Many thanks for the information!

Hello:
"1-Do you both found an increase in playing strenght?"

Not really, yet. I am only working on Ch. 7 at the moment. Plus I may be a hopeless case. Over 50, work, etc. Even though I will keep trying ...

Gerry

Quote:


Quote:


1-Do you both found an increase in playing strenght?
(2200-2300 is the objective according to the site).

2-Anyone choose the opening repertoire mode? What openings are sugested for Black?

Hello:

"The 1-year program is designed for students who assign 6-10 hours a week (or more) for chess studying."

I think it is a good program. Currently working on Month 7. 

Gerry

Bowen wrote on 04/04/10 at 22:51:07:


you mean http://www.chessmasterschool.com? thx

So I have returned to chess after a couple years away from the game.  I am adult so work and family obligations took me away for a while.  My rating is about 1650 USCF with a height of 1750 roughly.  My guess from my few recent tournaments after beginning to play again is that playing strength is somewhere in between at the moment.  My goal is to improve to 2000 in 18 months to two years then reassess what is possible and interesting after that.

I play between 3 and 6 or so rated games per month over the board ranging from G/60 to G/90 usually.  In big swisses the summer and fall the time controls will likely be something like G/2.
On weeks that I don't play in tournaments I should have between 5 and 7 hours of study time.  This DOES NOT include 45 minutes or so per day on public transit where I study tactical puzzles and positions via books.  This time is well spent I think.

I would prefer not to get bogged down in opening study for 5 to 7 hours per week so my plan is to annotate my games and pay some attention to openings during my annotations and via fritz.  I find I remember more this way-essentially learning openings after experimenting in games and annotating them rather than proactively preparing stuff as I tried to do with mixed results when I had more time.  Does this make sense?  Does anyone else do this?

So much of that time would be to study my own games.

So my next questions are as follows.

1.  I can now afford an online chess teacher for about 4 hours per week OR I can use the money to buy DVDs fo inprovement and watch them, for instance the Muller videos.  I am curious what people here do and have done.

And finally, since I have little time, I am wondering what those who have a similar situation do.  Do you focus on stuctured study like one hour for endgames or one hour studying on great game with an educational middle game, etc., if you don't have a tutor?  Or do you study based on what errors you find in your own games?

Essentially I am trying to find the best study plan at my level with my goals with my time limitations.

Thanks very much for any thoughts.  This is an excellent forum!

---YD