Yesterday's installment found your's truly in a genuinely troubled chessic state. It had been a long day and my entry was the culmination of a weird combination of positivity (as my play seemed to be improving, overall) and discomfort (as my ever-improving play was still riddled with holes big enough for a giraffe to crawl through). In that post, I reviewed a couple games that were far from spectacular just so that I could keep my head straight and keep my feet moving in the right direction.

Boy, what a change 24 hours makes.

I'm about 15 minutes removed from a $100 investment into some (presumably) quality chess tutelage thanks to my brand-spankin'-new 12 month premium membership here at chess.com. I'm also about an hour removed from one of the only quality games I've played against a 1600-ish rated opponent here - a game that I'll be sharing with you momentarily.

Although I didn't intend for this little ditty to be a diagnosis concerning the troublesome mental-block of which I can't seem to rid myself, I guess that's what it's come to. I can honestly say that my troubles are self-inflicted and are largely because I tend to neglect certain games (against players I have a good track-record against, for instance) when I find myself with a lot on my plate. Josh Waitzkin talks about the importance of improving yourself and your personal issues at the same time you work on your chess abilities and I think he's right: Right now, I'm making sure to actively tell myself how important patience is when it comes to developing my tactical abilities. I'll keep you guys posted as I go.

In the meantime, enjoy this brief foray into (what I hope is) an ever-improving chessic journey.