2024 My Study Plan

1.  Goals: Study chess for 2 to 3 hours a day on average; Deepen understanding of various strategic aspects; 1 hour mornings; 2 hour evenings.

2.  Duration of the study plan: 6 months

3.  Available study time: 2 to 3 hours a day on weekdays; and 3 to 4 hours a day on weekends.

4.Study areas and resources: 

•  Openings:  

• ICS Opening's M1-M13  

• Endgames:  

• Read The Survival Guide to Rook Endings – Emms; 
• Read Endgame Strategy by Mikhail Shereshevsky; 

• Middlegames: Aagaard's Book List (below, in sequence) 

• General improvement:   

• Read Think/Train Like a Grandmaster by Alexander Kotov; 
• Korchnoi and Karpov's game collections

• Tactics:  

• The Woodpecker Method;  
• Polgar Book – 2 move and 3-move mates  
• solve exercises from the book Recognizing Your Opponent’s Resources by Dvoretsky;  

• Middlegames:  

• Read Positional Decision Making by Gelfand (PDF);  
• Read Dynamic Strategy by Suba (PDF);  

Misc: 

• Tabiya – an end position from the opening from which you can play training games from both sides against an opponent or the computer. Good middlegame training. 

 

Daily Routine 

30 minutes: Tactics

Aagaard's books reading order 

1. Excelling at chess calculation
2. GM Prep - Calculation 
3. GM Prep - Positional Play (start 1/2 thru GM Prep - Calculation) 
4. GM Prep - Practical Chess Defense 
5. GM Prep - Strategic Play 
6. Read together: GM Prep - Attack and Defense (Forward Chess) + Attacking Manual 1 
7. Attacking Manual 2 
8. Read together: GM Prep - Endgame Play + Excelling at Technical Chess (pdf) 
9. Thinking Inside the Box 

Aagard w/Boris Gelfand (Forward Chess) 

1. Dynamic Decision Making in Chess by Boris Gelfand 
2. Positional Decision Making in Chess by Boris Gelfand 
3. Technical Decision Making in Chess by Boris Gelfand 

Current read: GM Prep - Calculation

Ch. 1: Candidate Moves; pg. 15

Ch. 2: Combinational Vision; pg. 43

Ch. 3: Prophylaxis; pg. 77

Ch. 4: Comparison; pg. 103

Ch. 5: Elimination; pg. 123

Ch. 6: Intermediate Moves; pg. 145

Ch. 7: Imagination; pg. 163

Ch. 8: Traps; pg. 199

Ch. 9, 10: Tests, Duffucult Positions; pg. 220+  

Training Schedule

Daily: Tactics, technical endgames; 15 minutes each

Week #1: Book: Grandmaster Preparation - Calculation
Week #2: Opening Repertoire:  ICS Opening's M1-M13
Week #3: Middlegame and Positional Play:  B-Method "Learning"
Week #4: Dominating the Endgame: 100 Endgames you must know