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   1 # rinna's chess study plan
   2
   3 On 13th September 2023, I started following a formal 12-week study plan
   4 from [some website][ChessGoals] that has different study plans for
   5 different skill levels/rating bands.
   6 I'm just doing their plan for beginners right now.
   7
   8 (Note: all books rinna mentions are likely available from your
   9 not-so-local library.)
  10
  11 ## Overall structure
  12
  13 The basic structure of the study plan has me do three things each day
  14 (four on the last day of each week, so Tuesdays for me).
  15
  16 Two parts are the same each day:
  17
  18 1. Check on my "daily"[^daily explanation] game.
  19    That is, a game which allows 1 or more days per move (I went with 3
  20    days, although so far each player has moved at least once or twice a
  21    day).
  22    Once it completes I am to analyze the game and start a new one.
  23 2. Do 5 chess puzzles.
  24    I've been using lichess's ["Practice" section][lichess practice] for
  25    this, working my way through the basic tactics puzzles.
  26
  27 The third part varies from day to day and week to week between these
  28 options:
  29
  30 * Play 1 rapid game with a 15+10[^time controls] time control.
  31 * Play 4 blitz games with a 5+5[^time controls] time control.
  32 * Study/practice basic endgames.
  33   I'm using the book _Silman's Complete Endgame Course_ by IM Jeremy
  34   Silman for this, and the endgame practice features on lichess and
  35   chess.com to practice endgames.
  36   The ones the study plan recommends studying for newbs like myself are
  37   those involving one or two queens or rooks (+ king) vs. a lone enemy
  38   king.
  39 * Study openings for 45 minutes.
  40   The study plan suggests several options to use for this and I'm going
  41   to be reading _Winning Chess Openings_ by GM Yasser Seirawan for
  42   this.
  43   This starts from week 2 and takes place on the same day as the
  44   endgame practice.
  45 * Read and play through a game from _Logical Chess: Move by Move_ by
  46   Irving Chernev.
  47
  48 After each game I play, I'm supposed to analyze the game for things I
  49 could improve on and what went well.
  50
  51 ## Rating Table
  52
  53 <table>
  54 <caption>Rating and performance over time (on chess.com)</caption>
  55 <thead>
  56 <tr><th></th> <th colspan="2">Rating</th> <th
  57 colspan="2">Win-Loss</th> </tr>
  58 <tr><th>Week</th> <th>Blitz</th> <th>Rapid</th> <th>Blitz</th>
  59 <th>Rapid</th></tr>
  60 </thead>
  61 <tbody>
  62 <tr><td>1</td> <td>N/A</td> <td>429</td> <td>4-1</td> <td>3-1</td></tr>
  63 <tr><td>2</td> <td>686</td> <td>508</td> <td>0-0</td> <td>3-1</td></tr>
  64 </tbody>
  65 </table>
  66
  67 Notes:
  68
  69 * Each row represents my ratings at the beginning of each week unless
  70   stated otherwise.
  71   Game results are for games played during that week.
  72 * I had never played any blitz games prior to starting the study plan.
  73 * Prior to starting the study plan I had mostly been playing on lichess
  74   rather than chess.com, so improvements from week 1 to week 2 may just
  75   be my having improved since when I had last been playing on
  76   chess.com.
  77
  78 ## Status report
  79
  80 ### Week 1
  81
  82 I've really appreciated having a more structured plan going on.
  83 I have done some extracurricular studying hehe, because the study plan
  84 has helped me get even more excited about chess (also because I have
  85 some spaced repetition stuff going on, so I'm obviously not gonna
  86 abandon that just because I've also got this study plan).
  87
  88 The plan has also helped to ensure I actually play games. :)
  89 The blitz games are helping me learn to use my time more efficiently.
  90
  91 My first daily game has been going really excitingly.
  92 I've included an animated GIF below showing the game so far (up through
  93 move 19 for both white and black).
  94 I have the black pieces.
  95
  96
  97 [![an animated display of the moves from the game][gif versus
  98 TPTCOAT]][daily game versus TPTCOAT]
  99
 100 [gif versus TPTCOAT]:
 101   https://alicebenighted.neocities.org/misc-images/chess/vs-tptcoat.gif
 102 [daily game versus TPTCOAT]:
 103   https://www.chess.com/game/daily/561280087
 104
 105 [^daily explanation]:
 106   "Daily" is just what chess.com calls games with such a time control.
 107   Chess.com is very popular (and according to the data gathered by that
 108   site, chess.com blitz rating is most well-correlated with
 109   over-the-board FIDE ratings, despite the very different time
 110   controls), so the study plan used that terminology.
 111 [^time controls]:
 112   Chess time controls (at least in the shorter range) are often written
 113   as N+M.
 114   This means that each player starts out with N minutes on their clock
 115   and gets M seconds added to it for each move.
 116   Currently I am sticking to 5+5 (5 minutes initially + 5 seconds per
 117   move) for blitz games and 15+10 (15 minutes initially + 10 seconds
 118   per move) for rapid games.
 119   "Blitz" and "rapid" are just terms that refer to ranges of time
 120   controls shorter than the classical time controls used in
 121   most over-the-board tournaments.
 122
 123 [ChessGoals]:
 124   https://chessgoals.com
 125 [lichess practice]:
 126   https://lichess.org/practice