It’s been a while since I last posted a training update, so there are a few things to go over!
First, the fact that I have not written about training in a bit certainly does not mean that I have not been doing any!
Two weeks ago I was on the road for work, and what else does one have to do in a hotel room after work other than study chess? Certainly nothing productive.
So for three straight days I got off work at 4pm local time, made it back to the hotel and had dinner and a break by 5:30 and then spent the next three to five hours studying chess!
I was getting through a couple of Yusupov chapters per day, along with a bit of Positional Decision Making in Chess by Boris Gelfand and some of Nikos’ excellent book on playing 1…e5.
Granted, this was only for a few days, but I actually found the increased activity level refreshing.
After than the level of study dropped off a little bit, but mostly due to life interfering. When I made it back to Wisconsin I only had about half an hour to spend at home relaxing and then it was right into the car to drive an hour and a half up north to function as one of the tournament directors for the Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Championships.
I wasn’t able to get much work in that way, but I did get in a late night analysis session with a couple of friends, so it was better than nothing.
However, when I made it home and was ready to resume studying we had some flooding in the basement of our house, and I lost a couple of days of study time to dealing with cleaning up the mess left from that.
However, by Thursday I was back in the saddle and won the game in my previous post. Clearly I have some room to improve there as well, but at least things are heading in the right direction.
Tonight was a good session of Gelfand, and after I finish typing this I am going to hop in to a chapter of Yusupov as well. Speaking of the Yusupov Challenge, you can see Jacob Aagaard discuss this topic with the author himself on a Quality Chess Vlog here.
Speaking of Jacob, I went to him for some nutritional advice, and he really delivered. My wife and I were both very grateful for the advice he gave and I can say that the past several lunches I have had were mostly vegan and there are more to come there.
I remain convinced that improving my diet will help me study with a much higher level of focus that I am currently bringing to the table.
So all in all my work on the Quality Book challenge seems to be progressing around a month and a half in.
My rating remains flat, but my playing schedule will pick up as the year goes on and I will have many more chances to put my increased knowledge to work.
Til Next Time,
Chris Wainscott