First!

A blog about chess improvement for the "advanced beginner" chess player! In talking about my own goals and improvement plans, I hope to help others near my skill level. Off we go. I'll start with where I stand and where I want to go.

I have accounts at the two main chess sites but I spend most of my time on lichess.org. Here are my starting numbers from that site:

     BLITZ: 1320 | 41.8% (152 games)

     RAPID: 1478 | 56.2% (111 games)

     CLASSICAL: 1683 | 83.0% (170 games)

     CORRESPONDENCE: 1805 | N/A% (83 games)

CURRENT GOAL: Increase my classical lichess rating to the 90th percentile

I chose to begin in classical for a few reasons:

• Primarily, because it's recommended to newer players to improve by playing slow time controls. You have more time to calculate, visualize, and plan.
• It's a smaller pool of players so it's easier to move up. Not many GMs or IMs are playing 45 minute games online :) 
• Blitz can be infuriating and I rarely feel like I learn much. I learn so much more in a classical game because I know the moves I played were my best ideas. I can see in analysis why they worked or why they didn't.
• My idea is Improve in Classical --> Improve in Rapid --> Improve in Blitz

I began taking tactics training more seriously a few months ago and have steadily been increasing my rating. My current win/loss/draw ratio in classical is W97 L69 D8 so I'm still winning a lot of my games. That is encouraging!

My plan to improve:

• Play more games - I haven't played all that many classical games! I follow someone that's played nearly 10,000! I always felt that when my win rate is close to 50% that's when I will be at my first plateau. Since I'm still winning more than losing, I think I haven't hit my "real" rating.
• Study tactics - Spaced repetition tactics training in ChessTempo.
• Continue reading books - My games against better players this week have been getting slightly strategic in nature so I want to focus on that element and I have a few books that can help. 

So from that, here are my Short-Term Goals:

• Play 30 more classical games to get to 200 total!
• Continue my ChessTempo tactics training and make a post outlining my routine.
• Work through Capablanca's Chess Fundamentals which appears to cover two things I need a lot of help on: endgame principles and general middlegame plans.
• Work through Silman's The Amateur's Mind for more middlegame help.