Tactics- From my last update post I had a rating of 1700 on chesstempo and I managed to bring it to 1800 but hit a plateau for the reasons stated in my last blog entry named the lazy tactician. Since that post I have raised my rating to 1915. I have noticed a huge improvement in my games as I am able to calculate faster and more precise and I can recognise threats further away.

Strategy- I picked up How to Reassess Your Chess from the local bookstore and so far I have only covered half of the first part on the minor peices. I can honestly say that this has already taken my game to the next level, and I cannot imagine how good I will be once I am through with the book.

Live Chess Games- I dont play live chess here anymore as the disconnections are extremely frustrating hence the terrible rating. I play on FICS now and so far after doing the above mentioned things I have been undefeated against two 1500's a 1700, and a 1841 player. I picked them apart rather easily, as opposed to before where I struggled against 1500's because I had no plan, no understanding of strategy, just tactics. Now that my strategy side is developing it is coming up to my level in tactics. I will update again with a few games posted self annotated so that I can see where I can improve.