head. But when I'm playing that game I linked yesterday and I'm up two pawns, I think I've got his queen trapped and make a move in one-third of the minimum time I should have been taking on an important move, and even longer for an important move that could lead to multiple exchanges. The move actually hung my own piece due to a very basic counting error and I went on to lose.

I make counting errors, I hang pieces, I fail to see basic tactics against me (including the occasional mate in one!). The good news is that those mistakes means there is still so much improvement to be made! It's not easy to stop making those mistakes, but it's a lot easier than memorizing dozens of new opening lines to the 25th ply. The low-hanging fruit is still there to be picked.

2) Applying general principles. Again, it sounds easy. It's easy to nod when you read an article that advises "play conservatively when you already have a winning material edge. No need to look for speculative attempts to make further material gains." But there I am again, speculatively trying to trap his queen with a two-pawn advantage. I have made some strides here, especially in applying opening principles and getting strong piece activity, but still oh so far to go.

3) Continue to learn the basic openings. Looking up every game in MCO is helping, I've learned some good and bad replies. But I still sometimes do things like respond to 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 with Nf6, which is considered very amateurish at best. Baby steps.

4) Tactics. If I'm ever at the level where tactics are no longer deciding most of my games, then I'l be an Expert at least and a very happy player. More likely, tactics will be my bread-and-butter for the next decade or two. Tactics training has definitely improved my board vision significantly. I may not have picked all the low-hanging fruit in this department, but I've at least cleaned up on the pre-picked fruit baskets lying around to be taken for free.