Life Finally Caught Up
For the last three months or so I have been living in this fantasy world where I can spend every evening doing chess problems for 2-4 hours. In order to finish the second circle on schedule I was supposed to do seven days worth of problems Friday-Sunday so I would have a final set on Monday. Well...I didn't make it. I only finished four, two of which I did Friday (I actually left work a couple of hours early to do chess problems). At this point I am probably going to just finish the remaining four days worth of problems in four days and go from there. I was hoping to finish on time, but with guests coming over to the house at night, getting various things done around the house, etc., it just wasn't happening.
One thing that has made it difficult to catch up is that on the level 70 and higher problems, I am not doing them much faster than in the first circle. One set of 25 or so problems takes about four+ hours (versus two hours for twelve or so as in the first circle), so it is difficult to do an entire set in a day, much less more than one to catch up. At this point I am seriously thinking about switching to Don's schedule and only doing through level 60 on future passes. As a side benefit I think I'll enjoy the process a whole lot more since after level 60 I find that more often than not I have no clue as to what the next move is and have to take a total guess. If anyone has actually done the entire 1209 problems for each circle in something close to MDLM's schedule, I'd love to hear from you. On the last circle you are supposed to finish each problem in 30 seconds, but on some of these level 70+ problems, I don't think you could physically move the pieces on the board fast enough to do them that quickly given the length and breadth of the variations (and sub-variations). I sort of feel like I'd be giving up to back off the full schedule at this point, but ultimately I think I must succumb to the reality of time constraints.
The Stats
Here's where things stand at the moment:
Finshed 1119 of 1209.
Circle 1 % Circle 2 %
---------- ----------
Level 10 96% 99%
Level 20 91% 93%
Level 30 74% 80%
Level 40 69% 74%
Level 50 67% 72%
Level 60 55% 64%
Level 70 60% 58%
Level 80 57% 70% (in progress)
Level 90 55%
As you can see, level 70 was pretty rough and the second circle was worse than the first. In level 70+ there are a few problems where I remember the ideas (or the moves), but for the most part its a lot of guessing. As I mentioned in prior posts, I still think there is some benefit to doing the super-hard problems, but going forward I'd rather keep the 64-32-16-8-4-2-1 schedule rather than worrying about doing level 70+.
posted by fussylizard @ 9:09 PM
6 Comments:
I did the full 1209 for each circle, and yes my scores were not that great for the harder problems in the later circles. I just did the best I could and truly tried my hardest. I think it's probably fine to alter the program as you've suggested. Most of the benefit I got from the program had to do with sharpening my focus of attention, pattern recognition and speed of calculation. I tried not to get too concerned about scores and completely solving the problem every time. Like you said, that's just impossible.
Even given all that, the program does demand a huge portion of your time. I really think if you just do the best you can, and work on it daily (without ever missing a day), you'll reap the benefits. Remember that de la Maza just came up with this schedule on his own. I wouldn't worry about modifying it too much.
Certainly feel free to modify your program to suit your needs. I actually abandoned CT-Art 3.0 after spending about a year with it, because I was determined to get 100% (or as close as possible) on each level. Further, I wanted to really understand why the solutions were as they were.
One thing I found was that there were certain themes that I was better at than others. So, instead of doing problems by difficulty level, I'm doing them by theme using Reinfeld's 1001 WCS&C book. This has the advantage of letting me strengthen my tactical weakpoints based on type of tactic. Of course, it has the disadvantage of clueing me in to begin with on what type of tactic to look for. Perhaps when I'm done with 1001 WCS&C I'll go back to CT-Art 3.0 and try again. It's quite remarkable how many of the positions in 1001 WCS&C are in CT-Art 3.0....
Celtic, I think you can do CT-Art by theme as well. But if you spent a year with it, then you were probably sick of the problems in it (and probably had them memorized by then).
Having used a program to study tactics, I will find it difficult (impossible?) to go back to using books because for problems of moderate difficulty if you don't understand something then you have to set up a board if you have a book. With CT-Art, help is only a right-click and left-click away. IIRC I have that Reinfeld book, but maybe now my skills are good enough to get more benefit out of it. But for now I have plenty of CT-Art to keep me busy. :-)
And Chris, you are a chess machine for being able to keep to the original schedule...but then again, that's why you are now a class A player! :-)
I hope it's ok to miss some days! Keep up the fight. It looks like you are seeing improvement at every level.
Uh except for level 70 obviously, but I wouldn't worry about that. I think if you nail Level 10-50 you've got solid tactical knowledge on which to expand.
Fussy L, my decision to abandon using CT-Art 3.0 was mainly a portability issue. I like doing my studying with a book that I can take anywhere instead of on the computer. I still do some studying with Strategy 2.0 on the PC, but I mainly am using the PC now for internet chess league play.
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