+### Week 4
+
+Once again I've done poorly in blitz, alas (0-4, 1-3, and 2-2 on the
+three days I played blitz games).
+My big weak points in those games were:
+
+1. Opening unfamiliarity, which isn't necessarily a big deal at my
+ level in slower time controls, but in blitz it means I have to spend
+ a lot of time thinking about it early on and I suffer from time
+ pressure later.
+2. Time management (contributed to by the preceding and contributing to
+ the following).
+3. Blundering my pieces. >.>
+
+I did have some quite effective attacking play in the wins, including
+one where I used it to recover from a mistake into a win.
+I think I really need to work on thinking faster, though.
+Which probably means I should do more tactics puzzles, possibly in a
+more structured way.
+That won't necessarily help me actually think faster, but it'll train
+my ability to recognize important tactical patterns faster anyway.
+So that would mean I don't need to expend as much explicit thinking on
+that sort of thing.
+
+My daily games have gone well.
+Both my rated game and my unrated game against TPTCOAT started out with
+me on the back foot a bit, but then I managed to outplay my opponent
+and start gradually closing out the game.
+After winning both of those, I started another rated game and another
+unrated game, and have won the latter already with a somewhat early
+checkmate.
+The rated game is about to end in my favor.
+I experimented with the Sicilian Defense there, though my opponent went
+for the Closed Sicilian, which I haven't looked into at all.
+I ended up pulling off a [windmill][windmills] that took four of their
+pawns for free.
+Later I realized that I had gained the ability to checkmate them about
+halfway through that, but eh, no harm in grabbing the material just in
+case I miscalculated the mate.
+
+My opening study and preparation is getting more thorough now.
+I've studied the main lines of the Grünfeld (my defense against 1. d4)
+and prepared my preferred response against the Caro-Kann and the
+trickier variant of the Scandinavian Defense as white.
+I've also studied the main lines of the Najdorf Sicilian (my main
+defense against 1. e4, although I'll need to do a bit more studying to
+know how to handle a couple of different ways White can play instead of
+going into open Sicilian positions).
+
+This week is back to some rapid games, so I think those will go better
+for me. :)
+
+### Week 5
+
+Hey, I was right.
+This week's rapid games did go better for me!
+I also went 2-2 in my blitz games (not counting the tournament where
+most of my opponents were much higher-rated than me).
+My blitz rating fell quite a bit because of blundering mate-in-1
+against the one lower-rated player I played in the tournament, but I'm
+satisfied with my performance, especially after noticing that that one
+lower-rated player is much higher rated than me in slower time
+controls.
+
+I'm getting stronger in aggressive play in rapid and daily games!
+Also in blitz games but I still struggle with time pressure at times.
+
+I've begun playing the Sicilian as my response to 1. e4!
+It's been fun, and it's been well-suited to playing aggressively.
+
+I did two chess.com tournaments for people rated under 1200 in 5+5
+blitz and 10+0 rapid[^time controls].
+I lost all my games in both but I'm pretty satisfied with the
+experience, especially in the rapid tournament.
+The 10+0 time control was rough, though, but a 15+10 tournament would
+take something like 3 hours, so... tradeoffs.
+
+In the openings book, I still need next week to finish reading about
+the Queen's Gambit Declined.
+In my endgame study I finished reading the second part of Silman's
+Endgame Course.
+Next week I'll do the tests for part 2.
+
+In extracurricular studies, I've tried studying from the series of
+comprehensive chess training books from Artur Yusupov.
+They're really tough, but the first chapter on Mating Motifs
+immediately helped out when I won games using the Arabian mate, and
+began noticing the threat of it and other common mates in a lot of my
+games as things to defend against.
+I achieved a "Good" scored (12/16) on the exercises, which were very
+tough.
+Chapter 2 is not sticking with me as well so maybe I should re-read
+it...
+
+Anyway, week 6 will be a blitz week, so...
+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.
+
+### Week 8
+
+This was a blitz week for the study plan.
+The blitz games did not go super great, although I had my first ever
+draw (other than the time I blundered a stalemate in a Queen vs. King
+ending against Will).
+
+I did play a bunch of extracurricular rapid games, which went much
+better.
+Amusingly apparently I played as many rapid games as blitz games.
+
+I'm planning to start studying Jesús de la Villa Garcia's _100 Endgames
+You Must Know_ for my endgame study going forward.
+This week I only made it through the introduction, but next week I'll
+start on the chapter on basic endings, which will mostly be review, but
+will hopefully improve my comfort and accuracy with the stuff it
+covers.
+
+I've continued working on the puzzles from _Manual of Chess
+Combinations, Volume 1a_.
+I've done 318 puzzles of 719 in the book after 13 days.
+I made it past the simple mate in one puzzles.
+After those, it had various "win a [piece]" puzzles, followed by
+endgame positions with the goal to secure a draw.
+At the spot where I'm at as I write this, it's various themed mate-in-2
+problems (first "by means of a double check", then "by means of a Queen
+sacrifice").
+I really liked the draw puzzles and the mate in 2 problems are also
+proving very enjoyable.
+
+### Week 9
+
+This week went well.
+I played a lot of games and had 28 wins, 6 losses, and 1 draw.
+My rapid rating went up a lotttt, and now I'm higher rated than my
+friend Will. :3
+
+I've reached the third (and final) "stage" of the puzzle book.
+I'm on target to finish the whole thing in the four weeks, though some
+of the remaining days might be a lot of work (I have to do ~28.5
+puzzles each remaining day).
+
+There's a chess.com official tournament for correspondence games for
+people rated under 1000 that started this morning as I write this (the
+morning after Week 9 ended).
+I look forward to seeing how I do in that (it'll take ages, as there's
+4528 players signed up..., 6 person group size, so it'll take 5 rounds,
+at up to 3 days a move).
+But that's more of a next week thing anyway!
+
+I started in on the new endgame book's "basic endings" chapter, which
+has been covering the basics of King + Pawn v. King endings so far.
+It's review for me, although its coverage makes some things clearer or
+more explicit than in my previous studies.
+
+I'm still not through the Sicilian Defense coverage from the openings
+book, which is more remarkable for the fact that it's being very
+summary about some major variations.
+
+As for my own openings, I've continued my experiment with replying
+classically to 1. e4 with e5 as black.
+I've been having difficulty with some of the sharper openings (the
+Vienna Game mostly this week), but it's otherwise been going pretty
+well.
+I might try learning the Nimzo-Indian and Queen's Indian as my
+responses to 1. d4.
+They're a bit more flexible and less focused on specific lines compared
+the Queen's Gambit Declined, which is kinda nice given that I rarely
+actually face 1. d4 openings (and even more rarely the Queen's Gambit).
+
+I've started a spreadsheet (going back to the start of this month,
+November) of my performance in different openings.
+My big weak spot definitely looks to be the sharper king's pawn (1. e4
+e5) openings, so depending on if they improve by the end of the month
+I might switch back to the Sicilian or put in a lot of effort next
+month on studying those.
+
+All in all, a great week for chess for me.
+I'll be writing next week's update from Argentina!
+
+### Week 10
+
+Blitz games didn't go well this week, as usual.
+Extracurricular rapid games did tho!
+
+The correspondence tournament is going well: so far I've won four games and
+lost zero so far (I also won two against the person in my group who
+just timed out against everybody, but those are hardly worth counting).
+As for the remaining four games in round 1: one I'm very ahead and
+should win; another I feel pretty good about; and the other two are
+very hard for me to judge (they're still early, material is even, and
+neither of us have a clearly better position).
+
+I didn't get in very much endgame study this week due to having just
+arrived in Argentina.
+In the openings book I made it on to the modern queen's pawn openings
+chapter, and just barely to the start of the covering of the Indian
+Defenses (1. d4 Nf6 openings).
+Looking forward to the rest of the coverage of those, as well as to
+reading about rarer defenses to 1. d4.
+
+Two weeks left!
+I have clearly improved a lot at rapid time controls so far!
+Not so much at blitz, but ah well!
+When it ends I'll definitely continue with another study plan, but I'm
+not yet sure if I'll try the more advanced variant of the beginner
+plan, or move on to the intermediate plan (I'm not at the suggested
+rating for that but still considering it), or come up with something
+custom. Tbd!
+
+### Week 11
+
+This was the penultimate week of the study plan!
+Played a fair number of rapid games, with more losses than I've usually
+had lately (although one of those was due to losing internet during the
+game, so idk if I would have lost it otherwise), and three hard-fought
+draws.
+The blitz day went alright, 2-2 and zero net effect on my rating.
+
+I finished up my first [woodpecker](#week-7) cycle and am two days into
+my second cycle now.
+I'm pretty sure I'm going significantly faster on the early
+mate in 1 problems, although it's hard to say just how much faster
+since they were also relatively fast last time around, and I didn't
+keep time records the first couple days of the first cycle.
+
+Since I've been in Argentina, for the playing through games from
+Logical Chess Move By Move, I've been doing that on a physical board
+with my fiancée, which is fun.
+It might be a little benefit in terms of requiring me to explain stuff
+sometimes to zir, who is less experienced with chess, though I'm not
+sure.
+
+I reached a decision about what plan to follow after the final week:
+the playing-lots-of-games version of the Intermediate plan from
+[ChessGoals][ChessGoals].
+I was talking about the decision with Sofía and was describing it, and
+explained how in addition to the base tasks for each day of each week,
+it has guidance on what to do as "extra credit" if you want to spend
+more time on chess.
+Which, guidance on how to prioritize additional time beyond the base
+tasks is exactly something I had considered a lack in the beginner
+plan!
+So, perfect for my preferences.
+That plan leaves certain topics a bit more at the student's discretion,
+by saying essentially "okay, you should pick a resource you want to use
+to study strategy" and then just sometimes having a "go study your
+strategy resource" task, so I'll have to pick things for those, which
+I'll probably do over this next week and be ready to start the new plan
+after that!
+
+The chess.com official correspondence tournament is going well.
+I have one game unfinished, with the others all won (two more
+unfortunately won due to a time-out by the opponent), and that last
+game is just a matter of time until I win.
+It will be a whiiiiile before the next round probably, but ah well.
+
+The openings book has just gotten to the Indian Defenses!
+Excited to learn more about the Nimzo and Queen's Indian.
+My own opening prep review has kinda fallen by the wayside, so I should
+probably get back in the habit of doing that.
+I'm working my way through the basic review in _100 Endgames You Must
+Know_ still.
+
+In extracurricular study news, I've been reading and enjoying
+Seirawan's other book _Play Winning Chess_.
+It starts out very basic (with an introduction explaining how the
+pieces move), but quickly moves into less simple topics.
+Its chapter structure is:
+
+1. The Evolution of Chess (introduces the game and discusses its
+ historical development, both in terms of rules and in terms of play
+ styles and theory).
+2. A chapter each on four key principles: force (what most would call
+ material, although Seirawan also uses it to discuss _local_
+ imbalances of force), time, space, and pawn structure. In addition
+ to explaining the principles, these chapters seem to go into more
+ detailed coverage of how to incorporate them into your play. For
+ example, the chapter on force includes sections on tactics and on
+ traps, the role of the king in the endgame, and the impact of
+ material advantages in the endgame.
+3. A chapter of annotated games, intended to illustrate the principles
+ and how they interact.
+4. A final chapter titled the Four Principles and You, which I don't
+ really know what it covers yet (since it isn't explained in the
+ introduction).
+
+There are also little quizzes to test yourself in the midst of each
+chapter, and a series of tests at the end of each chapter.
+Some of them so far have been pretty tough for an introductory book!
+Anyway, I'm midway through the chapter on force (currently at the
+section on traps), so I'm excited to read more. :)
+
+### Week 12: the End
+
+I've completed the study plan, and I'm very pleased with how it's gone.
+I'll be starting a new one tomorrow.
+I've also planned out a (5-week, to be reassessed and repeated after
+that) study plan for my Spanish learning, to emphasize how pleased I've
+been with this approach.
+
+I've gotten a lot better at chess, if not at blitz time controls, over
+these twelve weeks.
+Rating-wise, I've gone from 429 (or 508 after the first week) to 1023
+in Chess.com Rapid rating.
+Blitz has fallen from 686 after that good first week (before which I
+had not played any blitz) to 588, so it feels safe to say I haven't
+really improved at fast time controls;
+I still struggle to play quickly and not get into time pressure, and
+sometimes make horrific blunders due to trying to play quickly.
+I hadn't been tracking the progress of my daily rating, but I'm
+certainly also doing well at that.
+My daily rating was something like 326 at the start, and is now 1053.
+I've only lost a single daily game out of 30 I've played in that time.
+
+The books the study plan recommended have been very helpful, as has it
+just forcing me to play regularly.
+It is also true that the "extra-curricular" studies I've gotten up to
+have certainly contributed to my improvement, though they probably
+wouldn't have helped nearly as much without the opportunities to
+integrate them through actual play.
+As well, I suspect the study plan helped to ensure I maintained focus
+on improving at chess.
+
+Tomorrow I'll start with one of their intermediate plans. :)
+
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