Originally posted by kpondsThanks I just implemented this in all of my games. The one thing that I find it doesn't mention is good/bad minor pieces. Unfortunately I just rushed through 5 games without consulting the notes I set up yesterday so this will take some work.
I have a structured note format, which offers a full analysis of the position and negates any "fragmentation". For the vast majority of games I typically blitz through them though.
for example:
[snip]
M:+1, S:-, T:+, P:+
S: Push passed pawns on the kingside and hope to win a rook. Need to regain control of the center
PV: .. Rxf7, Rxf7 Kxf7, Bx ...[text shortened]... eve to be his best move, my best move after that, his next best move, and then my best move.
I started playing CC because it helps me a lot to analyze each game better and play the best move. OTB always makes me "slip" something and CC is helping me analyze and play my favorite variations. I think its a kind of analytical training. I don't just log on and play a move!
I've found that the sheer number of games and way that CC games are played has actually helped. It's because I need to analyse each game every time it's my turn to make a move that I have become quicker at analysis.
When I actually become a 1800+ rated player I intend to play lots of games for about 6 months just so I can speed up my analytical skills, which hopefully will mean that once I take my games back down I should be able to look deeper and deeper into positions because the basic leg work of the first few moves of analysis are done subconsciously. That's my theory anyway haha
Why not just keep a little notebook of your games as you play? I use a notepad to keep up with my thoughts because I enjoy going over my games after they are complete and annotate them. This allows me to get the most benefit from the games. In tough positions, I will record variations ten ply or more deep in case there was a specific resource I intended to use to get out of a tough jam. I'd hate to forget how I planned to recover my piece after I began a combination.
I anticipate after you get settled into an opening repetoir, you won't need to concentrate on most opening play since you will know what variations you use by memory, but when you have a variation that you don't play often, it will give you a big help to learn how to play it after the game is done. Write down the page number of the book you are using to get the opening variation from so you can read more about it later.
If you want to play stronger, you have to be willing to make an investment. If you just want to push wood, you're doing that fine now.