"Mission Accomplished", and who turned on the light?

Late last night kind of by accident I decided to go ahead and tackle the final Cycle which was the "final review" of all 1,000 problems. If I had given it any real thought I would have waited until sometime today when I was rested and relaxed before attempting the final lap. But the real test of whether you know something or not is how well you perform while being exhausted.
Since I'm recovering from a wonderful summer cold and was already sleep deprived, last night at the time seemed like a good idea.

I am really happy with the results. It took me less than 3 hours to cover all 1,000 problems. What I am even more pleased with is the pattern recognition. It seems as if I have increased my own little stock pile of mating patterns that I can call up at a glance, which is really nice. During the review I noticed my focus was on the proximity and classification of my pieces in relationship to the enemy king and not trying to recall the exact answer. I would see a familiar set-up and then I would check the correct move order. Basically I would identify the possible theme(s) available and then go from there. All in all it was pretty easy, no muss, and no fuss just clean efficient regicide.

I wasn’t sure what to expect until I had completed the final cycle. I didn’t know if I would have to relearn/resolve the problems from scratch or if I would just remember the answers. Finding out that I was primarily recalling typical patterns is nice to know.

So now seeing the benefit of just learning simple mating patterns is making me realize how important pattern training really is to becoming a better player. Of course developing calculation muscle is equally important along with a host of other ideas and I don’t plan to neglect those either. But until now I had never really thought of chess in this particular light.

Whether it is the opening, middlegame, endgame, or even particular strategies it is the patterns that we know and understand that influence our decision making. I really think up to this point I have seriously neglected the importance of keeping things simple.

I couldn’t see the forest for all of the trees.

I plan on changing that.

Totals
Cycle 1-Completed. Points Reached 1838/1842=99.78%
Cycle 2-Completed. Points reached 2052/2052=100%
Cycle 3-Completed. Points Reached 3624/3648=99.34%
Cycle 4-Completed. Points Reached 3640/3660=99.45%
Cycle 5-Completed. Points Reached 3582/3600=99.50%
Cycle 6-Completed. Points Reached 3582/3600=99.50%
Cycle 7-Completed. Points Reached 4404/4428=99.46%
Cycle 8-Completed. Points Reached 5355/5400=99.17%
Cycle 9-Completed. Points Reached 5364/5400=99.33%
Cycle 10-Completed. Points Reached 5346/5400=99.00%
Cycle 11-Completed. 988 problems correct out of 1000=98.80%

7,000 down-0 remaining
141 Days down 0 to go