Starting My 100 Days of Chess

Starting point

I'm an adult-improver chess player returning to the game after decades away. I played in my small town chess club in high school, but it was never serious and I don't remember much about it. My experience left me with some skills in parts of the game and nothing in others.

The point of this, my first #100daysofchess, is to build a baseline understanding of my strengths and weaknesses and where I fit on the rating ladder. I won't study chess every day and my focus will be on playing as much as it is on studying. I've joined the #chesspunks community on Twitter for inspiration, camaraderie, and accountability (MatthewKCanada). I'll be using Twitter to share highlights of my journey and these blog posts to share the detail.

Tools

For the start of my 100 days, I'm focusing on courses from GothamChess, IM Levy Rozman. I have his Intermediate Bootcamp, e4 NY Style white openings course, and e6b6 NY Style black openings course. In traditional #chesspunks fashion, I also have a number of books that will serve me well when I've gotten a better idea of what I need to work on. Hopefully, I'll turn to those later in the 100 days. While I know very well how to learn from books, I'm going to use Levy's courses to kickstart my journey. I always find that I play better and have better board vision after I watch his analysis videos and I find his courses are pitched perfectly for my level.

I'm tracking everything on paper. For the games I play, I'm choosing the easy option of looking at the computer analysis right afterwards. Why would I do that? I'm looking at the evaluation graph. I don't really care if Stockfish is able to find the latest and greatest tactic: "You would have gained so much advantage if you'd just found this 8-move sequence!" Instead, I'm looking for steady evaluation or some advantage gain through the opening. The more moves that covers the better I've played the opening regardless of where I left the opening book.

The second thing I look for are inflection points. Where did the game turn and what was I thinking or doing when it did? If a single move leads to a massive point swing in the evaluation, I want to review that move in particular. It's only a blunder if your opponent takes advantage of it, so I want to know what I was doing when I made the blunder that they noticed. What I'm finding is that that happens on moves where I end up overextending myself instead of playing solid.

Where am I beginning?

Controversial opinion: I'm going to start with openings. Why? In the limited number of games I've played, I've done better with black. I think it's because I have an easier time responding to someone else's moves rather than when I have initiative. Applying the well-known opening principles doesn't really help when I'm white, if I'm playing a well-known sub-optimal line or walking into a well-known trap. I've also done better when I've gotten out of the opening phase even or with a small advantage. If I have openings that I know well for white and black, I increase my chances of getting to the middle game without being down material. Even if that doesn't happen, I'll at least be starting continuously in positions that have familiar themes. I'm willing to take the rating hit now in order to play better later with a small, solid opening repertoire.

Days 1-7 (Sept 18 - Oct 2)

The first 7 days have been a bit scattered. I'm figuring out how to juggle chess, work, and life. I want every day that I record here to contribute towards some progress, so there are days not recorded here where I spent some time casually doing Lichess puzzles.

Key takeaways

• It's not a blunder if your opponent doesn't take advantage of it.
• You can still put a fight even if you mess up the opening.
• Need to focus more on time management.

Day 1

• Watched the first three modules from GothamChess's Intermediate Bootcamp focusing on the main opening lines for e4 and d4.

Day 2

• Reviewed my GothamChess white and black opening PGNs for all the variations based on the first few moves
• Lichess puzzles

Day 3

• Chess.com puzzle rush survival mode to warm up. Got 20, which is my third best ever.
• First 5+0 game ever
  • Messed up on the first move (so much for the previous day's review)
  • Won on time

Day 4

• Caught up on some Chess.com daily puzzles for warm up
• 5+0 game (L)
  • My standard white opening with a variation on move three from black
  • Didn't react well and made one move that gave all my initiative
  • Decisively checkmated in 17 moves
• 5+0 game (L)
  • Dominant coming out of the opening and doing well until move 15
  • Took when I shouldn't have and quickly lost advantage
  • Lost on time

Day 5

• Rated Chess.com puzzles for warm up
• 5+0 game (L)
  • Failed opening. Did not react properly to the Caro Kann.
  • Failed to convert on major blunder. I took with the wrong piece.
• 5+0 game (L)
  • Got out of opening with advantage
  • Had a chance to gain back initiative, but missed it. Needed to go for simplification.
  • Lost on time, but loss was inevitable

Day 6

• Watched next module of Intermediate Bootcamp on flank pawn openings
• Serious effort on Lichess puzzles
  • Need to take more time for puzzles
  • Need to commit to getting the right the first time, every time
• 5+0 game (L)
  • No major blunders, just steadily lost advantage
  • Took too much time and still made bad moves
  • On the plus side, my blitz rating is probably getting closer to my actual abilities

Day 7

• Start of the 1st Chesspunks Correspondence Tournament on Chess.com
  • 5 games, 2 white and 3 black
  • One of my opponents looks like he might time out
  • Using my opening PGNs to start (which is why I haven't mentioned the openings I'm trying to play). I'll start doing in-depth analysis when I get a few moves in.

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Photo by Piotr Makowski on Unsplash