Strategy Free Zone

No more shorts. No more ice cream diets. The fall season is closing in on Sweden. My main OTB chess tournament is just a few weeks away. Me and a few chess buddies will compete or act as cannon fodder in an informal team tournament. So, it is indeed time to try to cure Opening Phobia, buy a few shelve filling chess books and to bite the bullet.

I have been fairly successful feeding me a semi daily dose of training using Chess Magnet School (CMS). The last few weeks, I have been bouncing between 1531 and 1533. I suppose this has to be called a plateau?

What I like about CMS is the mixture of tasks to solve. I strongly recommend you all to take advantage of their “no-strings-attached-free-trial-month-offer”. Just make sure to take the Advanced Placement Test so you will be offered suitable tasks.

The CMS training have helped me to appreciate my total lack of knowledge in terms of Chess Strategy. My hit rate on the “Choose the best pawn/rook/bishop move” tasks is close to 33% which is less than impressive since these tasks are multiple choice questions offering three alternatives.

So, I need to get a better understanding of Chess Strategy. Lots of annotated games will be on the agenda and probably a virtual visit to the Chess Book Store.