My current ongoing assignment from Yelena is to play through the games of Cuban World Champion Jose R. Capablanca. I've been using the old standby, "The Immortal Games of Capablanca," by Fred Reinfeld, a hardcover copy of which I've had for several years now. I'm about 75% of the way through the book, and have noticed one key, crucial thing that Capablanca did well and at which I am truly poor: maintaining flexibility while identifying and carrying out the best possible plan in a given position.

Like many club players, my "plans" are very short term and often deteriorate into a move-by-move reaction to the opponent's play. Because of my insufficient knowledge of chess, even good plans tend to be superficial, weak, and readily discarded in the face of opponent's threats. The more I play through Capablanca's games, the more impressed I am by the sophistication of his plans and by his ability to change plans as the position changed. In a few games, Capablanca even backs out of a bad plan and finds another, admitting previous mistakes. I simply cannot make these kinds of adjustments and adaptations.

I have asked Yelena to prepare for me a number of her games that would illustrate her own planning processes, adaptations to changes in positions, and also some examples of her flexibility as a chess player. My plan is to have her go through these games with me very carefully, sharing the thoughts and ideas behind her plans and how she evaluated the needs of the positions, so I can hopefully better understand this process and try to try to implement it in my own games.