Sunday, March 13, 2005

Circle 6 completed

I just finished circle 6 of the first 1355 problems from the CD intensive course tactics by George Renko.
I have decided to postpone circle 7 a few weeks, because right now I remember almost all the moves of the problems. And just memorizing the moves without knowing what you are actually doing makes no sense.

Tomorrow I start with circle 1 of the next 1183 problems of Renko's CD.
Because I feel the training is working I don't feel the need to leave the saddle.
Besides, I trained the last 3 years so I'm pretty used to it.
I don't like watching television, I have no kids, my wife plays chess too and everyone already think I'm nuts so that's no big deal.

8 comments:

  1. We don't think you are nuts, we know that you are nuts! :)

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  2. do you mean you have done all 1300+ problems in two days?

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  3. One of the reasons my wife and I have no kids (and no plans to, either) is because we want to spend our time on other things, like chess, astronomy, etc. With kids, they become your hobby for 20 years. Some folks can do other things (I don't know how Don kept the kids at bay while he was doing the MDLM plan), but it is hard enough to find a couple of hours a night to do chess problems without them.

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  4. Don,
    Circle 6 took me 3 days for 1355 problems.

    As I mentioned earlier I think that most strict constraints of the program are rather arbitrary.
    Because another chessproblemset has another degree of difficulty. A further difference is your own level.

    So I don't take these parameters strict:
    1. # problems
    2. # circles
    3. time per cycle

    The rules I use:
    1. As less problems as possible, but when starting the second circle, I must have forgotten most of the solutions of the first cycle.(so this depends on dificulty of the problems and your own level)

    2. I feel finished when I do the whole circle a tempo. But just memorizing the moves makes no sense. Seven circles seems to be a very reasonable amount.

    3. Problemsolving has to be fun and I don't want to feel stressed.
    So when other people watch television, solve crossword puzzles or go trout fishing (or go running to loose weight:)), I solve chessproblems. It varies most of the time between a half hour to two hours per day. Sometimes less, sometimes more.

    I measure the succes of the program not by the amount of problems I have solved but by the pleasure it gives to crush my opponents. Gain of rating also would be nice.

    Since I started this program in october 2004 the average lenght of my games diminished from about 45 moves per game to 24 moves per game at last Corus-tournament.
    Maybe you can imagine that I feel like a boxer in good condition now, ready to knock everyone down in the first round.
    That's what me keep motivated.

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  5. Fussy,
    I don't know how people with children do that. I have only to cats who already frustrate my chesstraining by hiding the chesspieces under the fridgerator:)

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  6. Logis,
    You don't seem to realize that the distance between your place and mine is on 1,5 hours:)

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  7. Tempo, I think the time constraint has an important point that perhaps you are ignoring. For example, when you are studying for an exam in school, you try to memorize and rehearse certain facts for that test. You are trying to put those facts as permanently as you can into your brain. So, you rehearse and rehearse those facts and try to get faster and faster at recalling them. The same is true with the circles. With each consecutive circle, you try to get faster and faster at answering them. I would say that it would be more beneficial for you to do your circle 7 within 1.5 days than it would be to wait awhile before attempting it.

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  8. CD,
    As I commented above:

    2. I feel finished when I do the whole circle a tempo. But just memorizing the moves makes no sense


    I don't feel myself bound to the timetable nor to the amount of circles. That means if I need an 8th or 9th circle to solve the problems a tempo, I'll do that.
    It this moment I don't see the whole line (pattern recognition), I remember just the first move (memorizing).
    It can't be bad to repeat things after a while.
    By doing the things the way I do, I stay relaxed. So today I had the energy and enthousiasm to start with circle 1 of the next 1183 problems. This must have its own merites, don't you think?

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