Day 153 / 212 to go

Guess what, I started yet another experiment - following yet another advice from one of these "gurus": Mr.. Smith considers it utmost important to be fully aware of one´s mistakes by not only analysing own games but also categorise them and create some sort of database listing these mistakes!
 So that is mainly what I spent this evening with: the creation of a database-like Excel spreadsheet. I created a dropdown-list of mistakes to choose from for every game I lost or drew (for the time being I am excluding won games). I am starting with a list of 11 mistakes (e.g. "overlooked opponent´s best move" or "didn´t see own best move" or "mis-judged the value of a move/position/variation" or "blunder during time-pressure").

I am not too sure where this will lead me to as I am not yet convinced that this sort of knowledge will be of  real practical help (since the outcome might be very obvious and "already known"). Nevertheless, since the investment (of time) is rather small, I am more than happy to give it a try! Now that the structure is set, keeping the file up to date (after each tournament) is not really time-consuming.
I categorised the Schloßpark Open and will follow up with Vellmar tomorrow (but on tomorrow´s agenda will also be a session to improve my opening with Black - based on the experience and mistake made against the 2400-dude during the last tournament)...

Furthermore, I followed Smith´s second most important advice - he calls it the Woodpecker Method: Next to knowing your mistakes Smith concludes that solving simple tactical exercises helps to internalise motifs and strengthen one´s intuition. Actually, this is an advice to be read and heard of a lot from experienced professionals and trainers. Hence, I bought the "CT-ART 4.0"-App for my mobile device (so I can easily do it in the train, the subway or even in bed).
(I paid almost 9 EUR for the full version - which makes it, by far, the most expensive app on my mobile! I know that it was definitely not necessary to pay for a tactic trainer but it features an ELO-calculator based on your solving-rate. I started at 2000 and made it to 2100 today. NOPE, this does definitely NOT mean that my tactical skills are that advanced, it simply proves that the Elo-calculation algo is - at best - mediocre. Nevertheless, it is somewhat motivating!)

I assume that both applying my PAT to positional puzzles and solving tactical exercises will remain a reoccurring theme for the months to come... 


BTW - LdV: Do you remember our discussion about intuition? For Smith both applying some sort of "analysis tree" during training and solving tactical puzzles is a major source to create/increase intuition!   8-)