Thanks. (-:
I think that a combination of Roman videos, including memorizing some of the games that he presents, and more consistency in my tactics study that I previously neglected have improved my game.
One problem that I have had as of late is my ability to analyze. This may or may not be related to my vision being slightly off due to a cataract that will eventually have to be operated on. The cataract causes my prescription to change rapidly where I might need new glasses every few months.
I am so confident in my ability to spot shallow tactics almost instantly that I sometimes would fail to analyze tactics in a position unless I thought there was reason to do so. I don't know if this is mental laziness or other factors like vision, discipline, or age. One thing that has happened is that I make myself play more positional openings, so I devote more mental resources to positional ideas. It becomes tricky to balance position and tactics.
The expert that I beat in Louisville played an offbeat aggressive open game. I thought that he gave me a positional advantage, so I tried to maximize that and I won without much difficulty. I am not sure if my scoresheet is correct, but I may have missed an obvious tactic (but low on time) which concerns me.
In the final game I had a much better position in a French against a super strong A player, but couldn't find the win as I got low on time. I opted for the draw, but I was really proud of the game that I played.
I think that if I more often practice analyzing or longer games that I can consistently play at the expert level.
On Sep 10, 2011, at 11:27 <granthodson> wrote:
John,
At this rate you've got a good chance of becoming our next state champion.
