Interesting week

What an interesting week for chess. I was sick most of the time but still managed to get my rating on ICC up to 1299 last night. I hope to break the 1300 barrier some time today. I have a feeling I will top out somewhere around 1350 because my opponents are getting to the point where I am 50/50 against them.

After my frustration with losing won endgames I went to Dr. Fritz and asked him for help. I gave him some of the endings that I should have won and played them out until I won them consistently. I also went back to my $1 copy of Reinfeld and drilled the diagrams in the basic ending strategy section. It has already paid off in at least two of my games. One was a Rook and King vs King ending with me on the losing side. My opponent offered a draw after being unable to checkmate me. Knowing the basic ideas helped me to play the most difficult moves for him. Another ending was a pawn ending where I had the extra pawns. Again using the stuff I learned from the Reinfeld book I was able to grind down my opponent and avoid stupid mistakes to squeak out the win. The coolest part happened when one of the diagrams I was working on actually showed up in one of my games!

I'm still drilling diagrams from Winning Chess Tactics. It has been a big help and boost to my confidence in my games. I still need to go through them a few more times to drill them into my head since I regularly miss a few of them, and I'm not up to the point where I can do them all in 30 seconds or less, but I feel like I am on the right track with tactics right now. I've let my drills slip though. I gotta get back to doing the circles and knight sights. The knight sights have especially helped in avoiding stupid knight forks. I don't fear a far advanced knight like I used to. Most times I can chase them back to where they came from without much problem. Now the Queen and Bishop, they are another story.