PoPLoAFun breaks down the common tactical themes into their tactical atoms. It is like learning a new way of looking. It is about discovering new patterns and internalize them. And about unlearning a lifetime of bad habits.
What can I predict? I'm learning the PoPLoAFun ins and outs of 960 chess positions. That will take me about 150 hours of training. Say 150 days with one hour per day. That is about the end of the year. After that, the progress should be measurable. If not, then the method doesn't work.
Is rating improvement the primary criterion that you will use to decide if the method works or not?
ReplyDeleteAre there other criteria (besides rating improvement, if that is the primary criterion) that might be used for determining if the method works or not?
I set the definition of success a long time ago. If my rating at Chess Tempo improves with 250 points, consider that as a total success. From 1800 rating at CT (July 2017) to 2050.
DeleteIf my rating on Januari 1st is above 1900, I will see that as a proof that the method works.
The past 22 years have been a steady cyclus of trial and error. Every method I tried did fail. So on the one hand, I cannot or dare not to belief that I have finally found something. On the other hand, I'm working hard on my endgame. Indicating that I don't see room for improvement of the tactical training method as of yet. But I do realize that if my tactics will get an uptick, I will need to transfer that to OTB play. And endgames will definitely be a bottleneck for getting results in that realm.
Tempo
ReplyDeleteWould you be able to write an artice (and create it as a template) to inform us each 10 days what are your changes at the Chess Tempo rating?
If I understood correctly, you are going to devoted 150 days for that experiment. It would be great if you could make a graph and table that shows your progress (or lack of that) each 10 days. This gives us 15 checkpoints we could analyse after the experiment is over.
What do you think of that idea? :)
I'm a bit reluctant to test myself so often for several reasons. Part of the training is unlearning bad habits. But testing tends to reinforce the bad habits. The second is that testing (and writing about it) takes time. Which I think I can better use for training.
DeleteBut for starters, I will write an article about the exact method I'm using.
Excellent! I think writing a few short articles related to the method you are using will be beneficial to everyone! :). This way we can have an access to that method and try out our internal tests as well :).
DeleteI am keeping fingers crossed on you my friend! Did you consider to write a few articles instead of one? :)