The Chess Wanderer

"Les pions sont l´âme du jeu" Francois-André Philidor, 1749

Monday, April 10, 2006

Passing 1400

After a little over a year at ICC I have finally passed the 1400 mark. This puts me right on schedule for Heisman's step program. But seing as how it took me a year to gain approximately 100 rating points, it seems a little farfetched to gain 200 points in the next six months given his timeline. I'm game though. We'll see how accurate his plan is. I also have to take into account that there is a 100 point difference (higher or lower) between ICC ratings and USCF ratings. You can read more about it here.

7 Comments:

At 4/11/2006 6:30 AM, Blogger katar said...

It's not farfetched at all. Have high expectations and you just might surprise yourself.

Congrats too!

 
At 4/11/2006 8:18 AM, Blogger Pawnsensei said...

Druss,

Congrats on passing 1400. Didn't it feel good? For some reason I felt hopelessly stuck at 1300 for a long time. With the recent push my confidence has returned. Maybe we can get some training games against each other some time? I'm always looking for new training partners.

Patrick,

Thanks for the kind words. I'll keep them in mind. Do you have experiences with 200 point gains in 6 months? I would love to hear them.

PS

 
At 4/11/2006 3:31 PM, Blogger katar said...

Yeah, i had a fast point gain b/c i was provisional (a newbie). 1275-1800 in 3 months. Really that progress occurred over a year, since i started studying in April '05 and only got around to entering a tournament around New Year's, when my first rating was 1275 USCF.

I've blogged a lot about my opinions regarding chess improvement. I'll post more after my latest tournament is officially rated.

Peace out!

 
At 4/12/2006 8:47 AM, Blogger Pawnsensei said...

Patrick,

Interesting. Your story doesn't relate to mine though. I've been playing this whole time so my rating actually reflected my ability.

Druss,

There are approximately 1358 people in the 1100 to 1300 standard category out of a total of 5769 people. I'm not sure if those numbers include computer accounts however. But yeah, 23.5% is a high percentage if you ask me. Especially since the rating range is approximately 519 to 2559.

My time is -10 GMT. I'll add you to my notify list.

PS

 
At 4/12/2006 6:49 PM, Blogger Blue Devil Knight said...

Congrats!

 
At 4/15/2006 7:32 PM, Blogger Pale Morning Dun - Errant Knight de la Maza said...

PS,

Congrats on the mile stone. How much chess and what kind of time controls have you been playing? I'm intrigued. I think my stagnant rating may have more to do with not playing as frequently as I should, so I would be interested in what your playing schedule has been liked.

 
At 4/15/2006 7:52 PM, Blogger Pawnsensei said...

Hey PMD,

I play 30 30 or longer. I try to shoot for 7 games a week but it's been more like 4 to 5. I've found that the trick is to play the game as soon as I get home from work. Then I can do other things after that.

PS

 

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