Training Log: February 2013

I posted my chess improvement resolutions for 2013 on the last day of 2012. In February, I progressed well in my tactics objective, and made some progress on the other resolutions as well.

1. In 2013, I will solve correctly 300 tactics problems each month.

I met this goal in two weeks. Solving tactics every day made 300 correct an easy goal. I solved over 250 on Chess Quest, which I started using the second week of the month. See my review "Chess Tactics Training on the iPad." Beginning use of this app has slowed my use of Chessimo, where my average per problem is under ten seconds. Although I have solved over 2300 problems on Chessimo, I count towards the month's total only those probems solved six times.

Lev Alburt came off the desk, briefly. I solved six problems.

I finished my second run through the puzzles in Shredder's iPad in January, but my pace through the third cycle is too slow to meet: "the third cycle will be completed in 2013 with the goal of 80%+ score." I finished the 300 exercises in Chess-wise Pro, and reset the program for the second pass.

My web-based training (Chess Tempo and Chess.com) remains light. My pace through the Anthology of Chess Combinations is not a source of pride.

2. In 2013, I will study whole games and whole books.

I continue with a disappointing slow pace through Logical Chess: Move by Move, but it is not my sole source for whole games. After struggling with one combination in the Anthology, I spent some time studying the whole game: Polugaevsky -- Nezhmetdinov (1958). The combination was also featured in a YouTube video that I watched: "Nezhmetdinov Chess Biography, part 3."

I count my February progress on this second resolution adequate.

3. In 2013, I will finish my Pawn Endgame Flash Card project.

I am continuing to use these flash cards in elementary classrooms while teaching beginners chess, and some of the positions came up in the first endgame lesson that I completed in Chessimo. Nonetheless, progress studying Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual and mastering the blue diagram positions must be rated substandard.

4. In 2013, I will lose fifteen pounds.

Not at this rate, I will not. I have added Wii boxing back into my exercise regime. As the whether improves with winter becoming spring, and my wife's broken leg heals, my time on the Spokane River Centennial Trail with my puppies will increase and the weight will come off.

When I walk one puppy, the other sits at home and howls.