1648 ELO achieved

It's been over 6 months since my last post ... so here is a update. According to July 2014 ECF chess grades my new chess grade is 131 ECF or converted = 1648 ELO. That is over 50 points higher than what it was in January, so I am on the right track but I still have a lot of work to do ... I lost my first game of this season to a simple bishop fork, gifting my opponent with a vital extra pawn, and after that he crushed me! Undeterred, I will take on my next opponent this week !! Overall I need 102 more ELO points before December 2014 :)

2014 - A new start !

According to the January 2014 English Chess Federation (ECF) listings my new grade is 124 BCF or 1595 ELO.  I need to attain about 150 rating point to achieve my goal of 1750 before the year's out.  If I don't manage this by December 2014 - I'll give myself another 6 months :) after that.

My study regime in December 2013 and January 2014 was:  

Tactics

20-30 intermediate tactical problems per night from Sharpen Your Tactics - Lein and Archangelsky.
or 9 problems from back issues of Schaak Magazine from Holland.

Endings

1 x problem from John Nunn's Chess Endings book.

Blitz

4 x games of blitz chess on chess.com (current grade 1514 ELO)

I had a holiday at half-term and now I intend to resume this study regime!!  Let's see what happens in the next few weeks ... 

Welcome ...

Welcome to "The Chess Monk's Pilgrimage to 1750 ELO". I intend to use this Blog to record my progress to 1750 ELO by dedicating my spare time to perpetual chess study ... I'm not a fantastically gifted chess player - rather more an obsessive chess fanatic who will try and prove that hard work and devotion to chess can overtake raw talent ... I have to believe I can nurture myself to become a greater player than those more talented than me!