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 into Stockfish (including the date and name of my opponent).

Spend at least 1 minute studying chess on my own, 5 out of 7 days.

Read at least 2 chess books.

 

 

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