ChessPub Forum - I Decide To Go To War

ChessIsWar Junior Member Offline Posts: 63 Location: New York State Joined: 12/10/14 Gender:	Re: I Decide To Go To War Reply #28 - 07/02/21 at 17:34:39	Post Tools	Print Post
	an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 07/02/21 at 14:36:25: I looked at chessmasterschool.com. Their offering seems fine, I would even say it's well worth the $24 per month, provided one does the work and sticks with the course. As to whether it's better or worse than some other online school, it's impossible to say without doing both, and who is going to do that? The chessmasterschool course is designed for 13 months. I don't have the details, but a ballpark guess from what I can see is it has to be less than 10 hours per week. Since ChessIsWar is doing 12 hours per day, it would all be over in a couple of months. Maybe, for a super-hard worker, a better idea would be a school that doesn't have a fixed curriculum, but instead has some kind of unlimited access to a strong coach. Another idea would be to spend 13 times $24 on the right chess books, and crucially actually study them intensively. One good $24 book, studied intensively, must offer far more than 40 hours of study time. If you are really on a budget, there are used books online, or even the library. The books aren't a bad idea. I have a few Seirawan books from a few years back and I have My System. Perhaps it's time to add a newer book or two so I have something to work with OTB. I'm not on any extreme budget or anything. I have enough for the essentials which I seem to have most of now, anyway. I have several really nice sets and clocks that I bought a few years back. That said - for only $24/mo. I went ahead and gave the ICS school a shot. I worked with it for a while already and immediately like it. I've also been studying a lot of Charlie Storey (FM) material over on ICC. He has a few very detailed and long courses on there. And, of course, T89 of Team4545 begins play next week there, as well.


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ChessIsWar Junior Member Offline Posts: 63 Location: New York State Joined: 12/10/14 Gender:	Re: I Decide To Go To War Reply #27 - 07/02/21 at 17:27:13	Post Tools	Print Post
	cathexis wrote on 07/02/21 at 12:34:55: There are OTB or in-person tournaments beginning this month. Few, but it is coming back. My advice would be to save your money and hold-out for the real thing. Specifically, I would join the USCF (your sig sez you're from NY) and join a local club affiliated with USCF. Chose the club with the largest membership, oldest founding date, and highest rated members that also offers weekly Ladders and Quads, as well as may put on smaller local tournaments and may connect you to in-person coaching. While you're waiting for things to open back up, many clubs offer on-line rated play - often on chess.com or similar. This gives you some experience and networks you with the real people you will eventually have to face to formalize your ratings climb. In the meanwhile, if you want to self-study, or have un-answered questions, or don't even know the questions to ask - this be da place for dat! I can't tell you how helpful people have been here. Thanks for your post. I did renew my USCF yesterday, as well as link it to my Chess.com and ICC accounts. There is a chess club pretty close by me that I think still has quads once a week and I got an invite to the West Orange NJ chess club, too. I'm definitely going to start playing OTB soon and interacting with other players face to face as you suggest.


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ChessIsWar Junior Member Offline Posts: 63 Location: New York State Joined: 12/10/14 Gender:	Re: I Decide To Go To War Reply #26 - 07/02/21 at 17:22:24	Post Tools	Print Post
	Konstriktor wrote on 07/02/21 at 11:17:01: I am a bit reluctant to answer to this thread because I really, really dislike the title. ...Why?


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an ordinary chessplayer God Member Offline I used to be not bad. Posts: 1825 Location: Columbus, OH (USA) Joined: 01/02/15	Re: I Decide To Go To War Reply #25 - 07/02/21 at 14:36:25	Post Tools	Print Post
	I looked at chessmasterschool.com. Their offering seems fine, I would even say it's well worth the $24 per month, provided one does the work and sticks with the course. As to whether it's better or worse than some other online school, it's impossible to say without doing both, and who is going to do that? The chessmasterschool course is designed for 13 months. I don't have the details, but a ballpark guess from what I can see is it has to be less than 10 hours per week. Since ChessIsWar is doing 12 hours per day, it would all be over in a couple of months. Maybe, for a super-hard worker, a better idea would be a school that doesn't have a fixed curriculum, but instead has some kind of unlimited access to a strong coach. Another idea would be to spend 13 times $24 on the right chess books, and crucially actually study them intensively. One good $24 book, studied intensively, must offer far more than 40 hours of study time. If you are really on a budget, there are used books online, or even the library.


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cathexis God Member Offline No matter where you go, there you are. Posts: 664 Location: Stafford, Virginia USA Joined: 03/03/20 Gender:	Re: I Decide To Go To War Reply #24 - 07/02/21 at 12:34:55	Post Tools	Print Post
	There are OTB or in-person tournaments beginning this month. Few, but it is coming back. My advice would be to save your money and hold-out for the real thing. Specifically, I would join the USCF (your sig sez you're from NY) and join a local club affiliated with USCF. Chose the club with the largest membership, oldest founding date, and highest rated members that also offers weekly Ladders and Quads, as well as may put on smaller local tournaments and may connect you to in-person coaching. While you're waiting for things to open back up, many clubs offer on-line rated play - often on chess.com or similar. This gives you some experience and networks you with the real people you will eventually have to face to formalize your ratings climb. In the meanwhile, if you want to self-study, or have un-answered questions, or don't even know the questions to ask - this be da place for dat! I can't tell you how helpful people have been here.


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Konstriktor Full Member Offline I Love ChessPublishing! Posts: 172 Joined: 02/21/10 Gender:	Re: I Decide To Go To War Reply #23 - 07/02/21 at 11:17:01	Post Tools	Print Post
	I am a bit reluctant to answer to this thread because I really, really dislike the title. So I bump this when I answer and I see it at the top. Then again you seem serious about your goals and maybe you really, really dislike silly spelling and snakes I don't know much about the Chessmasterschool except for the samples on the site, but it looks good. I seriously thought about enrolling in it, but I still have about 200 chess books to work through... Opening knowledge gets outdated, but chess concepts and skills rarely do, so you don't need to worry about that. The Yusupov Course from QualityChess is a good alternative. Nine books, 25 chapters in each book, covering all subjects of chess. Both have the advantage of providing structure to your improvement plans so you don't need to figure everything out.


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ChessIsWar Junior Member Offline Posts: 63 Location: New York State Joined: 12/10/14 Gender:	Re: I Decide To Go To War Reply #22 - 07/01/21 at 00:15:41	Post Tools	Print Post
	Just to check in quickly: Everything is well on track and all ratings on all sites are increasing quickly. I'm over 1700 rapid and classical on Lichess now, and over 1500 rapid on Chess.com. Team4545's T89 begins in the next couple of days and I'm board 1 for a u1300 team. The starting rating assigned to me is 1397. Question for you folks here on Chesspub = what's the general consensus on International Chess School? (https://www.chessmasterschool.com/) It's been around for a while and has great reviews but - as I asked about on Chess.com - I'm wondering if it's not outdated and if something similar but better is available today. Thanks!


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ChessIsWar Junior Member Offline Posts: 63 Location: New York State Joined: 12/10/14 Gender:	Re: I Decide To Go To War Reply #21 - 06/26/21 at 04:23:37	Post Tools	Print Post
	an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 06/26/21 at 04:07:57: ChessIsWar wrote on 06/25/21 at 20:00:36: .. I did start one correspondence game a few days back, as white, and black just played 15...Kh8. ... Of course you can't expect anybody to comment on a correspondence game still in progress. Of course not.


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an ordinary chessplayer God Member Offline I used to be not bad. Posts: 1825 Location: Columbus, OH (USA) Joined: 01/02/15	Re: I Decide To Go To War Reply #20 - 06/26/21 at 04:07:57	Post Tools	Print Post
	ChessIsWar wrote on 06/25/21 at 20:00:36: .. I did start one correspondence game a few days back, as white, and black just played 15...Kh8. ... Of course you can't expect anybody to comment on a correspondence game still in progress.


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ChessIsWar Junior Member Offline Posts: 63 Location: New York State Joined: 12/10/14 Gender:	Re: I Decide To Go To War Reply #19 - 06/25/21 at 20:06:44	Post Tools	Print Post
	Bibs wrote on 06/24/21 at 20:33:10: ChessIsWar wrote on 06/24/21 at 17:12:54: Bibs wrote on 06/24/21 at 09:42:07: I don’t understand. What is the relation between the title and the content? Which war? Which ongoing military conflict do you desire to participate in? The ongoing conflict of the minds that is waged over the chessboard. And myself. As cathexis wrote: I am my own biggest impediment. Then my first recommendation is to become more Stoic. With a big ‘S’ rather than small, as the regular usage of the word differs greatly from the actual envisaged approach, alas. And causes misunderstanding. Read Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius’ ‘Meditations’ etc. This is incredibly useful for learning how to better self-regulate. Managing one’s thoughts and reactions. Becoming calmer and more efficient. It's funny you mention Epictetus because in a poker mental game video I was watching a few weeks back, they had a whole segment devoted to him, mental clarity, and meditation. Balance, internal peace, and clarity is absolutely something I need to work on regularly so I will pay special attention to such as I move forward.


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ChessIsWar

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Re: I Decide To Go To War
Reply #18 - 06/25/21 at 20:00:36

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In addition to my live chess and study, I did start one correspondence game a few days back, as white, and black just played 15...Kh8. It's a 24 hr per move game and I think I should be able to convert this.

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ChessIsWar Junior Member Offline Posts: 63 Location: New York State Joined: 12/10/14 Gender:	Re: I Decide To Go To War Reply #17 - 06/25/21 at 19:56:49	Post Tools	Print Post
	TopNotch wrote on 06/25/21 at 19:31:05: ChessIsWar wrote on 06/24/21 at 06:02:17: I wanted to make this thread here for a few reasons. First - I can't find a more serious, in depth, and beneficial chess forum online. The Chess.com forums are a zoo and not something I can be wasting my time with at this point. That said, I do have a thread up there that explains where I'm coming from and what I've been doing over the past week plus. https://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/total-war-61208037 I have 2 USCF games played lifetime, both on the same day several years ago. I lost both and have a 980p rating. Since that time, I have very little true experience to talk about. I have spent the majority of my time playing online poker, socializing, reading about other topics on life, etc. Over the past week and half, however, I have been basically doing nothing but playing and studying the game. I can truly say I've never been more into chess or any other game before, which is actually saying a ton. I simply can't consume or play enough. I'm renewing my USCF sub on July 1st and will be playing in rated online USCF games on Chess.com, as well as in ICC's T89 of Team4545. Alongside this, I'm going to play a ton of "coffeehouse" games online and just keep pouring time and energy into improvement. At some point in the near future, I'll begin incorporating OTB rated play locally, as well as dipping into Manhattan and The Marshall now and then for more serious games. Goal = 2200 USCF standard rating. I'm 39 now and I see a ton of people in my shoes wondering how far they can progress, how fast, and how to best go about doing so. I want to set out on this path and see exactly what it entails and where it leads me. At the absolute least, playing competitive chess is something that is just all around beneficial for me and definitely the best thing for me to be putting my energy into at this point. I welcome *all/any* advice, discussion, suggestions, and comments and I look forward to participating in the community here, as well as growing as a player and person. Coming from someone who has walked the path my simple advice would be focus much less on the destination and concentrate much more on fully enjoying the journey. When you enjoy what you do, and put in the work, the rest usually takes care of itself. Have fun in your quest and good luck. Thank you for your post. If you don't mind my asking: What is your rating and how was your progression? What you're talking about is why I never did commit to the game fully like this prior. I had other things going on in life, was mentally in no shape to improve like this, and just had a lot of personal progress to make in figuring out my own individual path. I see the guys posting online about 2200 USCF/FIDE all the time and I know that if that's what they're playing for - that rating - they won't make it. Not just in Chess but in anything. I agree fully with you that unless what you're doing is a true passion and simply playing the game is what makes you happy...you just can never get great. I just wanted to state a clear goal that I think is realistic and commit to it at this point. That's the long term. In the short term, I'm just enjoying playing, studying, reading, improving, and allowing myself to grow as a player and person.


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TopNotch God Member Offline I only look 1 move ahead, but its always the best Posts: 2211 Joined: 01/04/03 Gender:	Re: I Decide To Go To War Reply #16 - 06/25/21 at 19:31:05	Post Tools	Print Post
	ChessIsWar wrote on 06/24/21 at 06:02:17: I wanted to make this thread here for a few reasons. First - I can't find a more serious, in depth, and beneficial chess forum online. The Chess.com forums are a zoo and not something I can be wasting my time with at this point. That said, I do have a thread up there that explains where I'm coming from and what I've been doing over the past week plus. https://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/total-war-61208037 I have 2 USCF games played lifetime, both on the same day several years ago. I lost both and have a 980p rating. Since that time, I have very little true experience to talk about. I have spent the majority of my time playing online poker, socializing, reading about other topics on life, etc. Over the past week and half, however, I have been basically doing nothing but playing and studying the game. I can truly say I've never been more into chess or any other game before, which is actually saying a ton. I simply can't consume or play enough. I'm renewing my USCF sub on July 1st and will be playing in rated online USCF games on Chess.com, as well as in ICC's T89 of Team4545. Alongside this, I'm going to play a ton of "coffeehouse" games online and just keep pouring time and energy into improvement. At some point in the near future, I'll begin incorporating OTB rated play locally, as well as dipping into Manhattan and The Marshall now and then for more serious games. Goal = 2200 USCF standard rating. I'm 39 now and I see a ton of people in my shoes wondering how far they can progress, how fast, and how to best go about doing so. I want to set out on this path and see exactly what it entails and where it leads me. At the absolute least, playing competitive chess is something that is just all around beneficial for me and definitely the best thing for me to be putting my energy into at this point. I welcome *all/any* advice, discussion, suggestions, and comments and I look forward to participating in the community here, as well as growing as a player and person. Coming from someone who has walked the path my simple advice would be focus much less on the destination and concentrate much more on fully enjoying the journey. When you enjoy what you do, and put in the work, the rest usually takes care of itself. Have fun in your quest and good luck.

	The man who tries to do something and fails is infinitely better than he who tries to do nothing and succeeds - Lloyd Jones
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ChessIsWar Junior Member Offline Posts: 63 Location: New York State Joined: 12/10/14 Gender:	Re: I Decide To Go To War Reply #15 - 06/25/21 at 19:05:16	Post Tools	Print Post
	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZtqIXMrdlQ Very interesting game. I've been studying some of Tal's attacking ideas and then came across this game where he instead displays an excellent defense vs Botvinnik to secure a draw with black, while already up three points in the WC match.


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ChessIsWar Junior Member Offline Posts: 63 Location: New York State Joined: 12/10/14 Gender:	Re: I Decide To Go To War Reply #14 - 06/25/21 at 18:38:33	Post Tools	Print Post
	ReneDescartes wrote on 06/25/21 at 00:48:28: an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 06/24/21 at 18:21:35: ChessIsWar wrote on 06/24/21 at 17:16:29: I'm definitely already putting in 12+ hours a day and intend to keep it that way I can't recall anybody making that claim before. I guess it puts you at 6-sigma on the effort scale. Several sigma on some scale. No one can do 12 hours a day of productive work for 800 days straight. Even a hypomanic state ends before that. I mean...I'm not alone. There are guys I know who play three 90+30's a day. That's a lot of time right there. There are professions that require this kind of work ethic. Obviously, there are surgeons who perform 16 hour procedures. Hopefully they're still focused 75% of the way through. Everybody is different. What the average person considers extreme is just a typical day for someone else. I did manage to break from Chess yesterday. Showered, ate, caught up with some friends, slept. Back at it this afternoon, though.


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