New Knights Errant
A warm welcome to Celtic Death and Temposchlucker. It also appears that we may be joined by Fussy Lizard. Yeesh, three in one day. Planets must be lined up or something.
The Dark Knight certainly is laying it out there when he says he will "improve or die trying". As a Welshman, I am pleased to see a fellow Celt (they're not just the Irish you know) taking up the path de La Maza. At the same time, could anyplace sound more apple pie American than "Normal, Illinois"?
With temposchlucker, we have finally gone international as a group. Looking at his profile, he also appears to be quite the polymath. I shall look for "Once Upon a Time in the West" at the video store and would recommend the little known "Tombstone" back to you. "Beelzebub Tales" sounds interesting as well. Perhaps when I finish the "Glass Bead Game". (Who am I kidding? I don't have time to read.)
Fussy Lizard is well into the program. He and and I met on "My Study Plan" topic on chess ninja. Earlier in topic you can find the genesis of the name "Sancho Pawnza". Fussy may not set up a blog, but I'm listing him anyway. Perhaps DG will call him the Silent Knight.
While I'm at it, here is my criteria for membership in the Knights Errant:
1) Must be actively pursuing a chess improvement program based to some degree on de la Maza's program
2) Must indicate you want to join.
Criteria 1 is up to you. If you think your program is based on de la Maza's, that's good enough for me. Criteria 2 is my attempt at good netiquette. It seems only polite for me to wait and see if someone wants to be associated with us before I go slapping their name up in a list.
I also am very interested in listing people who are pursuing chess improvement via some other method. Please let me know if you would like to be listed in the "Other Chess Improvement Sites- Active" list.
Received a mild butt whipping from CT Art on level 30 last night. I would really like to get over 80% this time.
128 days down, 27 to go
484 problems down, 555 to go in Circle Three
Level 10: 96%, 44 sec/prob
Level 20: 93%, 79 sec/prob
Level 30: 78%, 114 sec/prob
The Dark Knight certainly is laying it out there when he says he will "improve or die trying". As a Welshman, I am pleased to see a fellow Celt (they're not just the Irish you know) taking up the path de La Maza. At the same time, could anyplace sound more apple pie American than "Normal, Illinois"?
With temposchlucker, we have finally gone international as a group. Looking at his profile, he also appears to be quite the polymath. I shall look for "Once Upon a Time in the West" at the video store and would recommend the little known "Tombstone" back to you. "Beelzebub Tales" sounds interesting as well. Perhaps when I finish the "Glass Bead Game". (Who am I kidding? I don't have time to read.)
Fussy Lizard is well into the program. He and and I met on "My Study Plan" topic on chess ninja. Earlier in topic you can find the genesis of the name "Sancho Pawnza". Fussy may not set up a blog, but I'm listing him anyway. Perhaps DG will call him the Silent Knight.
While I'm at it, here is my criteria for membership in the Knights Errant:
1) Must be actively pursuing a chess improvement program based to some degree on de la Maza's program
2) Must indicate you want to join.
Criteria 1 is up to you. If you think your program is based on de la Maza's, that's good enough for me. Criteria 2 is my attempt at good netiquette. It seems only polite for me to wait and see if someone wants to be associated with us before I go slapping their name up in a list.
I also am very interested in listing people who are pursuing chess improvement via some other method. Please let me know if you would like to be listed in the "Other Chess Improvement Sites- Active" list.
Received a mild butt whipping from CT Art on level 30 last night. I would really like to get over 80% this time.
128 days down, 27 to go
484 problems down, 555 to go in Circle Three
Level 10: 96%, 44 sec/prob
Level 20: 93%, 79 sec/prob
Level 30: 78%, 114 sec/prob
posted by Don Q.
10 Comments:
Don,
The only slight modification I would suggest for membership rules is that it ought to be o.k. to let a new blogger know that they can ask. Otherwise, it may not occur to them that it is an option. Or perhaps they are not yet aware that the Knights exist and we find them first.
DG
By
David Glickman, at 6:04 AM
But of course. I try to let people know, but usually you find them before I do.
By
Don Q., at 7:09 AM
Glad to become a member of the illustrious order of Knights Errant.
By
CelticDeath, at 7:25 AM
Welcome, welcome, and welcome! Wow. Umm do we have to apply for non-profit status, or religious institution or something? You know tax season is coming up!
PS
By
Pawnsensei, at 10:50 AM
No, no tax exempt benefits, but membership in the organization can be used as proof of mental disability in an SSI hearing.
By
Don Q., at 11:19 AM
Silent Knight. What a great name. :-)
Regards,
Chris / fussylizard / "Silent Knight"
By
Anonymous, at 4:01 PM
Progress report, just had to share. (I just posted something similar to this on the ChessNinja thread Don mentioned earlier).
In the ChessNinja Black Belt newsletter (which I get mostly for the heck of it since the material is way over my head...the White Belt newsletter is more my speed) Mig has a VisualEyes section where you are given a position and a bunch of moves (usually 8-12 half moves) and then you have to find the tactic at the end of the sequence. It can be a bit tricky since you have to hold the position in your head until the end, and *then* find the tactic.
In issue #111 I just got 8 out of 8 on VisualEyes. I don't think I've ever gotten a single one correct before (I usually only score maybe 75% on the far easier versions he has in White Belt). So needless to say I think the MDLM plan is helping my visualization and calculation skills (esp. since two of the problems involved non-forcing moves). Of course the big question now is how that translates to OTB play, but at any rate I feel like I'm improving...
One more thing. I find that after doing problems for two hours a night my brain is tired, so I crawl into bed and read a little before sacking out. But more often than not I find myself reaching for...you guessed it...a chess tactics book. Granted the problems in it are far easier than the CT-Art level 70s I'm working on now, but it seems a little sick to relax from doing chess problems by doing more chess problems. I guess part of it stems from wanting to get something 100% after mucking through level 70 at 50-60%. At any rate, I think I need to get my head checked...
Happy solving,
Chris / fussylizard
By
Anonymous, at 5:29 PM
Jesus. How am I gonna keep up with all the blogs and my problems? Welcome to Celtic Death and Temposchlucker. In the words of Tina Turner, "Welcome To The Thunder Dome." Or something like that. Anyway, you get the picture. Prepare ye for much sweating and panting! All Hail The Knights Errant! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah! Hooorah!
By
Pale Morning Dun - Errant Knight de la Maza, at 7:28 PM
What about a southamerican knight? Though I'm not sure I'd be able to stick to de la Maza's plan to the letter, I'm starting (officially since yesterday, when I still haven't learnt about the "Knights") to follow his strategy for improving my chess.
I've no doubt improving my tactics awareness would improve my winning ratio. Just comes to mind an on-line game which seemed lost, my opponent blundered badly (after having promoted) allowing me to promote a pawn as well, and later draw in about 10 more moves. I was proud about having saved that game, until Fritz harshily pointed that after said blunder, I could have forced mate in 2. 'nuff said.
With respect to bloggin' about my efforts, I do have a blog where I post once every two years (next post should be about January 2007), so don't count with this yet, though is possible I start using my brand new blog.
By
Just an ordinary guy, at 12:54 PM
Hello,
Wow, this is becoming a real trend. Referring to your original post Don, I was wondering if anyone had thought of using a workgroup or team blog?
Spill
By
King of the Spill, at 9:58 PM
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