Saturday, April 29, 2006

Where have I been?

I have been slack on the posting I know.
But over the past month I have been doing the following.

Super busy at work.

Enjoying the warm weather and extra daylight in the evening.

Spending more time with my family.

Spending less time in front of the computer.

Downloaded/Purchased PCT (Personal Chess Trainer) and have been working through the Modules.
I highly recommend it, everything is nice and neat. Tactics, endgames, and strategy all in one program. I laughed when I saw that GM Gilberto Milos starts people off with having them solve mate exercises in his Tactics Module. Guess I'm not crazy after all for recommending that new players should start there as an introduction into the wonderful world of tactics.

Exercising more. Cycling, and light weight lifting.

"Transcribing" Irving Chernev's "The 1,000 best Short Games of Chess" into Chessbase format.
This way I get to play through chess miniatures of some really great players.

Playing Solitaire Chess. I'm using Phillip Sergeant's book "Morphy's Games of Chess" as my current guide. I may play through all 300 games, who knows? Descriptive notation too!! I imagine algebraic will start to look weird after 40 or 50 of these.
Also I'm playing over these games using my tournament board, I have to start practicing my board visualization. I still have a problem jumping back and forth between 2-D (computer screen) and 3-D (real board). It might be from spending too much time studying with a computer. I will keep you posted on this experiment.

Endgames, endgames, endgames... "Secrets of Pawn Endings" by Karsten Muller
Currently.

Trying to increase enrollment at the chess club, Beginner's tournaments, USCF tournaments,
the whole nine yards.

Yard work before it gets too hot.

That's about all I can think of at the moment.

I hope all of my fellow Knight's are doing well!