My goal this year

One of my goals this year is to play more chess.

With many hobbies of mine I tend to spend more time watching experts play/create/explain/build than actually doing the hobby myself. There's probably an ego safety factor at play here, I can't make mistakes when watching a video. Following a great player in a rapid game I can predict their moves and get it right some of the time which makes me feel good, but there's no consequences for being wrong or lazy. It's also easier when following someone else's train of thought rather than relying on my own processes.

Playing more OTB games is a bit tricky at the moment due to various time constraints, I'll be happy if I can play 40 standard play games this year. Rapid tournaments are another option but don't really offer the same value because it's hard to record the game with that little time.

The Plan

So my aim is to play the following number of games on lichess and review them.

200 15+10 games
600 5+3 games

I like these time controls because they give you the chance to think (somewhat), don't take a whole evening, and no increment games have never been enjoyable for me. These might seem like low targets but for me it's challenging but doable.

So far

Right now my total game count for the year is sitting at 23 rapid and 100 blitz. Roughly on track for the latter, lagging behind on the former. It's definitely due to a rapid game requiring more time investment (say 45 minutes to play and analyse). I'll need to focus more on rapid to catch up in the next few weeks.

Time to get playing.