David's Chess Journey - Installment 46

My Journey with Noël Studer Begins

I feel extremely fortunate that Noël has agreed to take me on as a student. I really liked his onboarding process. He had an initial intake form where I told him a bit about my journey and why I thought we would make a good fit. We then had a 30 minute introductory call where we explored the potential partnership further. It was clear during the call that this was a good fit and the work begins next week. I have had many amazing people invest in me in my journey to this point, but I feel like the real work is just starting. The next season of the journey will be recounting my training with Noël - the model training schedule, my ability to complete (or failure to complete), the ups, the downs, the learnings, the growth pains, the struggles and, hopefully the breakthroughs.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what is ahead!

Remember That Time I Resigned When I Meant to Offer a Draw?

I experienced a first this week. I have made many mouse slips throughout my journey, but this was likely the most painful.

I was playing a much higher rated player and fought back to a drawish position. I meant to offer a draw and accidentally resigned. How is that possible you ask? I really don't know, but I did it!

Here is the game. Painful.

Finally, a Relatively Clean Game

As I journey through this slump, I have learned that I need to celebrate the good moments where there is some evidence that I'm making some progress. This was a nice game for me where I was able to get an advantage and convert with no mistakes or blunders. These days, that is a rare experience, so I wanted to take some time and enjoy the moment.

Here is the game:

Reflections on Mindless Play

Starting on October 18, 2024, I decided to take 7 days off of playing based upon Noël's very insightful article about mindless play. As he described what it meant to play mindlessly, I realized that I was guilty. If you have been following my journey, you will know that I have been trying to put more of an emphasis on playing to gain experience given my early stage of the journey. But, the volume of play, I will admit, was not at 100% focus. The biggest piece of evidence that this is the case is the hundreds of points that I have lost over the last couple of weeks in just playing (and losing) lots of games with most games decided by a blunder or two.

He provided the following advice for those of us who struggle to play with focus:

1. Take at least 7 days off playing. Do other things for your chess, and get rid of impulsive playing habits.
2. Set yourself a clear goal and daily limit. I like 6 games for Blitz and 2 games for Rapid.
3. Commit to analyzing your games. Playing is nice and fun, but if you want to learn, make sure to analyze your games.
4. Plan your playing sessions: take 10 minutes on Sundays to plan your playing sessions for the upcoming week.
5. Set a reward/punishment and hold yourself accountable. The goal is to make success easier than failure.

So, I am taking 7 days off of playing. To be honest, it feels a bit like going through withdrawal. I am going to take the time to really focus on tactics on Chess Tempo, do my Aim Chess Workouts and try to finish working through Simple Chess. I could also go back and analyze more of my games if I want to spice it up a bit more.

Once I can play again on October 25, 2024, 2 15+10 games (or 15+15) sounds like a reasonable limit that will force me to spend more time analyzing than playing, which I know I need to do. Of course, once I see the training plan, that may change!

Here is my Simple Chess study (very much in flight):

Until the next installment!