School vs. Chess

I was playing a lot on the Christmas holidays, but know school has gone back, and my homework level is huge, I have found my rating has slipped quite a bit. Are there any suggestions of how to maintain an ok rating as still get top grades?

Originally posted by pythagoras
I was playing a lot on the Christmas holidays, but know school has gone back, and my homework level is huge, I have found my rating has slipped quite a bit. Are there any suggestions of how to maintain an ok rating as still get top grades?

I have the same problem. The key is to be responsible with your number of games.

Be concious of how long your games tend to last. This way you can plan months in advance.

Don't take on a bunch of games simply because you're bored at a certain point in time. Take on games slowly, not all at once. This will ensure that you don't end up with more than you wanted.

Try to move a certain number per day. This way you don't sign in one day with all of your clocks running. I find this very stressful, and tend to make bad moves.

In busy periods, use all of your timeout for each move, but try not to get into your timebank. This is a useful backup for really busy periods, and vacations.

Above all, remember that school is probably more important than your rating here. Don't worry about your rating as much as you do your improvement. When you don't have time for improvement, then don't worry about that.

Originally posted by ark13
I have the same problem. The key is to be responsible with your number of games.

Be concious of how long your games tend to last. This way you can plan months in advance.

Don't take on a bunch of games simply because you're bored at a certain point in time. Take on games slowly, not all at once. This will ensure that you don't end up with more than ...[text shortened]... your improvement. When you don't have time for improvement, then don't worry about that.

Thanks!

Get your priorities straight!

That is what I was told by the president of our chess club. Schedule your Univ/school around your chess.

Hahah, I found that funny. I spend more time on chess then I do with Univ stuff. Just how it is, but i'm almost done and i'll be great. Work and chess.

I love chess and study it more than I should, but ark13 is absolutely right.

Chess won't do much for you in life. The knowledge that you obtain in school will. And grades really do matter in high school if you want to enter a prestigious school for undergrad. (Although for undergrad, the education is generally the same throughout, and the main difference is the quality of campus life and how much money you pay for college. Just make sure you get good grades in undergrad, then you can always transfer.)

Chess takes time away from family and from doing more worthwhile activities.

Games 3/7 work well for me, because when having 30 games running concurrently, I may apportion 10-15 games a day, which is manageable for me. And also, the games don't usually last too long.

if you feel like you can't constrain yourself sometimes you can allways unsubscribe 😉 (I presume)