I'm feeling GREAT!

So I now have my USCF Quick Rating(provisional). It's a monstrous 950! Go ahead, laugh it up. As a matter of fact, I can hear you laughing now. I see how it is. Some of the gentlemen were making a little fun last night at our weekly(wednesday night) chess club. They all know that I'm absolutely horrible at quick chess and I'm MUCH stronger in a long game. If you want proof, just look at my previous post of checkmating a 1610 player in 15 moves at the NM Collegiate Championship. We shall see come mid January '08. It feels like that's going to be such a long time but I should use it to my advantage and study my arse off to be prepared for my first long (G/2) tournament. Should be interesting to see how that works.

Just to give a little heads up as to what I mean by studying, here's what I use to study and maybe some of you other chess noobs can follow a similar program of study:

1) International Chess School (http://www.chessmasterschool.com)
2) CT-ART 3.0
3) Chess Position Trainer 3.3


Here are some definitions as to what these products are:

International Chess School: This is a 1 year online intensive course in chess for the intermediate player. For 12 months you are drilled with lessons and exercises and at the end of the course you should have the knowledge of a 2300 FIDE player. I am currently in month 2 and it has already increased my playing ability.

CT-ART 3.0: Tactics-tactics-tactics! I'm a firm believer that if you have a rating below 2000, your first name should be tactics, your middle name should be tactics, and your last name should be tactics. CT-ART comes with over 1200 tactical positions ranging from difficulty 1400-2400. I only have the demo version for now, but look forward to buying the full version soon! Check it out if you want a challenge.

CPT 3.3: Chess Position Trainer is a program to study your openings. It drills you with sub-variations until you have them memorized. On top of this, you have the option to do it blindfold, which I have found very useful. I can play 4 sub-variations of the Sicilian Najdorf 10-moves deep each in blindfold mode. I absolutely love it!


Well that's about it for now. I hope one of the above products is/becomes as useful to you as it has to me!