+# 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.
+