It has been quite some time since I made a "check-in" type of blog post. There is no real excuse for it other than my traditional laziness. I'm writing this very post to fight or remedy most of the recent problems I have had in my chess life. Let me break it down:
Laziness - I have noticed a horrible lack of mindfulness once more when it comes to chess. It almost feels like boredom and I go on auto-pilot until my position is worse and then I begin to think. With lesser opposition I still win in these circumstances but what about players of average to better strength? I'm losing games I should win and not putting up the most amount of resistance in the lost games. I need to reconnect with my former meditation practices and restore my mindfulness.
Opening Mistakes - I have let certain opening lines slip out of my memory. All of the following are lines that have come up either in tournament play or in practice blitz games that I need to refresh myself on: The French Defense as white in all the common lines, The Sicilian Taimanov and Rossolimo, The Nimzo-Indian (just a few minor sidelines that aren't seen often), and the Caro-Kann classical variation as black and Panov-Botvinnik attack as white. Some of these I have studied in the recent past (Taimanov) and there is therefore very little acceptable excuse for allowing these things to escape into the ether. Some of these are recent choices based on a changing trend in blitz (the panov and classical caro-kann). These are excusable gaps that I simply have not had to use in a very long time or have had little need to study until now.
Calculation - As a result of the aforementioned laziness my tactical practice habits have been left to dwindle down to zero practice. The result is that not only do I find it difficult to "start the engine" of calculation but I can tell that I am not calculating as deeply as before and my answers over-the-board are nowhere near as accurate as they had been. Simply put, there are too many mistakes that are errors by too wide a margin.
Caffeine - I have become addicted to caffeine. From experimentation and observation I discovered that I did indeed calculate better under the immediate influence of the stuff. However, there were/are unacceptable side-effects to this drug and so I have been slowly removing it from my diet. At my lowest point I had resorted to the "stronger" stimulants of energy drinks. Never Again. I resorted to this because of the next problem
Working Long Hours - I have been working nine to ten hour days at my job during the week and some weekends leading to longer nights for practicing chess and a shortened and ineffective sleep cycle. I wake up tired and go to bed exhausted. My thinking is all blurry and "muddied". I can't really reduce the amount of working hours short of quitting the job but it provides the financing for tournament trips so that's not practical.
Conclusion - These are where things sit at this moment in my personal life. I must remove the lazy habits. I must get more sleep in quantity and quality. I must find those extra moments to study and find methods to streamline that study process. I am still consuming large amounts of caffeine by my own standards and that needs to be managed. All attempts at "cold-turkey" quitting have led to disaster ... shakes, headaches, etc. So for now it just needs to be regulated in usage until it can be eliminated eventually as it was several months ago.
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