| 4 | 694 | 535 | 3-9 | 0-0 |
| 5 | 615 | 535 | 2-2 (0-4) | 2-0 (0-3) |
| 6 | 588 | 628 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
+| 7 | 590 | 728 | 5-7 | 5-0 |
+| 8 | 587 | 739 | 2-2 | 4-4 |
Notes:
it'll be a challenge but hopefully it'll help me get better at thinking
more quickly.
+## Week 6
+
+Blitz games this week didn't go too hot for me, though my rating stayed
+stable.
+Partly I just was really off my game on Sunday at least.
+Friday I did do pretty well on time management and went 3-1.
+Really I need to improve on consistency I guess, which may partly be a
+matter of improving in physical health (mostly in terms of getting
+adequate rest, but tbh that'll have to wait for next month at
+earliest).
+
+I played some extracurricular rapid games and did quite well in them.
+I also played some games against Will when he came up to visit me
+before my move.
+Our record ended up perfectly even across Saturday and Sunday at 3½-3½.
+I think we might have played a game or two on Friday but I don't
+remember.
+
+Finished up the coverage of the Queen's Gambit Declined in Seirawan's
+openings book, and started on modern king's pawn openings (covered the
+Alekhine, Scandinavian, and a bit of the French).
+Maybe finishing up the section on the French Defense will help me
+finally figure out how I want to play against it with the white pieces.
+
+In my endgame studies, I finished the tests from part 2 in Silman's
+endgame book, and did some of the practice problems lichess has for
+pawn endgames.
+Not sure where I'll go from here for next week, as the further parts of
+Silman's book are intended for much stronger players than me.
+
+We'll see how next week goes.
+
+## Week 7
+
+Went completely even in my games this week, which resulted in a slight
+drop in my blitz rating and a slight increase in my rapid rating.
+Also I caught and mostly recovered from COVID.
+
+Looking back over the study plan so far, I feel confident I've improved
+somewhat.
+My blitz rating has gone down a bit from what it was after that first
+week, but my rapid rating has slowly but steadily increased.
+I've also been continuing to do very well in my correspondence games,
+though I haven't tracked those in the table.
+
+My main current extracurricular study project is working through the
+very basic book of chess puzzles _Manual of Chess Combinations Volume
+1a_, with the intention of trying the Woodpecker method with it.
+My goal there is to work on calculating simple variations and quickly
+recognizing tactical patterns.
+That method is a training approach aimed at improving pattern
+recognition that was described in a book titled the Woodpecker Method.
+The idea is: you spend a four week period solving as many puzzles from
+some set of exercises as you can, then take a day or two break before
+doing the same exercises again, but faster.
+The ideal is you manage to halve the time it takes each cycle and
+eventually end up able to solve all of them within a day (possibly a
+rather long day hehe).
+The problems in the Woodpecker Method book itself are too difficult to
+make sense for me to do the method with (if I'm spending ~8 minutes a
+problem and still only getting a bit above half the points... idk that
+I'm going to get much out of repeatedly solving it hehe), so I'm going
+with the much easier book for the puzzles.
+Perhaps if I find the methodology helpful I'll give it a try with the
+puzzles in the original book someday when I'm stronger!
+
+My beloved Sofía has been helping me with that study project by
+checking my solutions for me (the solution pages are very compact in
+the _Manual of Chess Combinations_ so it's tricky to avoid accidentally
+seeing a glimpse of later problems' solutions), which has been fun. ^.^
+
+My endgame study on those days is a little unfocused at this point
+since I finished the level-appropriate bits of Silman's endgame book.
+I should probably figure out a clearer plan for those days by the end
+of this week.
+
+Opening study has continued to be interesting.
+I finished up the Seirawan book's coverage of the French Defense and
+started in on the Caro-Kann.
+This week I'll continue starting with the Short Variation of the
+Caro-Kann Advance Variation and then move on to the Sicilian Defense,
+which will probably last at least into the following week.
+The Sicilian is an exciting opening, and it's also my current main
+response to 1. e4, although I'm considering switching to playing 1. e4
+e5 just to see a broader variety of positions and build a broader
+variety of skills.
+
[^daily explanation]:
"Daily" is just what chess.com calls games with such a time control.
Chess.com is very popular (and according to the data gathered by that
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