monday status check
it’s monday, a rest day for the tour, but not for me. one thing most people don’t understand about cycling, the guys who ride the tour de france, on thier “rest” day, they ride. they have to. it’s only about 50 miles, at an easy pace, but they can’t not ride. when the tour is over, they have to ride, they can’t just stop, or thier body siezes up. that is why they enter small races on the way home, to wean themselves off the bike. cycling is an extreme sport.
as for me, i am gearing up for friday. right now on the chess tactics server, i am at 70%, exactly, thanks to following dk-transformation’s advice and taking it slow and solving the problems correctly. i will continue and hopefully my percentage will get over 85, and my overall rating will have naturally increased. i’m now at 1406, with my highest being 1506, exactly 100 points. it’s wierd when numbers are perfect and round like that.
so here is my new thing. i am memorizing games. whole games, about 35 moves or less. i play them over and over until i can play them two or three times without looking at the book. i did this yesterday, memorized three games, and now, today, i can’t remember them, only bits and pieces. but i think that somewhere, deep in the dark recesses of my brain, they are there and perhaps if i come across a similar position, i will “intuitevely” know what to do. that’s what i’m hoping anyway. the whole concept of memorizing a whole game, it’s probably quite obvious and well known and others might say “well, DUH!, that is what you are supposed to do” but i thought you were just supposed to study positions and tactics and over the course of lots of studying you just learned and memorized the positions, they became familiar. i don’t know if it will work, but i kind of enjoy it, and i should get something out of it. that’s my thing for this week anyway.
as far as getting a chess coach….yeah, i know, i need one and i want one. here is the problem. there is a chess teacher, Levon Altounian, right there in tucson. the guy is awesome, freindly, so fucking smart, and is a great teacher. i’ve taken two lessons with him, and i would totally study under him for the rest of my life if i could, but fate/the gods aren’t having any of that. i am moving in a month or two to colorado. so, i find a fantastic opportunity, a treasure, right here where i live now, but now that i found him, i know he is here, i can’t learn from him, i’m leaving. i would like to take as many lessons from him as i could while i still can, but his schedule is super busy, and when he has time, i’m not around, so our schedules right now don’t jive. he will be totally open next month, which is when i will be leaving, so there is that. that is frustrating to no end. its like life is intentionally rubbing my nose in it, taunting me, showing me what i can’t have. so there is that.
for now i will just keep reading books and studying and doing what i can. i’m moving to a small town in colorado far from denver or colorado springs or anywhere chess is happening, so that will be a challenge. who knows, maybe i’ll find someone who can teach me.
and now, i have some games to memorize.
Rocky said,
July 16, 2007 at 7:36 am
You mention the chess teach is “so fucking smart” … does he work for Sofa King?
Sorry … I couldn’t help it. I laughed my gut off when I watched that clip last week on youtube.
David K, Seattle said,
July 16, 2007 at 12:02 pm
nices posts. yes, you do them slower, no matter what. now it is time to TRY for 90%. sound impossible? no.
lay out paper, and draw boxes, one to ten. i used to do this for 88.5%, or rows of eight, when i’d allow myself one wrong in eight. repeat the rows. tick them off as you go, to count. it is not a mental process, but a physical process of the count. it is also a visual process.
now, here is the rub, i moved it up to twelve, then fifteen. now i can allow one wrong in SEVENTEEN, BUT 17 is a weird number (94%, long story, but i need the next 7000 or so at 93.9% to hit a true 88.00% at 40,000 tries… ‘88′ at CTS is really 87.95%), so i try for one wrong in twenty.
95% is very hard, so i try for 100%. it is more like 88% and then 92% and 98% etc…
—————-
the idea is to make accuracy a habit.
—————-
never finish a session without twenty in a row correct. you can do it.
you sure keep moving around or starting new jobs. sounds very interesting. sorry about the coach that you wil miss, for now.
warmest, dk
David K, Seattle said,
July 16, 2007 at 12:03 pm
correction: …for 87.5% of 7/8
liquideggproduct said,
July 16, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Memorizing whole games? This is the first time I’ve heard it as a recommendation, or maybe I’ve just been living under a rock chess-wise (although I wouldn’t mind doing it if it meant getting out off class B/C hell.) Surely, it’ll strengthen your game.
I wonder if the negative patterns imprint as strongly on the subconscious as winning combinations.
chessloser said,
July 17, 2007 at 11:13 am
rocky - hahaha, love that vid….
david - i can’t seem to get 20 in a row, best i’ve done so far is 12….
liquideggproduct - no one reccommended it, i just kind of started doing it. god, i hope the negetive patterns dont imprint. i memorize them playing as whichever side won the game, so i am trying to learn how to move correctly…
takchess said,
July 18, 2007 at 3:10 am
I can memorize and entire game but I have trouble retaining it and my buffer seems to hold only a game at a time. It starts getting jumbled with other games when I attempt to learn more.
Memorizing games and position is viewed by many to be a path to improvement.
In the book Gm-ram, the author believes the way to chess excellence is to memorize 300 chess positions and 60 games.
The games are here.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1003578
chessloser said,
July 18, 2007 at 11:34 pm
takchess - thanks for the link, that is a huge arrow pointing the way…
David K, Seattle said,
July 31, 2007 at 4:37 am
you can.
when you get two wrong in thirty, now you are annualizing 93.33% or 100-1/15 or:
2f/28s= 30 tries.
so then you must get the next twenty right, to be at 2/48= 50 @ 95.00%.
just sit until you can see it all.
rating. no.
yes, it will fall. but as wormwood recently wrote at the CTS message board, your rating will correct unitl your average time spent is about 10 seconds per problem. i am not 100% sure about that, but the concept is accurate.
so at 1350 instead of 1400, you can get a lot more right or correct.
imasculating? no.
you are making calculation a permanent rather than inadvertant habit.
after Rasmamusen was kicked off his team, i lost a lot of interest…
but still appreciate time trials.
ive watched the tour for 17 years, or so…
warmest, dk