August was one of the worst months I have had since I began tracking my online chess results. I lost almost every game and considered taking a sabbatical from the game to regroup. September was much better but it was nothing compared to my breakout results in October! Going 7.0/12 for the month might not seem like much on a cross table, but the content of the games was far beyond my previous performance.

A key to improvement in these last few months has been Peshk@ tactics training courses including the latest edition of CT-ART. I started playing chess seriously in 2006 with Rybka Aquarium before adopting Chessbase. The quality of the user interfaces in Peshk@ and Aquarium are not up to modern standards but the chess content is exceptional for the price. In the next game my opponent’s devastating 11…Qxb2?? was a resignation in disguise.

I finished October with a 1065 rating on Chess.com which is the highest sustained rating I have had to date.