I am in the midst of changing my opening repertoire for white. I have advanced more rapidly in rating than I was expecting (now at 1920 in the 9/2011 supplement from 1419 in the 9/2010), even though my record with white is less than 50%. (as of early June 2011 +9-10=4 47.8%)
I was expecting to have to change from the Pirc first, as I advanced, but I seem to be doing quite well with it. The King's Indian Defense is still played a lot at the top levels, and it may be the last thing I change. My black record is doing well (Black +17-4=1 79.5%)
I am about half way through vol 1 of Wojo's Weapons: Winning with White and I now realize, that I will likely have an even worse record with white as I move forward. The repertoire I am attempting is going to put me in middle game situations that will be strange to me, and also rely heavily on winning the transition from middle game to endgame.
I hope this will force me to grow as a player. I should be playing to learn, as I have a long way yet to go.
This weekend I will begin to repeat tournaments. I restarted one year ago with the local G/60 4 round tournament in August.
I double checked your rating on the USCF website. You have, in fact, gained 500 rating points in one year. That is absolutely fantastic! Congratulations! You are certainly a role model for "older" players.
ReplyDeleteThank you, some of that gain happened in the 35 years I was not playing tournament chess, but playing computers has also made me sloppy (too much playing by instinct and taking back moves).
ReplyDeleteI think I have reached a plateau, and I am going to be challenging myself this year with more endgames, so I expect my rating may suffer in the short term.