Rating 1791
Puzzle Rush Score 31
Today I played a few extra games than I would normally play. I had an even score and finished the day with a slightly higher rating then when I started, so that was good. I am still making a few too many blunders, but I am starting to see puzzle rush ideas show up in games, which has been helping me to find tactics that little bit quicker. Below is one of the games I enjoyed.
Rating 1794
Puzzle Rush Score 36
Today I enjoyed catching up on the chess.com Pro Chess League. You can learn more about it here.
I also analysed a few of my blitz games to post on the blog. It has been really instructive analysing my own games as I revise the ideas I was thinking about during the game, as well as finding new ideas that I missed. I have been feeling confident in the games I have been playing and have made steady progress playing a couple of games each day. I expect at some point that the climb will stagnate and the grind will really begin, but so far so good. I have still been focused on putting into practice the current things I have been learning. I have moved to playing the Caro-Kann instead of my usual Sicilian reply to e4, as I learn new lines, to help me become more familiar with the types of positions that can arise.
Rating 1769
Puzzle Rush Score 25
Today I watched video that looked in depth at a few nice endgames by Magnus Carlsen. One of the ideas I picked up was that if you control two rooks, have the initiative and are looking for the win it can often be good to trade just one of the rooks off in order to make it harder for your opponent to defend.
Magnus is insane at endgames! It was good to see how he converted a few games by placing continual pressure on his opponents, not letting up or making it easy for them.
Rating 1764
Puzzle Rush Score 32
I watched an interesting game today played by Levy Rosman (GothamChess), who has a Youtube series where he trains to be a grandmaster. The game was a queens pawn game that moved into the Kings Indian. The thing I found interesting was the transposition into a game that looked far more like a Sicilian (in particular the Sicilian Dragon with white having a Marcozy Bind). Here is the game.