I have started this blog in an attempt to record my progress using a delamaza-like training program. I am actually on my second month, and after following the knights-post's I decided to get my blog too.

I hope to keep this as a sort of chess diary, so after some time I can come back to my posts and laught about how clueless I really was.

A Brief History

1. In the past two years, I have been putting in serious hours studying chess.
Some of the books I have studied extensively are:
1. Chess Fundamentals by J.R.Capablanca
2. Judgement and Planning in Chess by Max Euwe
3. Best Lessons of a chess coach by Sunnil Weeramantry
4. Turning Advantage into Victory in chess by Soltis
5. 303 Chess puzzles by Bill Robertie
6. Art of Attack by Vukovich
7. Tal's Like and game by Tal
Apart from this, I have also
1. Completed all the Josh Waitzkin games in Chessmaster
2. The Larry Christiansen Games too
3. And all the other CM-based tutorial by Seirawan
4. Played thru hundred of grandmaster games
5. Attempted to map out the open-defense to the ruy lopez

2. After doing all of the above, I realized that my understanding of the game
deepened, and that I gradually realize just how complicated chess really is.

3. Sadly, even after all that - I would get blown by people who does not study
at all. This set a deep conflict within me. I even contemplated quitting the
game althogether. Whats the point I wondered. I love the game, but I dont seem
to improve.

I mean, If I had put that many hours on the guitar, I would have been able to
play half-decently by now

4. I am deeply frustrated by my apparent tendency to blunder too. Here I am trying to build a nice pawstructure, and trying to stick a knight in an outpost - (and I succeed too from time-to-time), but then somewhere from move 15 - I would blunder and give away a piece. This one really pissed me off.

And so after this, I dropped reading books altogether. I became convinced that I don't need to study, specifically - study from books. Why whould I? Did not the very same people who defeats me time and again not study anything?

But I still have this burning desire to improve. It keeps me awake at night. It is a call I cannot resist. And so once again I am forced to try and study - but not books. No, no longer will I study from them.

And so my quest has bought me here:

The 400points in 400days by Mr. Delamaza.

More on this later -