David's Dojo Journey - Installment 2

This was a memorable week in the journey! Here are the highpoints:

Chess Dojo Classical Tournament

First Game Win!

This week saw a tournament game win! The time control was 60/30, so much longer than the typical 30/30 that is required of my cohort. It turned out to be a 2.5 hour game and I was totally exhausted afterwards. I have a lot to go to get ready for some live OTB games.

Here is the game with my analysis (pre-computer review, so lots of mistakes and I'm just starting to analyze, so please be gracious!):

Second Game Loss:(

This week also saw my loss in the second round. Same 60/30 time control, but the game lasted just over 2 hours and I was not as tired. While I lost, the game was, by computer standards, the highest level game I've played to this point in my chess career. My opponent had 95% accuracy to my 92% accuracy and neither player had a blunder. Here is the game if you want to check it with my newbie annotations (pre computer):

Perpetual Chess Appearance

If you have not yet discovered the greatness that is Perpetual Chess, I can't recommend it enough! When I first came to chess, I had no idea the history, depth and community that surrounded it. Perpetual Chess invited me into the world that I had been missing and I am in Ben Johnson's debt for the amazing work that he has so faithfully done since 2016. Most insights that I have gleaned about the game and the story surrounding it have come from Ben's work.

After listening to the pod for about a year, I decided to become a patreon supporter. One of the benefits of being a patreon supporter is that you get weekly emails outlining what is to come. One of those emails mentioned an upcoming episode commemorating the incredible contributions of the great Jeremy Silman and soliciting volunteers to work through one of his books on the pod - The Amateur's Mind. I had never read the book and felt totally unqualified to be on the pod, but put my name in the hat. There must not have been any other volunteers because I was chosen as the co-host for the episode.

Being on the pod was nothing short of an amazing experience. Ben did an amazing job of facilitating a natural and fun conversation. We had a lot of laughs and a good time all around. Here is the episode if you want to give it a listen:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0sXqzIw93rfCp9mEHkyepc?si=14300690299748b5

To be honest, thought, probably the best thing about being on the pod is all of the conversations that I have had with people who have reached out after hearing the episode. It is so wonderful to continue diving deeper into the amazing chess community as I continue my journey.

Cohort Progress

I put in 20 hours this week and am up to 130.45 Dojo points and 85% completion of the cohort tasks, which is enough to be leading the 700-800 cohort. My rating is down to 1569 but, of course, that is a lagging indicator and I'm more worried about the process and putting in the work than my rating at this point. I think it will continue to go up as I continue to put in the work.

I continue to struggle to find sparring partners at times that work for both parties, but when I am able to find them, I find that to be really instructive. For those not in the program, sparring is where they give you a position with some sort of advantage and you have to convert, against a person, three times to get credit for the position. The time controls vary by level, but my time controls to this point have been 5/5 for the position. Really good stuff if you have never tried it! And, if you want to spar, let me know!

The other challenging aspect of this week is working through Chapter 20 of Everyone's First Chess Workbook by Peter Giannatos. Working through the entire book is required for my Cohort and if you are a beginner and haven't worked through it, I highly recommend it. The book is divided into three parts, each building on the preceding part. Part I goes through general board visualization, including capturing free pieces, counting attackers and defenders, general defensive ideas and checkmates in one.

Part II provides a primer on general tactics, including forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks, discovered checks, double checks, removing the guard, in-between moves, decoys, taking advantage of overloaded pieces, x-rays, interference, trapping pieces and recognizing threats.

Part II steps it up a notice and covers mates in 2, themed checkmate patterns, setting up tactics (chapter 20 that I referenced) and a fun title "Finish like a World Champion" (which I haven't done yet). The mates in two were relatively easy, but I thought the themed checkmate patterns chapter was amazing. It gave around 5 interesting examples of the Arabian Mate, Anastasia's Mate, Blind Swine Mate, Boden's Mate, Damiano's Mate, Dovetail Mate, Epaulette Mate, Greco's Mate, Kill Box Mate, Lolli's Mate, Opera House Mate (including an excerpt from the game!), Pillsbury's Mate, Smothered Mate and Vukovic's Mate. Being new to chess and having heard many of these terms, but not really knowing what they were, I found this chapter to be very satisfying and instructive.

Now we come to Chapter 20 - Combinations/Setting up Tactics. As Giannatos says at the beginning of the chapter: "In this chapter, you will have to push yourself to a new limit. The goal of every chess player is to continue to increase the depth of their calculation ability. I look to help you with that in this chapter." Listening to good chess players talk (mostly on Perpetual Chess) I often hear the words "depth" and "calculation" thrown around without really knowing what they are talking about. However, the exercises in this chapter have slowly lead me to the truth of those words as I've slowly started to growth in the depth of my calculation by pushing myself to a new limit. Hard work that I believe will bear fruit eventually.

As soon as I finish this great book, I'm going to graduate to the next cohort. I have been able to graduate for a while now, but I wanted to put in the work here.

Outside the Dojo

I'm continuing to have weekly lessons with my coach. He is continuing to walk through positions and games (including my own) that help me to understand more active decision making - checks, captures and threats. Changing a passive mindset for a 44 year old is not easy work and takes constant effort. Thankful for a coach that continues to expose my weaknesses and who pushes me to be better. To be honest, awkward silences while he patiently waits for me to find the right idea and constant rebuttals when I frequently make wrong/passive choices is not always enjoyable, but it is an important part of the process.

Putting it All Together

• Good progress this week with a solid amount of time and work put in.
• My win in the first round of the tournament was a highlight and even my loss in the second round evidenced strong growth (though as my coach pointed out this morning, still a TON of work to do).
• Being a co-host on Perpetual Chess was definitely a highlight that has been made even better by all of the connections I have made with people reaching out after listening to the episode.
• I am continuing to enjoy working with my coach and am thankful for that incredible opportunity.
• From an emotional standpoint, I remain encouraged and determined!

If you made it this far, thanks for being a part of the journey. I would love to connect and hear about your chess journey, spar or play a game.

Until the next installment!