Picking things up again

Due to rather drastical - but absolutely desireable - change within my work-life, I wasn´t able to focus on chess at all. Actually, for the first time in many years I even had to skip quite a series of tournaments which I normally would have attended. This "transition phase" will continue until May next year - only then I will have "transformed" into my new profession. Hence, it will not be truely active chess phase prior to that date and only then can I yet pick up my journey again to elevate my chess towards higher levels...

Nevertheless, I am still working with CRT 4.0 to keep up with tactical issues. It seems like this allows me to keep my current level of 2100 - last week I won against a 2183 FM. (BTW - many former IMs recommend solving tactic puzzles as one of the most important means to increase one strenght!)

Today, I spent quite some time in the afternoon to read and evaluate some of the newsletter articles I get from TheChessWorld.com. My inbox showed some 75 emails which I finally took the time to go through. Ever heardt about the site TheChessWorld? Actually, I am a frequent consumer of the content (and products) offered there. Besides some really helpful insights into some of the openings I am confronted with at the board, they also offer articles that I find rather helpful - not always, let´s be fair, but every now and then.

Let me share just two things for a start:

Looking for real blasts - following the link you will find some amazing blasts by Anand. To be honest, I wasn´t too sure about the value for me personally. Only some 30min after I finished going through the material, I realized that, probably, I should open my eyes (much) more and look for game-changing sacrifices, even if I cannot really calculate things to the very end...  I know, too well, that just because "I want to", nothing will happen. But:

Today, I was reminded that prior to an important game or even tournament, I should go not only through my openings, but also have a decent look at my own posts within this blog!  YES - taking the time to review old posts is actually an advice given by more than one GM (since I keep a pretty open record of my mistakes and this is what it is all about - facing prior faults): It helps to be reminded of things that went wrong in the past and those worth to remember during the game. Hence, going through "Anand´s blasts" prior to a match may well help me to actually go for it. I saw an interview with German´s top talent Vincent Keymer yesterday where he made his point by committing that he finds winning positions so interesting because of the many creative opportunities they bring.

So, all I want is to remind myself of Anand´s blasts and Keymer´s joy in order to open my vision...  Let´s see! 👦