Status Report

Given everything that has been going on lately, I'm falling further behind. I just finished through 670 when I should be done with 829 by the end of tonight (ouch). I was able to do some problems on the plane this afternoon, and I think I can do another 30-40 tonight in the comfort of my hotel room. At any rate, I still have a bit of catching up to do.

I wrapped up level 30 a day or two ago, so here's where things stand:

     Circle 1 %  Circle 2 %
     ----------  ----------
Level 10     96%          99%
Level 20     91%          93%
Level 30     74%          80%
Level 40     69%          80% (in progress)
Level 50     67%
Level 60     55%
Level 70     60%
Level 80     57%
Level 90     55%

My percentages have been rising, though admittedly I was taking longer than I should have on level 20 which probably hiked up my percentage a bit. I'm doing pretty well at keeping to my planned time for my recent sets (find the first move in 1 minute, 45 seconds and complete the problem in 3 minutes, 15 seconds).

I am remembering fewer of the problems in level 40 than I expected, but I'm still doing much better than in circle 1. One thing I'm getting better at is seeing when there is nothing more to be gained in a position (i.e. I'm attacking the enemy king but there just isn't a mate there) and instead of (fruitlessly) continuing the attack, I find the (correct) "bail out" move whereby I end the attack with a material advantage. Often the bail out move captures an enemy piece that has been hanging for five moves or so. In the past I was more inclined to either try to take the hanging piece too early, or try to keep on attacking when there was nothing more to be gained. This is probably the result of being able to calculate better and seeing more in the position which translates into me trusting my calculations more. I cannot always see all the lines, but I'm getting better at evaluating when a line has promise or is a dead end.

Looks like Don is in the home stretch! Go Don go!!

Update at 11:25 CST: I just finished through 706. I was tired, but still managed 79% for this set of 36 (total time: 2 hours, 37 minutes). I'm catching up slowly but surely...