I am already benefitting noticeably from abandoning online chess and playing Lucas Chess instead. The engine I chose, Cinammon 1.2c. I have to be at my very best to stand a chance, and in the dozens of games already played, I only have one draw. But in most game I really stick it to it and gain a strong initiative, sometimes with sacrifices. I’ve nearly had it beat quite a few times.
The most obvious benefit being it has revatalized my approach, level of seriousness and begun complexifying my decision making process for my moves. It’s pulling my out of the malaise 4 years of online chess created. There is work to be done as I am still making mistakes but less so and they don’t usually lose my the games, more so the initiative. Correction there is not work to be done, there is much work to be done. This is quite okay as I am already enjoying it because my style has become very attacking, and I am already far better than what I usually am. Happy to play 10 games a day, after all, I am am holiday and have to rest up anyway after the accident I had a few days back. Here’s a link to the draw I should have won, illustrated by embedded pgn, so you can play through it.
Impressive huh?
MJM
McCreadyandChess 