What did you learn from this first month?

After finishing the first month I am sure I learnt that if there is a PME and I have more pieces I must try to keep the queen or rook on the board to get a better coordination of the pieces. Before the course I always exchanged the last rook or queen. Also I now know of a new thought process but I am still working of it. And finally I learnt I lose the thread on positions with many pieces and no clear target somehow I am not able to see a clear path I get lost in the inmensity of ways to continue!!!!

In the first month I changed to way I thought about chess and my thoughts while I am playing chess. I knew that in order for me to take my game to the next level I have to let go of my way of playing and thinking about chess and find a new way to play and think that can take me to the next leve. I truly believe the chess course is just what I need to make that happen.

Well, the thought process is something I am trying to incorporate to my way of play chess. I played three games since I started the course, the first one my head was a mess, during the second one I noticed how the consequences of the moves, mine and my opponent's, were introduced in my thought process, and this monday I played the third one where consequences were in my thinking, sometimes even it happened unconsciously, I still need a lot of practice but I am glad this is happening so early. All of this makes me feel very happy. The course works!!!!!

I started again with the course and discovered that i forgot many things already that i thought i had under my belt after the first run of month one.

The thoughtproces is indeed hard the first games one plays. One is thinking more about the thoughtproces then the game on hand. "What must i do, oh yeah, threats and consequences, lets see, the ... ." So it definetly doesn't happen unconsiously at first, it needs lots of practise and even then a good reminder so now and then is in place to not fall in old habits again.

The PME i still didn't cram into my little brain. I have some knowlegde of it but that is all. Dont ask me questions about it since for 85 percent you will get a blank stare back.

Like everyone else, I'm changing my thought process when I'm playing chess now, questioning every move, think about the consequences and coming up with a to do list. It's a much more organized way of thinking then what I was doing, which was rather random as I just developed my pieces to what "looks" like to be good squares in the opening instead of actually coming up with a specific strategy of what to do. I'm playing correspondence games now (on redhotpawn.com and chess.com) so I can take as much time I need to think about each move