Hi. My first post

Hi All
Just discovered this forum. What a great idea. Thanks to whomsoever set it up! I have worked through Month 1 and am now half way through Month 2. Can anyone suggest what a reasonable weekly time commitment is required to complete each module on the suggested monthly schedule? I guess I can get close to 10 hours per week (given my OTB playing commitments and other boring non-chess stuff like job, etc) but this seems insufficient to study to the point that I feel I really understand all the information 100%. Have other folks found it better to stick with a lesson until it is all absorbed, or is it better to go through all the material at the suggested monthly pace, even if that means perhaps revisiting the material again once the whole course is finished. (For info I am about 1800 rating)
VG

I gave it 3 hours a night and still struggled to get everything done. As it was I fell behind and eventually stopped the openings course stuff and just focussed on the main content.

Thanks for the feedback. Actually I already decided to put the openings stuff on hold. I bought the openings module more for interest really and intended to only study it when I had finished the main course.
VG

Welcome aboard VG.

The forum is the creation of Blue Devil Knight - Where are you BDK?

I think 10 hours per week is about optimum to get through all of the main course. I used about another three hours per week on the openings - I was helped by the Chessbase files which were easily ported into Chess Opening Wizard which I still use to quickly review and train openings.

I don't think it is possible to memorize everything and it really is counter productive to try and master everything the first time through - some of the stuff, particularly in the month two centre games review can be overwhelming.

Thanks for the advice.
If I may ask, what is Chess Opening Wizard? Does it give advantage over going through openings using ChessBase?
VG

You can use chessbase quite effectively and it's certainly good enough. Chess Opening Wizard has some organizational features I have really come to like. Just google Chess Opening Wizard and you will find some videos that show its features (some prefer the Chess Position Trainer which has some similiar capabilities).

Thanks. I looked COW up as you suggested. I know Chessbase 10 quite well so I think I'll stick with this for now. I am not focusing on opening prep anyway at the moment.
VG

welcome aboard victorian

Hi, no in fact, you can, and you will understand the 80% of the material, this means, 80% of each month, and some stuff will be also forgotten with the pass of time, this because of the way our brain works.

What I suggest you, to work between 10-20 hours a week, 2-4 hours everyday, and schedule the lessons since you received it. (For example, with month 2, i made it this way:

The first week, I see the annotaded games, 2 per day and maybe some of the attacking theory, the second one, i take one or two days to finish whatever it is left of the attacking lessons, and then i move on to the centre, 2 weeks for the 5 centres, 2 days per centre, the second one being too much a review with the games you are still misiing from the first day. Also Each every 2-3 days, i train Board V.. And this way you have schedule all the course for the next month.)

Let me tell you that even the first time you should try to understand everything, otherwise you may do the same the second time, you have to be honest with yourself, you want to improve so understantand it perfectly, (you cannot MASTER it perfectly until you practice it a lot, but you can UNDERSTAND IT perfectly.)

Try not to spend more time than the ones the experts tell you( one month), and if you do, don't get behind for more than one week. And you may be able to shedule the next month to do it faster and then be able to finish the one you haven't finish in the first days of your schedules .

Take your time donnot rush, and do not spend two months per month cause this doesn't help you at all.
Then you can check again the whole year again, but this second time you already understand it so you will be able to fix.... more things in your head, and this time you will not only reinforce the info you already have and understand, but now you will be on the way to master it, and you will be applying it seriously in your games.

So this is the way it works
the first time you take the course-amazing results and you apply it in your games and your playing improves a lot.
The second time- it goes even further cause now you learn all the situations, all the exceptions, so you master it and you apply it in your games EVERY TIME there is the possibility to do it (GM level! (: ) Good luck and Hi. jaja

Hey, thanks for the advice. Yeah you are right, important to keep on schedule. I made the mistake of going back over Month 1 and spending too much time. Will keep forward motion from now on! Seems so obvious (but difficult to do) to follow what the instructors say to the letter.
VG

Yeah, it is very important to have a schedule. Of course it is a great mistake. Instead, you should be confident with yourself, trust in you, and believe that you are capable of learning that in one month, cause actually it's the sufficient and it's more than enough to do it, you can do it, but sometimes you just have to say ok, yes i can do it do not understimate yourself, and you will see that you will go forward soon. . Indeed, it's difficult, but it's just difficult to start, good luck.

I am out of the chess loop. Just came here to find a bunch of spam I'm presently deleting...

Oh please don't do that... if you are a mod here, you need to mod here... don't abandon the site and allow adspammers to infiltrate, it's very annoying!

Does we needs more mods?