Who is currently studying (or re-studying)?

Hey all

Obviously the forum is pretty inactive, but I see guests a plenty so is anyone actually studying the ICS course at the moment? If you are why not come say hullo - I am a little way into the second month and on schedule, though will soon be hitting the mega centre part of the course which may put me behind.

Hows you doing?

Yes, sadly, the forum is too inactive and I barely look at it now as there are long periods where zero posts are made.

I completed the course years ago, but I think it still benefits me. I should really study it all again.

Hi BQ

Yes, I guess the problem with a time-based course is folks will stay with the forum for as long as they are doing the course. Still, hopefully my occasionally posting and maybe others doing the same might encourage folk who are currently studying or re-studying to say hullo. A lot easier to post something when the last posts are this year rather than years ago!

I am finding the course very helpful thus far. The difficult thing would seem to be internalising it all.

Exactly. After I completed the course, I found the same problem and when the posts fell away as everyone else completed the course.... well, forum dead.

All it would take is a few active members.

Internalising it all comes with practice. You learn something and incorporate it into your games. You sort of bounce between studying a concept and practicing it in your games until you "own" that something and then move on.

My current struggle now is rating attachment... for want of a better word. The reluctance to play in order to preserve rating standing. I know it is as stupid as hell, but it's what I am wrestling with now. And it's happening everywhere. I hit 2400 rating on lichess tactics and sat there for 5 days because I didn't want to drop it. I hit 2000 ACF in rapid games and now I'm dodging playing rated rapid games. It's so stupid.

On a positive note, preserving your rating by not playing is much more honorable than sandbagging your way into a big money class tournament....

I really don't care about ratings; no clubs within commuting distance from my home and no inclination to devote a weekend to travel and expense to participate in tournaments.

Initially I did care enough and participated in several ICCF events at the master level. But, you must be ready to compete against human/computer opponents - I felt that to be a good fit with the ICS studies since we are trained to solve strategic problems. Today, with Alpha Zero-like AI engines it is task impossible.

I still do a problem or two every day on Chess Tempo, but I have only been doing problems from a warm-up set rated between 1100 to 1700. The problems are trivial (all of the problems on Chess Tempo are). It is a good exercise in breaking that rating attachment you mention - my ability is well above the problem set, so I am only awarded a point or less for correcting solving a problem; but I will lose 10 or more points when I get careless.

Ah, BQ, rating attachment!

Yes, I hit 1900 on chess.com and then didn't play again for a good few months (upon which I rapidly descended). The same thing happens OTB, too - though that results in the 'bail out and draw effect' as opposed to not playing.

Having said that, I think PC has it right in that not caring about ratings - which is damned difficult to do - is the way forward. One has to know one is improving or what rough level one is without relying on rating to avoid the aforementioned issue.

The above is, of course, tough to do when one is just starting out though as one has less of a sense of one's performance without rating - I was a real rating junkie in the year and a half or so of starting playing in 2017. There is no doubt that it still matters, but I am much better at only leaving a peak online rating there for a couple of days before ruining it and I have overcome 'bail out and draw' ... for the most part (I can still grovel for a draw with the best of them in any position!).

Ultimately though, if one stops playing or doing tactics to preserve a good rating, one will never get a higher rating!

I know, I just have to come to my senses and just forget the ratings and... play on!

Hey Hos,
I'm surprised to see you elsewhere. Haven't thought you to be able to allocate time to other things than custom repetition schedules;).
Some time ago I was lurking around here, unable to decide whether to spend some money here.
How much do you enjoy the course?
I read about some errors in the handouts in some older forum messages, and I am hesitant because of the slightly obscure pricing model for the follow-ups.
@BorgQueen was so lovely to answer some of my questions; still, mostly due to the inactivity at this forum, I haven't made up my mind.
Are you my guiding light?
Good chess,
superlychee

One of my favorite sword master stories is that of Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo. The story goes that upon his pending death he called together his students with the request he be buried wearing his white belt. Shunning his accomplishments he was eagerly looking forward to becoming the beginner once again and re experiencing the excitement of being the newest student in the class, eager for knowledge, and willing to play the fool.

I know many martial artists (through my son and his sensei) who have achieved that coveted Black Belt only to walk away from the sport reveling in their accomplishment. Few continue on the path to Mastery, it takes years of practice. Each time they (and we) are ready to advance we must step away from what we know and take that diminished skill, or in our case rating hit, in order develop the new skills to advance.

It's a choice. We choose to follow a path towards mastery, or we stop and enjoy the fruits of our accomplishment. Either path is fine, but don't punish yourself or others for life choices.

superlychee wrote:Hey Hos,
I'm surprised to see you elsewhere. Haven't thought you to be able to allocate time to other things than custom repetition schedules;).
Some time ago I was lurking around here, unable to decide whether to spend some money here.
How much do you enjoy the course?
I read about some errors in the handouts in some older forum messages, and I am hesitant because of the slightly obscure pricing model for the follow-ups.
@BorgQueen was so lovely to answer some of my questions; still, mostly due to the inactivity at this forum, I haven't made up my mind.
Are you my guiding light?
Good chess,
superlychee

Hiya SL - good to see you. I had seen your name in the memberlist so wondered whether you were doing the course.

I am really enjoying the course so far and it has broken one of what I think was a major stumbling block of mine: taking the time to do study OTB. I am too new to the course (middle of month two) to give a fuller response about errors so others will have to comment on that. My take is that it is a very good and well thought out course that, by forcing you to - or at least suggesting the best way to study is - study OTB makes me engage in a much deeper level of study than I have been used to with online only stuff. Yes, it takes more time, but it is so much more rewarding and often sticks better. I also feel it will provide everything I need to get, maybe not to master level, but defo to break 2000 OTB (but don;t quote me on that if I don;t make it!).

My only complaint thus far would be the English used which is sometimes amusing, but very occasionally makes me have to read a part a few times to ensure I have the correct meaning. This is more of a quibble though and it hasn't yet proved problematic to the good, good learning of which there is quite a bit.

Should you spend your hard earnt cash on it? I can't say one way or the other, but I believe (though you should check) that they do a money back guarantee so you could take the plunge and check it out yourself or, if I am incorrect about that, you could just drop £25 on month one and see how you get along with that. Others who have done the whole course might also be able to give you more info.

As for repetitions and the other place, I repeat no longer after coming to an amicable arrangement over there and them step from virtual to real that ICS offers is feeling very profitable indeed.

PawnCustodian wrote:One of my favorite sword master stories is that of Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo. The story goes that upon his pending death he called together his students with the request he be buried wearing his white belt. Shunning his accomplishments he was eagerly looking forward to becoming the beginner once again and re experiencing the excitement of being the newest student in the class, eager for knowledge, and willing to play the fool.

This brought to mind the Dylan line: "He not busy being born is busy dying." Oh, and remind me never to get into a contretemps with your son, PC!

Thanks for the quick reply, Hoskins.
Your answer nudges me in a specific direction, even more as it's not my but my wife's money!

No worries, SL - and if you want more detailed thoughts from other users you can always start a thread and see what folks have to say.

What? A new thread?! What means this?

Afraid?

Bring it!!!

Hi @Hoskins,
on board. Give me some time to do the office work

Hey folks! Its great to see people actually studying this course openly again. That means I have to restart with month 1 and see how far I can get. I recently did a couple of things to free up more time in my schedule such as not working on Fridays and I've dropped playing a time/money consuming video game. I'm working from home now due to the COVID 19 issue and so I've been playing more chess online mainly on chess.com and on lichess where my moniker is the same one it is here. I was going to start playing OTB again but then COVID hit. I haven't played rated chess for about 20 years. As part of trying to get better at chess one thing I've had to do is stop playing blitz late at night, it just frustrates me too much. I'm hoping to hook in to the renewed excitement here on the forum for motivation to study chess more!

Phythalion wrote:... I'm hoping to hook in to the renewed excitement here on the forum for motivation to study chess more!

Nice one - I should be about if you wanna post stuff. I've been battling through the giant centre games and then, because that took so long, have been going over the rest of what I learnt prior to that ... hopefully should be starting on month three in a week or so ... hopefully!

Hi! I have started the course and I'm now in the 5th month.
One problem with the course is the few exercises, but lot of theory. This makes the learning passive, which is not good.

I understand I should play more games, and practise, but because I often spend several hours on this studying every dagy, I seldom find inspiration for a (online) game. Not good, I know.

MSilipoa,

Congratulations, you have progressed further than most!

You will be pleased to reach months 9-13 when you will be presented with a really challenging collection of puzzles, both tactical and strategic. Those months tie everything together.

Once I completed the course I was offered an extension of the puzzles which I took up. If you enjoy the final months of the course you might want to take of the offer.

One tip I got is not spend to much time on interesting positions and games. This is against my personality, because I want to understand. But you can't afford examine all these in detail. It takes to much time and you have to move on. Hopefully something stick to your mind even then. And afterwards you still have all the study material, and can go back if you want.

Hello All,
Trust you all had a good Christmas and are eagerly studying the course
This is my second attempt at the course, I signed up a couple of years ago but never managed to get passed month1.  I was distracted by thinking Chessable was the answer to becoming better at chess.

However it appears it didn't work for me, I've given it the best part of 18months studying various courses, and spent a small fortune on books looking for the holy grail yet I still haven't improved much

Rating still around 1550 on chess.com, where it has been for the last couple of years.
However my plan now is to complete this course and hopefully increase my rating, ideally id like to get over 2000 but realise this will take a few years.

Well thats me and just thought Id say Hi

Howdy! I'm currently studying the material and I'm focused on finishing Chapter 1 and completing the quizzes at the end. My chess.com rating is about 1550 for daily games. My name there is the same as here.

Hi Phythalion thanks for getting back.
I too am on chess,com my user name is denivoodoo and currently rated at 1564 for daily games. Happy to have a daily game or two and perhaps discuss the analysis on here if you like.

So how you finding the course?
How far did you get on your previous studies, I see you've been here since 2017
I wonder if anyone has enrolled recently as this forum is really quite.
well back to the studies