Happy 2016!
Happy New Year! Don't forget to make some chess goals, but more importantly, set up a productive routine and commit to it. Make sure that this routine is realistic. Make sure that it is a routine that you won't quit. It is about 2 weeks after the New Year, so your resolution excitement might have worn off a little bit. That's ok. This allows you to set a REALISTIC goal. Be careful about setting a rating goal. I don't think it's bad to do this, but sometimes you can just have a cold streak, a few bad pairings, and your goal becomes impossible to reach. The bad thing about setting up a rating goal can be shown an example like this: "I am 1600 by January 1, 2017." Well, what if your rating is 1400 on December 1. What's the point of even trying in December? Here are some good chess goals: Play 50 tournaments (150 or more tournament games!) in 2016. Notate every game until I or my opponent has 5 minutes on my clock. Try my best to enter every game i
