Re: Does one feel improvement after six hours a week of chess work?

by PurplePredator November 5th 2010, 3:08 pm

I'm currently on Month 5 but haven't had much time to study the material properly. However I have noticed an improvement over that time from 1400-1650 in my 5 min blitz game. Instead of just moving pieces around the board aimlessly I'm now moving them with a purpose i.e to create a local superiority of forces (love that term) somewhere. I recently started going again through the material properly from Month 1 again, I'm hoping it will push up into the 1800+ range.

Tbh though if it's anything like Math was for me in college, I'm hoping that 1 day it'll just click and all make sense. One things for sure though, I've definitely noticed an improvement in my ability.

by BorgQueen November 7th 2010, 6:32 pm

I am on month 2 of month 4. In other words, I didn't find enough time to complete the content of month 4, so I'm giving myself another month to complete it.

I am also devoting 2 hours a day to the study, so more like 14 hours a week. Is it helping? I'm not entirely sure yet. It is expected that you actually get worse while you re-train your thinking method and then it should "come together" and you'd be better off.

Last week I had a "it all came together" otb game. I defeated a player who is 400 rating points my senior! Of course, I cannot tell if it was due to ICS training or some other factors, but I was happy nonetheless :-Þ