Closing the gaps

 There are two gaps that I much bridge.

• The gap between the end of the opening and the beginning of the final king assault (the Vukovic gap)
• The gap between the end of the opening and the beginning of the endgame

Both gaps will take a few years to close.

The past two years I learned more about chess than the previous 23 years. The reason for that is that the first 23 years I focused solely on developing the learning method, so there was no time to actually learn. Without a method it would have been marginal anyway.

Vukovic gap

In order to bridge the gap, I must have an idea how the final assault works. Currently I have a problem set of 1000 problems which focus on the assault. This set is a perfect fit.

For the gap itself I have quite a few courses that can be studied. But this study is hampered by the fact that I'm only at the beginning of the study of the assault. As long as I don't master the actual assault to a certain degree, I cannot make informed decisions about the actions that prelude it.

The funny thing is, that I lately got an important clue about the middlegame from an endgame position that Robert gave me. That problem revealed the importance of invasion at any stage of the game.

Endgame gap

The situation with the endgame gap is even worse. I have decided which endgame problem set I'm going to use, but I have not started it. I have a lot of dots, but I have not connected them yet.

Hence it is too early to even think about closing the endgame gap. I must start with the endgame first.

Studying the endgame problem set can be well combined with the assault set, because they have a different pace. The assault set is purely about absorbing patterns, while the endgame patterns need to be discovered first.

Middlegame moves

Middle game moves must be multi purpose. I must keep both options open: am I preparing the transition to an endgame or to an assault? Which moves serve both goals? I cannot know that without endgame study first.

Retirement

At the end of the year I'm going to retire. Then I will finally have time to play a game or two. I look forward to it! I already planted the geraniums!