Plodding Along

Life does get in the way of chess study. But overall things are progressing abet slowly. I've moved the bookmark in DCS up to page 116 for a gain of 24 pages over the last month. In SOMCS I've advanced to page 118 for an additional 42 pages covered. I've progressed through several games in the April issue of Chess Life. I have played in the March Club Swiss finishing tied for first with a score of 3.5/4.0 including a .5 bye. Boosted my regular rating from 1718 to 1754 and QC rating from 1732 to 1760. Then played in the March 31 Quick Chess Quads and finished 1st with a 3.0/3.0 and added 25 more points to 1785 Quick. The Club Swiss for April is off and running but due to an odd number of entrants I took a 1st round .5 point bye. I turned 50 on April 3rd and my presents included "Knight Endings" by Averbach, GrandMaster Repertoire 1. d4 by Boris Avrukh, and an Amazon order including "The Improving Chess Thinker" by Heisman, "Forcing Chess Moves" by Hertan and "Starting Out: The Scandinavian" by Houska. My cup runneth over! I have played some on-line blitz over the last 30 days but less frequently than the prior month. I'll really have to work at carving out study blocks for chess in the future.