David's Dojo Journey - Installment 5

Here are some highlights from this week:

Tactics Time Progress and Insights

I have really been enjoying working through this book and many of the puzzles are more difficult than the other sets in the program. The first set of 100 exercises I got 58 of 100 correct. The second set of 100 exercises I got 66 out of 100 correct. The third set of 100 exercises I got 71 out of 100 correct. The fourth set of 100 exercises I got 64 of 100 correct. So, some improvement between the first three sets of 100 with a slight decline in performance on the fourth set of 100. I've been noticing that the harder puzzles help me to slow down and look at the positions longer in my games since when I look longer at the puzzles I can see more deeply into the position. I guess I always objectively knew that to be the case, but experiencing it over and over again in the book, even perhaps more than the puzzles themselves, has been really helpful.

Dojo Classical Tournament Round 4: Lost with 94% Accuracy!

My opponent was almost 100 points below me and played with 97% accuracy in a 2.5 hour match with 83 moves. I had 94% accuracy and LOST! That is a first for me and I can't imagine it is common for my level. It was an interesting game where I made some key errors. A good learning experience and hope you enjoy the annotations. Happy for improvement suggestions for people who are further along in their journeys!

Classical Games Evidencing Growth in Tactical Vision and More Forcing Play

After a string of losses, I had a couple of nice wins. While my opponents didn't play perfectly (thankfully that rarely happens at my level), I think this game in particularly shows growth in my tactical vision and a shift to more active play:

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played

I started this classic book this week by Chernev and can tell it is going to be very helpful from a strategy perspective - a significant area of weakness in my game. In March of 2023 I went through Logical Chess by Chernev and experienced a significant improvement in my play at that time, so I'm looking forward to similar improvements as I work through the games in this book.

Turning Rating View off in Lichess

Given my intentional focus on not looking at ratings, I decided to turn the rating view off in Lichess. I am only one day into that decision, but I have already noticed the difference it is making mentally. I didn't know about this functionality, but here is a great article by GM Noël Studer that explains how to turn off the rating view and many other things related to Lichess: https://nextlevelchess.blog/lichess-101-a-comprehensive-grandmaster-guide-3/.

Outside of Chess

There were significant developments this week outside of chess. My company completed a significant M&A transaction that transformed the company, I was promoted to SVP, Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Secretary and started teaching a Securities Regulation class remotely at LSU Law where I went to law school. Big week outside of chess, though meaningful progress was still made every day - mainly focusing on tactics.

Dojo Booklist
Given the number of books that I am going through in the Dojo, I thought it would be helpful to create a list, so I can quickly recall that part of the journey!

• Polgar; Chess:5334 Problems (in process)
• Giannatos, Everyone's First Chess Workbook (completed)
• Polgar S., Learning Chess the Right Way (Vol. 3) (completed)
• del Rosario, First Book of Morphy (in process)
• Brennan and Carson, Tactics Time (in process)
• Chernev, Logical Chess Move by Move (in process)
• Chernev, Most Instructive Games (in process)
• Silman, Complete Endgame Course (in process)

Until the next installment!