Rating is out of control...

I just won another 2 games on FICS recently. My rating is now 1677, another all time high. I won a game against one of my favorite opponents Cruin. I challenged him as black and he obliged me as always with the English. I played pretty well although we both missed a mate in 2 after a short string of forcing moves which he made. So really I missed a mate in 5 or 6 and he missed a mate in 2.

I have been playing most of my games as black to practice my new d4 defence. But most players play e4 so I have been getting lots of practice on my Scandinavian game. Today my opponent played into the Icelandic gambit my favorite of all openings. Most players will not play into it so I am not an expert at it yet. This game (new window) was short and sweet. My skill has definately improved but I still think I am over rated. I miss Bg4 on the move before I play it.

I haven't been working any tactics lately. It has contributed to my recent success lately but I have also been studying a lot. Believe it or not I have several Eric Schiller books. Even though most people hate him you can learn a lot from his books. I generally choose wordy chess books because I often read them in waiting rooms and other places... Then I can often pick up things without having a board set up. I learned the Scandinavian/Icelandic from his gambit opening book for black. I am not a good memorizer so I don't care if he covers every line. 2 of the last 3 books I have read are 'Learn from Garry Kasparov's Greatest Games' and 'Encyclopedia of Chess Wisdom'. Some holes in my chess knowledge seem to be getting filled. I used to run into time trouble trying to evaluate a position or come up with a plan. I am having a lot less trouble in that area now. I also look at weak squares now. I used to be really good at identifying them. They were the squares where your opponent put his pieces where you couldn't chase them away or they caused you immense pain. Now I sometimes see them ahead of time.