Master at 50

Calling it a 'week' of study would be a serious overstatement as I spent much more time getting the blog tools and conditions set up properly. That and other things. A cop-out, no question, and excuses aren't going to get me there, but that is the purpose of the blog, isn't it? Keeping me honest. This next week will really get the thing underway. Setting up the site My initial blog URL was one of those ghastly combinations you get when you sign up for a free blog space: masterat50.blogspot.com . Gesundheit. It is now under a domain using my name: albertsilver.org I actually tried getting this domain more than once over the years, but found it taken by some ophthalmologist  (if memory serves) who had his small site set up, and who shared my first and last names. I wasn't enthralled with the idea of some other permutation with hyphens or other, and had given up. To be fair, at the time I had no real idea of what I would do with it, and just wanted to have owne

Needless to say, an ambitious goal needs a proper plan to have any chance of success. There is no getting around the fact I will need to work on all aspects of my game to get there, and need to have some measure of control to ensure I stay on track. With today's immensely rich resources on all manner of platforms, there is no shortage of tools to work on one's game, and I plan to make use of a wide variety of them. My technical background, not just with ChessBase, but with software in general (I was a designer of Chess Assistant 6 and 7 back in the day), does mean I have a certain tendency to choose modern tools, and find ways to integrate them. These may change over time of course, but as of now, here is how I plan to proceed. I have broken down the areas I need to work on quite simply as: openings,  tactics,  positional play,  endgame,  visualization,  practical play (i.e. playing games).  Furthermore, I will have two tools to keep track and log my progress, o

Simply put, the goal is to become an International Master. I know I have a number of challenges to overcome that certainly make this goal a bit harder than usual. At least on paper. First of all, I am 47, going on 48 in March. While I have certainly enjoyed unusually good genetics that draw comments of disbelief when I say it, that is still the cover of the book, and I must assume that aside from a more youthful appearance, the rest is quite normal. Meaning I should not expect my brain to magically enjoy that youthfulness as well. The second challenge is my current state in chess itself. My highest rating was 2240 FIDE, which is over 20 years ago, and right now it is at 2149 FIDE, which means less than nothing since I have not played a rated game since July 2008. This means that need to work under the assumption that my current level is below that. Nevertheless, this does not mean chess suddenly reappeared in my life nine years later giving me some impulsive, spur-of-the-mo