Tuesday, July 31, 2007

1310 On ICC 5-minute Blitz

Finally. The next hundred. For some time it looked like I'd never get here. I got close so many times, only to plummet back to the low 1100's, but at last I broke through the 1300 mark. Maybe there's some hope after all.

I've also picked up Scandinavian Defense as my main weapon against 1.e4, and I must say it's been a delight. No more embarrassing, crampy failures with sicilians, and you get to flex the tactical muscle right from the beginning. Naturally I play it like crap at this point, but at least I can get the plane off the runway without exploding into thousands of flaming pieces. Well, mostly anyway. There's still a lot to learn.


ICC 5-minute: 1310, +325, =8, -358 of total 691 games.

9 comments:

transformation said...

i definitely noticed.
nice work.
so sweet the joy.

as a massive bullet or 'lightning') player in my own new quest for a specific number, and having approached it twice to within two then ten elo, i can fully empathise. such hard work.

good job.

and all the more warm to attain after rolling back off the hill, so many times.

wormwood said...

thanks dk. I made it on fics as well, so hopefully it's not just pure luck... not that I won't dive back under 1300 again, but I'm feeling rather positive about it now.

still 200 points to this year's goal. seems a bit unrealistic at the moment, considering how hard it was getting this far. but hey, there's no reason to set easy goals, right?

transformation said...

im sure it is not luck. :).

so now you get the 90% thing! i told you, not to gloat, but i did tell you. so now, like me, you probably see a 85% session as a disaster? i do.

i had one bad rout, for five or six days, and now must do 700 at 97% to get my daily quota back to <94.00%. because of that bad set, now i must do 94.062% for EVERY problem to get to true 88.00% at 40,000.

artificial pressure? yes. but combined with my renewed study of GM games, continued 1001 tactic books, and daily bullet, and i will attain my goals.

i drew a chart last night, and calculated, 94% to 50,000 then 60,000 gets me to 90.00% in two years. i dont want to sit, i no longer want to sit for hours [both arms now bother me, so must take my chess in units now] at CTS, but see it now as a daily discipline, not a place to 'get the whole enchelada', but rather one of a series of things that i do daily.

this is my new initiative: to run all three or four horses daily, not one lead horse, and make the combination of those my mandala.

i am back to RHP, and giving a fellow a rematch, which is saying a lot, since i can spend 25 houts on one move. i dont enjoy this, but want to win, and win with beauty. i expect a real fight, as his elo is +, and he wants vengeance!

wormwood said...

heh, yea, 89% feels like a disappointment now. :) but it can't even hold a candle to my bad days like the last couple. today I did 2 problems, both wrong, and decided to call it a day.

you'll probably be pleased to hear that I'm playing some 2 12 games as well. I play way too fast though, being so used to the 5 0 swim-or-sink mentality. finishing the game with something like 8:30 minutes, so clearly I'm using my time badly. it's nice to get endgames though, and they're feeling oh so easy after the hectic 5 0 endgames.

I'm still continuing the 5 0 diet though, 2 12 I do just to pass the time when I'm not up to 5 0.

read your post the other day, what a terrible amount of different kinds of training you're doing. I find myself hoping I had less and less 'obligatory' training to do these days. I would really like to just play blitz for change, with no other commitments.

Jack Le Moine said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
transformation said...

please read, thur 09 aug blog:

http://boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com/

transformation said...

99% of recent, but not much relaxation....

1 wrong in 177 now feels like a meltdown. :)

wormwood said...

thanks for the heads up, dk, but I think I'll pass. the BCC blog seems to be a more of a bulletin board for upcoming events etc, instead of chess improvement, so I see no reason why I would ever read it. and I'm not going to link to a blog that I wouldn't read.

some very nice percentages you've been pulling off recently on CTS. I've been having almost exclusively bad days. I wonder if I can even make it to 85% on this batch...

oh, and spam deleted a couple of posts up, in case someone wonders what it was...

transformation said...

understood. thanks for responding.

after this big unit at CTS, i am almost ready to start back onto CT-Art, which, of couse, i only do with 100% concentration. i dont click to guess, but sit and sit until i can see it all.

my best CTS in the last year, and best live chess was after daily CT-Art, and might be my only way forward now... again...

take care, dk