Training Week 3

In general, my week was pretty busy (that's also why this post is 1 day late). This meant that my study time had to be more fragmented and I often only had 15-30 minutes at a time to study. This is too short to deeply dig into the analysis of a game, so I focused more on tactics and playing rapid games in these slots.

Positives from the week

I'm certainly happy with the number total of hours I managed to spend on chess, even though the time felt less meaningful since I didn't spend a lot on time on analysis or solving difficult puzzles.

I also found more time for rapid games and had another OTB league game on Saturday which is always good. In addition to that, I also had my LoneWolf game and a 20+20 chess960 game, so I am very happy with the time I spent playing.

Improvements for the future

The biggest takeaway from this week is that I need to find bigger blocks of time for chess study. In order to achieve that, I need to better schedule my non-chess activities which was a problem this last week.

Instructive position

I have seen the following position in Mastering Chess Strategy.

Carlsen-Beliavsky, 2006

Black to play

Black's biggest problem in this position is the passive bishop on g7, so black improves it.

26...Bxd5 27.Bxd5 Bf6! 28.Qg3 c6 29.Bb3 Bd8! 30.Qd3 Bb6+

The bishop is now very strong on the g1-a7 diagonal and black has an advantage.