I bought a gold subscription a few months ago, but just got around to using it regularly the last few weeks. I haven't done any standard or blitz attempts yet, mainly just using it for SRS for custom sets.
Right now, I'm working on 3 sets:
"Core" Tactics IE Pins, Forks and Capturing Defender/Distraction (ie Removal of the Guard)
Mate in 2
"Decoys" IE Attraction, Blocking, Clearance, Coercion and Interference.
The first two are elo 1200-1600 problems and the third is under 1200. I wasn't quite sure what to call that 3rd set, but all of the motifs seemed related in a general sense of clearing or blocking key lines of attack/defense.
It's so easy to narrow down what you want and even to go overboard with custom sets. I'm trying to stay focused on these key sets however. My goal is to get as close to a +400 performance rating over average rating on non-duplicates as possible then moving up in difficulty. I think ~380 is a good number to shoot for, which probably translates to around a 97-98% accuracy. Maybe that is a bit too much. Maybe 95% accuracy on a set would should "mastery" of that motif.
Also, I'm not dead and/or haven't abandoned chess playing or training. I just haven't been motivated to update the blog as much.
Job change and a move have set me back on finishing the "Bright Knight" tactical series. I'm a good way through the last book he trained IE the Blue Coakley. I do want to finish it, but I'm behind at least a good month from where I wanted to be, but I completed the majority of the tactical puzzles of the book. The remaining problems are the endgame, defensive and best move puzzles.
I've also slowed down a bit on the annotated master games. I've been looking for a few not on Dan Heisman's list and I think I've found a couple of winners.
Coming soon: One year update of my training progress. Watch this space!
