Analog-Theater 2.0

If you noticed on the left hand side of the screen we have a nice little subscribe button so that you can subscribe to the RSS feed for our site using any RSS tracker, including My Yahoo, Google, etc.

 And now, here is goal 10:
10) Become an International Master chess player – It’s no secret that I like chess. I started playing chess when I was a kid. My brother taught me how to move the pieces and some basic opening strategy. As a child, I played against my father and my sisters. When we moved to New York, I met my Uncle Doug and started playing against him. He beat me every time. After each game I would swear to myself that I would win next time, but it took me years before that came true.

The first tournament I played in was the 2006 Virginia Open. It was a five round Swiss style tournament. I lost all five rounds and got a rating of 600 (which is low). Since then I’ve played in three other tournaments. I lost my first twelve rated games. Slowly my rating has been dropping lower. I am now rated 584.

I’ve been going over some books for motivation. The two books I’m reading right now are The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin and Hikaru No Go by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata.

In the Art of Learning, Josh Waitzkin discusses how he became a champion chess player and martial artist. He started his chess training with end game strategies. Then he studied the different styles and tactics of various grand masters. One of them caught my eye because it’s the same style that I’m developing, that was GM Michael Short.

Hikaru No Go is a manga series about a kid who starts playing go, a Japanese board game which is thematically similar to chess. His main rival, Akira, is the son of a champion go player. The series shows both of them trying to become better. Akira plays a game against his father every day. Part way through the series, Hikaru starts playing a game every night against his ghost tutor. Along with that, both of them are part of study groups and review old games.

Having said all this here my plan: I will start with the end game lessons on Chess Master, as well as the other lessons. Josh Waitzkin began his chess education the same way and he became an International Master. Once I run out of lessons on Chess Master, I will start studying GM Short’s games (I like his strategies) and books like “Improve your Chess” and “Midgame Tactics”. After finishing my studies, with the lessons still fresh in my mind, I will play a game against my computer. Chess Master offers opponents rated all the way from 23 to 2980. I started playing against a 600 and I’m working way up. I will play each opponent until I beat them and then move on to the next one. I am currently playing against a 949. Also, each morning I will read a chapter of Hikaru No Go for encouragement.

Doing all of this will increase my ability, but I will also need to play in a lot of tournaments.  I will need to get my official rating over 2400 and get favorable results in major tournaments.  I have more chess related goals a little further down the list.