Takchess Chess Improvement

A Novice chessplayer works to get better at chess using an improvement program based upon the methods of Michael de la Maza and the teachings of Dan Heisman

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Circle 1 1208 problems completed




The experience was not as bad as I thought it might be . On to circle 2. This time I will spend a minute or two calculating the first move. Circle 1 was done from September 8th through October 5th.

I am interested to see if my statistics for L20 improve.
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Progress on the beginning of Circle 2
Thursday 1-74 circle 2
Friday -110 end of level 10 98% overall on level 10
increased accuracy due to slowing down and checking and rechecking
Friday Level 20 -130
Sat Am -200
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posted by takchess @ 2:40 AM  

8 Comments:

  • At 12:03 PM, Blogger Unknown said…

    Um. . .ok, my 0.02 cents. . .

    Firstly, congrats on completing Circle 1.

    In my ever so humble opinion, if you don't score at least 90% on level 20 this time, I would stop right there and keep working on it until I did. . .

    Of course, it might also help to give up playing the KG - God knows what that's doing to your thinking! [grin]

     

  • At 1:28 PM, Blogger takchess said…

    A valid point which I most probably will not listen to. I did 14 of those level 20 at one point and unsure if I can stand extended l20 at this point. If fact my low score on Circle 1 may of been partically caused by my playing through so quickly because of my desire to move on. As long as I show any reasonable sign of improvement I will most likely do the whole levels again. When are you going to try some e4 openings? You might find the Scotch and Scotch Gambit kind of interesting.

     

  • At 5:23 PM, Blogger Unknown said…

    No problem. My advice is worth what you paid for it [grin].

    I played e4 openings lots of times. I want to finish my d4 repetoire and then I'll start in on e4. Probably not until next year though.

     

  • At 3:13 AM, Blogger transformation said…

    Congratulations Jim. Bravo.

    And slowmouse not too shabby either (btw, DogWaste is after him)!

    this CT-Art 3.0 circle one is really, really outstanding! dk

     

  • At 9:11 AM, Blogger Blue Devil Knight said…

    Congrats on finishing the first circle. Those level 90 problems look really tough! Great to see you are in the thick of the circles again!

     

  • At 12:15 PM, Blogger transformation said…

    takchess, if i may please get your valuable input, id very much appreciate it!:

    what do you think the benefit is or would be for me to do levels one, two, and three again versus to do four, then all the way to nine, and only THEN start over?

    i could NEVER have done level three as i have, had i not already made a preliminary attempt on my old pc on levels one to two or two and a half... so maybe 1-3 again before 4?

    while there is great advocacy for the one time continuous no matter what approach, as i recall you say in your post that youd redo levels one to three, was it, or one to two till you get 90%? i read your post late last night, so forgive me if i fail to recall correclty.

    i was about 89% level two, but would need to recheck carefully to know, but 'there and abouts'.

    what is the benefit of starting levels two and three over instead of all the way, from the perspective of level four?

    your good opinion valued by me.

    it follows, if you ask me, that there MUST be benefits either way. so what are they? of course, naturally, so much is an individual matter... warm regards, dk

     

  • At 1:23 PM, Blogger takchess said…

    Trans,
    I think it is more a personal preference. Either most likely works as well. The original MDLM way was to do all the levels continually from 10-90 then repeat 7 times. Each time half the time for doing them 64 days-34-16-8-4-2-1.The first few circles builds calculation the last build pattern recognition.
    . The advantage/disadvantage is you are seeing a wide range of tactics of varying difficulty over the time period. There is some variety but perhaps the pattern recognition is not build as quickly as in the minicircles.

    the minicircles are in vogue with the knights where you do a limited set to death than move on. So Level 10 you do 7 times than move on from level 10 to 90.Started doing this methodology on Level 10 and Level 20 last year and stoped Ct-art chosing to train on simpler problems in the Bain book.
    It all depends how you feel on being over your head with more complex variations earlier. I found it to be complex but okay. Given your skill level you would find it much easier I imagine. The Jim who wrote below is J'adoube who is a minicircle fan. When I post I may sign as Jim but always under Takchess. You might find MDLM book interesting if you haven't read it already.

     

  • At 6:36 PM, Blogger transformation said…

    dear jim aka as mousetrapper.

    thank you. i was pretty sure that i wanted to continue my first circle, and now understand what other 'knights'--and 'friends of knights'--have been refering to as mini-cirlces, previously fuzzy to me but now well explained by you--thank you again.

    of course, since i started in chess as a serious player in 1972 during the epic fischer spassky battle in iceland, but only picked up the game again in 2000, i threw myself into ALL the literature of chess, and the literature about the literature of chess, so of course knew of the MDLM article(s) the same day(s) it(they) was (were) first posted at chessCafe.com, and, of course, have purused the book many times.... not one id buy, also as many say, but well enough. why everyone gets so worked up as to whether it is worth buying? we can appreciate his effort and use what we can, taking it or leaving it.

    i feel no compunction to follow his plan, nor to deviate from it. but to utilize it.

    despite a great dislike of editing or rereading much of anything that i write im still very detailed or thorough about many things, so knew that you and J'adoube were different persons for sure. for reasons most unclear to me, i cannot get him to respond to one single constructive comment at his blog (there has been more than one, i promise you), and so he must be talking only to himself or some other special persons only?

    you mention the latter levels as not being too bad; well i am up to practice problem 556, and my success rate at that higher level is also not reduced, so perhaps we tend to focus extra hard there...

    in any event, i wasnt sure, and since i bought a new pc in early july, had to really start the CT-Art over instead of moving the application data, so really already 'got a mini circle in' to the first 300, perhaps why i asked you, and found this last fuller circle easier and cleaner, and after listening in with you, am decided. i will go all the way.

    just like samuraiChess, as well.

    how is everything else? did you see my last post? it is one of my better ones, i feel. i spent quite a bit of time on it, and is called "An open note to Temposchlucker".

    lastly, ive pushed hard for so long at CTS and now im just dog tired, no pun intended, but as i told samuai minutes ago at his post, find great comfort in being able to put the mouse down (no pun intended ii), and come back in fifteen or ten minutes.

    the way i do CTS is very, very stressfull and taxing to me. probably not unlike you jim, in that way. i am not a young man jim, and how many watts and for how long? himmm.

     

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