New start !

As I take a new start in my professional life, I'm also taking a new start in blogging.

I plan on rewriting and improving my content and on posting twice a week.
You can see me start over at : http://www.chessimprovementroadmap.com

Wish me luck in my new endeavours!

The big chess training plan

I recently bought the book Chess Exam and Training Guide and I took the whole test in a day (it was a Sunday). The results were eye-opening!

My biggest weaknesses are tactics, sacrifices, calculation and openings.
My other weaknesses are attack, strategy, middlegame and endgame.
What I call weaknesses are the areas where my estimated rating was lower than my overall rating.

My strengths (where I scored higher than the overall rating) are defense, recognizing threats, standard endgame positions and counterattack.

Review #1 : Chess Exam and Training Guide

Chess Exam And Training Guide: Rate Yourself And Learn How To Improve (Chess Exams) is great to help you build your training plan.


This book helps you identify your weak areas. The areas tested are :

• Attack
• Counterattack
• Defense
• Openings
• Middlegame
• Endgame
• Tactics
• Strategy
• Calculation
• Standard positions
• Recognizing threats
• Sacrifice

Life happens

I have a great opportunity to advance in my career, but it means moving to another town and getting used to my new environment.

So I won't be blogging for a while. As soon as everything is back to normal I'll come back -hopefully in 2 or 3 weeks.

Weekly Chess Training Report #1

• Tactics : I completed stage 2 of Sergey Ivashchenko's Manual of Chess Combinations, Vol. 1a. It corresponds to the 1300 elo level. I did stage 1 (level 1200 elo) last week. I will repeat stage 2 because I failed to solve some of the problems. I intend to repeat it until I have 100% of correct and complete answers. My rating is 1594 but my tactical strength isn't even 1300, this confirms that tactics is one of my weaknesses.