A brand new chess blog!

 What is this?

This is me writing about chess. Specifically:

• My learning process.
• Some hopefully-useful articles on concepts I'm learning; explaining something is a good way to learn!
• Maybe some game analysis.
• Whatever else I feel like writing.

Why is this?

I feel like writing. Putting my thoughts down helps crystallize them. If somebody else finds it interesting or at least tolerable, great!

Particularly, the inspiration is my attempt to work through "Chess Structures" by Mauricio Flores Ríos. I realized that I'd study half a dozen games with an isolated Queen's Pawn, but I never took a step back and tried to tie them all together, and so missed some depth of understanding. I'm hoping to cover a chapter each week, and then do a write-up on the structure, plus some examples from outside the book. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime...

Who is this?

I'm a so-called "adult chess learner". I knew the rules as a kid, never got too involved, then got hooked around the 2018 Carlsen - Caruana World Championship match. Two and a half years later I'm still at it.

• At the moment, I'm ~2100-2200 Lichess. Given the timing of the pandemic I've played very little OTB but I'm looking forward to it soon.
• My approach to studying looks like this:
• ~20-30 minutes/day of blitz tactics on chesstempo.
• ~30-60 minutes/day of standard tactics on chesstempo (about 3-5 puzzles).
• A lesson/day from the "intermediate path" on chessfactor. (If you've never heard of this site, check it out, it's great!)
• However much opening study I feel like.
• A long-term study project; it's Ríos's "Chess Structures" at the moment. I'd love to be able to devote more time to this -- and maybe I should think about cutting out some of the other stuff in its favor? -- because at the pace of a chapter each week, I'll be working on this book for 7 months. But it seems so foundational that I'd rather spend more time than less.
• Games, whenever I feel like it! Mostly 30+0 at the moment. I go through phases of binging games and other times when I'll just play one or two in a week.
• My very long term goal is to get the FIDE Master title (FM); but at the moment there's so much to learn and I'm not really spending enough time for it to feel attainable in the foreseeable future.
• My short term goal is to learn new stuff!
• My other short term goal is to get a FIDE rating - no idea when OTB will start back up, but my plan is to get involved when it does.