+# rinna's chess study plan
+
+On 13th September 2023, I started following a formal 12-week study plan
+from [some website][ChessGoals] that has different study plans for
+different skill levels/rating bands.
+I'm just doing their plan for beginners right now.
+
+(Note: all books rinna mentions are likely available from your
+not-so-local library.)
+
+## Overall structure
+
+The basic structure of the study plan has me do three things each day
+(four on the last day of each week, so Tuesdays for me).
+
+Two parts are the same each day:
+
+1. Check on my "daily"[^daily explanation] game.
+ That is, a game which allows 1 or more days per move (I went with 3
+ days, although so far each player has moved at least once or twice a
+ day).
+ Once it completes I am to analyze the game and start a new one.
+2. Do 5 chess puzzles.
+ I've been using lichess's ["Practice" section][lichess practice] for
+ this, working my way through the basic tactics puzzles.
+
+The third part varies from day to day and week to week between these
+options:
+
+* Play 1 rapid game with a 15+10[^time controls] time control.
+* Play 4 blitz games with a 5+5[^time controls] time control.
+* Study/practice basic endgames.
+ I'm using the book _Silman's Complete Endgame Course_ by IM Jeremy
+ Silman for this, and the endgame practice features on lichess and
+ chess.com to practice endgames.
+ The ones the study plan recommends studying for newbs like myself are
+ those involving one or two queens or rooks (+ king) vs. a lone enemy
+ king.
+* Study openings for 45 minutes.
+ The study plan suggests several options to use for this and I'm going
+ to be reading _Winning Chess Openings_ by GM Yasser Seirawan for
+ this.
+ This starts from week 2 and takes place on the same day as the
+ endgame practice.
+* Read and play through a game from _Logical Chess: Move by Move_ by
+ Irving Chernev.
+
+After each game I play, I'm supposed to analyze the game for things I
+could improve on and what went well.
+
+## Rating Table
+
+<table>
+<caption>Rating and performance over time (on chess.com)</caption>
+<thead>
+<tr><th></th> <th colspan="2">Rating</th> <th
+colspan="2">Win-Loss</th> </tr>
+<tr><th>Week</th> <th>Blitz</th> <th>Rapid</th> <th>Blitz</th>
+<th>Rapid</th></tr>
+</thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr><td>1</td> <td>N/A</td> <td>429</td> <td>4-1</td> <td>3-1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>2</td> <td>686</td> <td>508</td> <td>0-0</td> <td>3-1</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+
+Notes:
+
+* Each row represents my ratings at the beginning of each week unless
+ stated otherwise.
+ Game results are for games played during that week.
+* I had never played any blitz games prior to starting the study plan.
+* Prior to starting the study plan I had mostly been playing on lichess
+ rather than chess.com, so improvements from week 1 to week 2 may just
+ be my having improved since when I had last been playing on
+ chess.com.
+
+## Status report
+
+### Week 1
+
+I've really appreciated having a more structured plan going on.
+I have done some extracurricular studying hehe, because the study plan
+has helped me get even more excited about chess (also because I have
+some spaced repetition stuff going on, so I'm obviously not gonna
+abandon that just because I've also got this study plan).
+
+The plan has also helped to ensure I actually play games. :)
+The blitz games are helping me learn to use my time more efficiently.
+
+My first daily game has been going really excitingly.
+I've included an animated GIF below showing the game so far (up through
+move 19 for both white and black).
+I have the black pieces.
+
+
+[![an animated display of the moves from the game][gif versus
+TPTCOAT]][daily game versus TPTCOAT]
+
+[gif versus TPTCOAT]:
+ https://alicebenighted.neocities.org/misc-images/chess/vs-tptcoat.gif
+[daily game versus TPTCOAT]:
+ https://www.chess.com/game/daily/561280087
+
+[^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
+ site, chess.com blitz rating is most well-correlated with
+ over-the-board FIDE ratings, despite the very different time
+ controls), so the study plan used that terminology.
+[^time controls]:
+ Chess time controls (at least in the shorter range) are often written
+ as N+M.
+ This means that each player starts out with N minutes on their clock
+ and gets M seconds added to it for each move.
+ Currently I am sticking to 5+5 (5 minutes initially + 5 seconds per
+ move) for blitz games and 15+10 (15 minutes initially + 10 seconds
+ per move) for rapid games.
+ "Blitz" and "rapid" are just terms that refer to ranges of time
+ controls shorter than the classical time controls used in
+ most over-the-board tournaments.
+
+[ChessGoals]:
+ https://chessgoals.com
+[lichess practice]:
+ https://lichess.org/practice
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