Day 6
I finished level 10 today in CT-ART. I did it this morning when I was sleepy but I still managed to get 93%. I also started Level 20, and did 71 problems. I was happy to get a large number of the level twenty excercises correct especially since I’ve not seen them before.
Problems Today: 181 Total Problems: 617
Day 5
So I started doing CT-Art today and got through two circles of the first level. I’ll move on to the next level one I hit 90%. I messed around too, trying to learn CT-Art so I did a few more than the 110 in the first level. I found that the second time going through I would recognize the position as one previous and I would just move the pieces without examining the entire board. This caused some problems because there are several similar positions and I misplayed several times. I think this is partly because 110 problems is not enough to circle in a “mini-circle” (as some of the so called Knight-Errants have suggested to avoid burnout). The next few levels have more than two hundred problems, so hopefully that is enough. I think the real test will be tomorrow and see how many patterns I recognize the next day (instead of an hour apart).
Level 10: 69%, 84%
Problems Today: 188 Total Problems:436
CT-Art 3.0 Study Plan
CT-Art 3.0 arrived today and I immediatetly started working on the problems. As previously mentioned, I’m going to be doing the seven circles program, more or less, first put forth by Michael de la Maza. Initially, I’m skipping his Micro Level Drills because I think they’d be a waste of time.
CT-Art has nine levels so I’m going to circle each level in test mode until I get >90% right. After that, I’m going to try to run the entire thing through in one sitting and see if I get get more than 90%, and keep trying until I do. 
After that, who knows?
Day 4
Unfortunately there was a mix up with UPS and they failed to deliver CT-ART today. I also have an exam tomorrow, so I was only able to do a minimal amount of problems. I’ve completed through problem 148, making my four day average only 37 problems per day.
Day 3
I completed the first 324 problems from Polgar’s Chess. That brings my three day average to 108 problems. I’ve slowed down slightly after completing the mate in one excercises. We’ll see tomorrow how many pure mate in two excercises I can complete. Tomorrow CT-ART 3.0 is supposed to arrival in the mail, so I’m a bit torn between continuing with the Polgar chess problems or moving to the software to study. I think I can expose myself to more patterns more quickly using the software, but I hate not finishing something I’ve started.
Moe vs. Bainbridge
Over at ChessForums.org I’ve posted a recent victory of mine for futher analysis. I ran the the game through Chessmaster 10, but I’ve not found a way to export the analysis to post. Hopefully somebody can provide more insight into what went right (and wrong.) Several tactical motifs are involved in this game including a pin (which was set up by a bishop trade), the threat of a skewer, and finally a discovered check which wins a rook.
Day 2
Unfortunately I got caught up in the election last night, so I did not get as much accomplished as I had originally intended. I finished through #252 in Polgar’s Chess, which makes my two day average 126 problems per day. I don’t think I’ll be circling these mates as all but two of them have just required a glance at the board. CT-Art 3.0 has shipped, so I expect to have it by Monday.
Day 1
Yesterday, I completed the first 93 problems of Polgar’s Chess. The point of these checkmate and tactic exercises is to increase pattern recognition and I’ve already started seeing patterns. The goal for today is to continue to do the same and hopefully finish all the one move mates.
The Original Study Plan
Two people that have really influenced my ideas on how to study are NM Dan Heisman and Michael de la Maza. Specifically, I am going to go through De La Maza’s Seven Circles program, and while applying the ideas that Dan has presented in his Chess Cafe article “Novice Nook: An Improvement Plan.” Specifically, I’m going to play long slow games (60 5) twice a week (against a Chessmaster 10 personality) in addition to my normal play on Chess.com’s facebook interface. Since I am a student with a lot of time on my hands, I’m also going to be reading through the books that Dan recommends in his plan, roughly in the order that he recommends.
My goal is to spend an hour each day studying chess, with the most of that study going towards studying tactics. I’m going to take up everybody’s recommendation and start with CT-ART 3.0, but while I’m waiting for it to arrive in the mail, I’ll be using Polgar’s Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations & Games. I am only going to do the one and two move mates for now, so only the first 3,718 problems. I’m not sure how long this will take me but the one move mates are quite easy.
My first chess tournament will be January 17th, 2009 roughly eight years after my first.
