phorku's circle progress

New Highs

2007-07-02T17:20:00.001-05:00

FICS Blitz 1231 (solidly broke 1200)
USCF 1451

I have only played 2 FICS standard games since my last aggressive losing streak. I won the last one against a 1608. So I am currently underrated at 1526.

Tactics completed:
Since September 8th, 2005 I have completed over 4905 problems:
CT-Art Level 10 x 4 + 96 89% / 85% / 93% / 91%
CT-Art Level 20 x 2 + 54 76% / 78% / 80%
CT-Art Level 30 x 2 57% / 62%
CT-Art Level 40 x 1 56%
CTS 3299 / 77.8% / rating: 1291

New Highs - USCF 1446 / FICS 1608

2007-04-22T11:54:00.000-05:00

I have reached new high ratings in the USCF (1446) and on FICS (1608).

Since September 8th, 2005 I have completed over 4496 problems:
CT-Art Level 10 x 3 + 96 89% / 85% / 93% / 90%
CT-Art Level 20 x 2 76% / 78%
CT-Art Level 30 x 2 57% / 62%
CT-Art Level 40 x 1 56%
CTS 2948 / 77.6% / rating: 1331

4048 Problems completed

2007-02-13T01:30:00.000-05:00

Since September 8th, 2005 I have completed over 4048 problems:
CT-Art Level 10 x 3 + 96 89% / 85% / 93% / 90%
CT-Art Level 20 x 2 76% / 78%
CT-Art Level 30 x 2 57% / 62%
CT-Art Level 40 x 1 56%
CTS 2500 / 77.8% / rating: 1328

3555 Problems Completed

2007-01-23T23:20:00.001-05:00

I have passed the 2000 mark on CTS.

Since September 8th, 2005 I have completed over 3,555 problems:
CT-Art Level 10 x 3 + 96 89% / 85% / 93% / 90%
CT-Art Level 20 x 2 76% / 78%
CT-Art Level 30 x 2 57% / 62%
CT-Art Level 40 x 1 56%
CTS 2007 / 77.3% / rating: 1335

2006-12-04T19:43:00.000-05:00

Since September 8th, 2005 I have completed over 2,360 problems:
CT-Art Level 10 x 3 + 96 89% / 85% / 93% / 90%
CT-Art Level 20 x 2 76% / 78%
CT-Art Level 30 x 2 57% / 62%
CT-Art Level 40 x 1 56%
CTS 812 / 75.6% /rating: 1322

Level 40 complete

2006-01-01T15:27:00.000-05:00

I finished level 40 with a 56% success rate. I am currently 99 problems through my second attempt at the level 20 problems. I plan to start my 7 circles for real when I complete these.

Circle 0.2 complete

2005-10-16T16:27:00.000-05:00

I completed the level 30 problems and 2 Xs the level for circle 0.2. Missed my second prolonged goal date partially due to a CT-ART malfunction. I had completed about 50 problems and left CT-Art open. I was evaluating a game with scid and was using CT-Art's crafty engine. All of a sudden I started getting massive errors from CT-Art and had to kill the process with task manager. Unfortunately CT-Art didn't remember the problems I had solved during the last session so I had to redo them. This decreased my percentage some since I tried to breeze through them as I redid them.

So here are my statistics so far:
70D/837P

Level 10(1) 89%
Level 10(2) 85%
Level 10(3) 93%
Level 20(1) 76%
Level 30(1) 57%

Next I will do the level 20 problems a second time and the level 40 problems.

Missed Goal

2005-10-06T19:34:00.000-05:00

Missed my goal of completing the level 30 problems and the level 10 problems twice by the end of Tuesday. It has been a busy month having moved into my girlfriend's house. I have completed 167 of 221 level 30 problems and one time through the level 10 problems. I will try to complete all the rest of the problems by the end of the weekend. I have a 60% success on the level 30 problems so far and have an 85% for the level 10 problems. I have been trying to go through the level 10 problems faster and that probably accounts for the drop in percentage from the last time.

New FICS High 1595

2005-09-24T10:00:00.000-05:00

Achieve new all time high of 1595 standard on FICS.

2005-09-18T22:13:00.000-05:00

Achieved all time high rating on FICS standard 1584.

6 Days 128 Problems

2005-09-12T19:47:00.000-05:00

64 Level 10 87%
64 Level 30 61%

16 Problems Today

2005-09-08T19:41:00.000-05:00

Did another 16 problems today 8 level 10 and 30.
Overall:
2 days
36 Level 10 93%
36 Level 30 62%

56 Problems Today

2005-09-07T21:44:00.000-05:00

28 Level 10 95%
28 Level 30 60%

Decision Made

2005-09-05T20:49:00.000-05:00

Well I decided I am too weak to undertake the first circle. So I will call my current training circle 0. I completed the first 2 levels in CT Art 3.0 in 28 days. This was a fair challenge for me. I have decided to work my way through all the problems before starting my first circle. For the next 28 days I plan to do level 10 twice and level 30 (441 problems). The levels break down like this:
Level-#of problems
10-110
20-286
30-221
40-204
50-134
60-84
70-59
80-44
90-67
This means 8 level 10 + 8 level 30 problems average per day for circle 0.2. If this works out well then I will plan levels 20 and 40 for circle 0.3. I will plan the higher problems later.

I need to come up with a thinking method for the club and for the longer games on the net. Club championships are coming up and they are G90 games. Look forward to reclaiming some of my points. I think my FICS rating would be much lower if my opponents used their clock.

I will start the 0.2 drills on Wednesday.

First 28 Days Progress

2005-09-05T09:51:00.000-05:00

Well I am 28 days (August 8 - September 5 2005) into my first circle and I am behind in my problems. My USCF rating is still provisional.
Standard 1530 -> 1555 (Approaching all time high of 1581)
Blitz 1082 -> 1082
Quick 1182P11
Rapid 1302P11

I have completed 396 (Levels 10 and 20) problems from CT-Art 3.0
Level 10 89%
Level 20 76%
Overall 78%
ELO 1906 (whatever that means)

There are several reasons why I am behind in my circles.
1. Life reasons - have kids, need to look for a new job, moving over the next 2 months girlfriend, family, chores and all that stuff
2. Computer on the fritz and competing with son for computer time. New computer will be picked up on Wednesday. Will fix this one up for my son.
3. Did not read the instructions well enough for scheduling my circles.
4. All this blogging takes up so much time.
5. Need to actually play some chess to have a ratings improvement.

I am learning a lot from doing these problems. They are helping to strengthen my end game and help me see more mating patterns. Some of the problems are tough and I just about blow a fuse because I swear it is tactically dead. Even when I complete the problem I learn little if am frustrated. Sometimes it seems like too much of a chore. Often times I am doing a couple problems here and there while cooking or whatever.

From reading the book I should be finding another source of simple problems. Perhaps I will start using the chess tactics server. Maybe I will modify the circle program and just use CT-Art. I will make a decision sometime today.

I should probably set some goals for myself too.
First I will try the make the point a day goal 400 in 400 days.
Failing that I will try to make the realistic and personally satisfying goal of 100 points a year to 1800 FICS/USCF.
As I approach 1800 then I can start setting new goals.