New Years Resolutions

Throughout 2021 & 2022, I played a lot of chess. My goal has always been improvement. Improvement translated to my chess.com rating. Based on that metric, I did pretty well. I boosted my rapid rating about 300 points from low 1300s to low 1600s.

In 2023 I want to continue my improvement. But now I want to change how I define that improvement. I don't want to focus solely on rating. I want to make sure focus on specific aspects of my game. The assumption being that if I hit these goals, the rating increase will be a side effect.

Chess Improvement Goals

In the tail end of this year, I also started looking into the chess punks community and chess improvers. I have been trying to find the secret sauce to chess improvement. Especially for people in my rating range.

After looking into a lot of options for study, I have found 4 things that continue to pop up as the best ways to improve.

• Solve Puzzles
• Study Chess Books
• Analyze Games
• Play OTB These were all things I worked on in the past. But now I am going to set goals. And these goals would take precedence over anything else.

Past Improvement Road Blocks Looking over the past two years, I began feeling that my chess studies have been too scattered. I would work on puzzles, play games, work on chessable courses, look at the occasional book, and casually analyze games. This lack of focus on one area, and constant switching of contexts was holding back improvement.

While the items I have chosen to focus on in the new year are items I worked on in the past, they weren't to their full potential. Analysis I had done was just using chess.com game review. Chess books I read through, but didn't setup the actual board. And the books I reviewed were probably outside my rating capabilities. So I figured this is the time to start focusing.

New Year Game Plan

For 2023, I have structure and goals. Starting with the following:

Solve Puzzles

I work on puzzles on chess.com. Made it to 2700 puzzle rating, and 45 in survival mode. I have a goal of hitting a new hitting a new survival high every month. So by the end of the year I should be at least a 52. I also want to go up 100 points on puzzle rating to be at 2800.

Study Chess Books

Books I feel are something that can really improve my game. I had one book, Silman's How to Reasses Your Chess. I looked at it casually, but not with the focus needed to improve. I am going to start with A First Book of Morphy.

I am hesitating to put a specific number on the number of books I need to finish. I don't want to burn through them just for the sake of it. But 3 I think is reasonable. And the ones I will focus on will hopefully improve my strategy and positional understanding. I will post reviews of the books as I go through them.

Analyzing Games

Analysis is something I only started at the end of 2022. I played my first OTB tournament, and went into in depth analysis of all those games. I am going to start going through online games as well. Focusing on analysis of specific moves, as well as my thoughts throughout the game. I will post some game reviews on the blog to try to keep myself honest.

Playing Over the Board Games

I mentioned I played my first OTB tournament in 20 years this December. I had a great time, and want to keep it going. Playing over the board definitely has a different feel. I focused more on each game, and post game analysis showed I definitely blundered less.

My goal for 2023 is to play 14 rated games. While 14 seems like a weird number, I currently have 11 rated games logged. Once I get to 25, my rating will no longer be provisional. I don't want to set a numeric goal for what that rating will be. But as always, the hope will be that it improves.

Conclusion

So hopefully my new years goals aren't unreasonable. I will keep posting the progress to try and keep myself honest. But I am hoping 2023 will be a good year for my game. Let me know what you think of these goals, or feel free to share your goals!