Suspect Chess Day
Unexpectedly, right out of left field, chess nerd Ray encounters chess day.
Blitz experts late to take action.
Blog Overview
- Introduction: What is this Post About
- What I Played on Chess Day
- Chess Day Notable Wins
- Chess Day Notable Losses
- Embarrassing Myself with Titled Players
- My Favorite Games
- I got to Legend League Because of Chess Day
- Conclusion and Further Mentions
Greetings to all chess nerds and fans.
Your first question about this post may be this; "Was chess day not all the way back on July 20th?" Well, apparently you're right.
I had no idea that chess day was coming until the day before (if I did know I would have prepared a special chess day blog). So, when I did discover that such a day exists, what did I do? Well, I set that day aside to play chess! And man, what a day it was.
Today, I will be showcasing my most incredible wins, losses, draws, moves ... anything that can happen on a chess board, all from chess day.
So now, what's holding us up? We have a ton of ground to cover.
What I Played on Chess Day
Ah, now what exactly were the games I played on chess day? Not any ordinary games, that's for sure.
As you may know, on July 20, 2022 the chess.com community club had twelve separate two-hour International Chess Day Arenas. Each match consisted of 3+0 Blitz games. So that's exactly what I did for the entire day! Apart from a daily game, a bullet challenge from a friend, and a random rapid game (because apparently I get bored after playing blitz for too long).
Was I able to win any of these blitz arenas? You probably guessed "of course not!" Well, you're still right. Though, that doesn't mean I didn't play any GMs, make any awesome comebacks, or beat anyone with several hundred rating more then me.
Let's dive in.
Chess Day Notable Wins
Alright, so I won 39 games in total according to m̶y̶ ̶a̶r̶c̶h̶i̶v̶e̶ my calculations. We are gonna start with looking at all of the wins that I considered to be "noteable". (they should be in order of what I played first, second, etc)
Because I was busy feeding my pet foxes (actually I just slept in a lot), I missed arenas one, two, and three. By the time I got logged onto chess, International Chess Day Arena four was online.
That's where we get this win:
That felt crazy to win, even though my opponent had fairly less rating then me.
You may notice throughout the following wins, I actually gain rating. I went from 1100 blitz all the way up to 1300! Okay, fine. I went up to 1200, then because I took a liking to blitz, I gained another hundred the following week.
Ratings aside, let's keep up the journey.
I'm still here, arena four, over.
Now we are gonna look at the wins I got from arena number five.
The next win is quite interesting, it's when my opponent tried to slam me with the Halloween Gambit. (bad idea, it's out of season)
The next one is strange.
A rather "noble" win, I call it.
*Arena launch six has begun*
The next game I apparently had crazy low time at the end while my opponent had tons. I still managed to steal the win:
Now then, who's hungry for a queen skewer?
For the next two games, I'm just gonna be setting focus for the important parts because our popcorn supply is limited.
Gave the queen away, just like that.
Looks like the rook wanted attention.
Now we get this random bullet challenge from a friend. I don't normally accept challenges, but for chess day, I do.
Now that I'm done goofing off, how about I beat someone with 300 rating more then me in arena seven?
In the next win, my opponent has 100 more rating then me. You call that a streak.
Now I'm feeling good about myself because I'm gaining rating at a rapid rate! Or should I say, "blitz" rate.
Even still, we're not done here yet.
I wanted to share the next one, though it's kinda bland...
I hope that knight served his king well before I took it.
Now we are in the grounds of arena eight.
"I sometimes wish all checkmates were not so easy"
That's me before the next game.
Really satisfying endgame checkmate. I would do that again! But chess games like such don't usually replicate themself. Shocking, I know.
Now for the last win that I'm gonna put in my "Chess Day Notable Wins" category.
There we have it. I was able to play chess day arenas four through nine. I would keep going, but I think that I play worse at night-
WRONG
My insights tell me that the evening to night time is when I play best. So um... we'll just say that it was too late for me to continue.
Oh, good question. Yes, we are.
Chess Day Notable Losses
Chess is not all sunshine, rainbows or pots of bitcoin(is that right?). Now it's time to look at the most memorable games where I lost. As it turns out, I lost 46 in total. (again, these games should be in order of when I played them)
We are going to travel back in time to arena four, where I encounter a 1900 who knew how to play the Englund. Who knew?
For the next loss, I was winning actually winning! Then, of course I had to blow it and give away my bishop...
For the next one, I selected another game where my secret Englund Gambit failed me. This is the new trend, isn't it?
For the next game, we are just gonna focus on the checkmate.
Again, focusing on where I lost. At the time of this game I'm in chess day arena six.
For the next one, during arena six, I missed a checkmate from my opponent and took a rook instead! 😱
I just blunder my life away...
During arena seven, I got a little greedy.
Now for the rare sight of a live admiral not resigning right away.
WARNING. A CRIME HAS BEEN COMMITTED IN THIS BLOG.
Surprisingly, the chess day arenas were infamous for cheaters. I have had quite a few friends who played against accounts that were closed for fair play. Odds are that I played one of these cheaters.
Quick shoutout to chess.com for keeping the community safe.
Now for a game that I was winning against a 1800. It would have been a nice edition to the later "My Favorite Games" part of this blog. Turns out that "you can't win em all."
Welcome back to chess day arena eight.
Once again, in our next game I am distracted with pawns, and I end up losing in the endgame. Perhaps my pawn sequel blog makes me overthink pawns too much.
Still in arena eight, where I fail yet again because of my endgame play.
The next game is even more madness, as I entered the void of arena nine, I was winning! But the timer got the better of me. 3+0 is actually a lot faster then it may seem.
If you remember from earlier, I ended at arena number nine. The clock is still eating my day and I bring you my last loss. Okay, so it's not my last loss, but rather a notable one.
That's all for the losses in this portion of the blog (yes, there are a few titled players that I lost to, I'll get to that soon). If you were keeping track of my wins and losses, I played 85 games for chess day!
But wait a second, there is another way that a chess game can end that's not a win or a loss. Let me intruduce you to... THE DRAW
*crickets chirping*
Okay, okay, you know what a draw is. Even though I can call myself good at drawing and not have tomatoes thrown at me, throughout the entire chess day I only got 5 draws. Most of them are not too notable, apart from that one rapid game I mentioned early on in this post:
So that brings us to the number 90 for how many games I played. That's the most chess I have ever done in a day! I mean, it was for chess day, after all.
Embarrassing Myself with Titled Players
All that's left for us is to take a look at those few games I played with titled players, then after that we'll take a look at my favorite games.
We will start these "titled losses" by looking my games against two international masters.
The first one I played during chess arena four.
I encountered the other international master in arena six. I embarrassed myself and resigned when I probably should have kept playing.
Now, I played infront of this grand master while in arena eight. I have played titled players before, but never a grand master. I was excited to play the next game.
Too exited.
If you never played a GM before, you may ask me what it feels like. Well, it felt like I was playing stockfish but three times harder. Okay? It's not actually that fun.
So that's that! All of the titled players I played during chess day arenas.
But wait.
A week just after chess day, this titled fide master caught me in a blitz arena.
My Favorite Games
I guess I thought that the fide master game was worth sharing, even though it was a week after chess day.
Anyway, for now we are gonna take everything that you read in this blog and forget about it. Pretend that everything in this post never existed, because before any of it happened, I won this daily game.
My next favorite game is actually the first chess day arena game I played. It was interesting, as my opponent was actually a chess.com staff member. I mean, IT'S CHESS DAY!!
In my next favorite arena game, my opponent had 200 rating more then me, and I won because of a queen giveaway.
I chose the next game because I beat a 1850. Yes, lots of you probably beat 1850s before, but it's actually kind of a rare thing for me.
In this other favorite, by sheer randomness, I played against a friend who I actually knew.
Were you wondering what the game in the thumbnail was?
That's all of my favorites that I have to share with you guys!
Of course, that was not every game, there were others (I like to say "countless" others), but if I were to share them all you would be sitting through twenty plus games like this:
I got to Legend League Because of Chess Day
Apparently the legends are true! Such a league exists as "Legend League"! After all, I did play 90 games in a single day, not including how much I was grinding the rest of the week.
So, when I logged onto chess the following week, I saw...
It's kind of a shame though, because I thought that the champion trophy looked better. The Legend trophy clashes with light UI too much. (who uses light UI??)
I believe that it matched my profile better, too. Maybe that's just me.
Anyway, I can call myself a Legend! Who's gonna argue?
Here is a link to my final champion league division.
Conclusion and Further Mentions
That's all I wanted to cover.
I hope you enjoyed watching ol' chessbeardy go crazy and play 90 games for chess day.
If you want to learn more about how chess.com celebrated international chess day this year, here is an article.
If you love clicking those bright blue linky things and want to see the forum I made right after chess day, click here. (note that I say I played 87 games for chess day rather then 90 because three of them were not part of the official arenas)
If you have any suggestions/requests/comments/questions about this blog or future blogs, be sure to leave a comment down below.
You may have spotted an error in this post, which is likely considering how many games I annotated and featured. Or perhaps you found something that could be improved further, either way, don't be afraid to reach out and send a private message to me, @Admiral_ChessBeard.
Yes, this post was much later then what's ideal. You don't have to remind me, but feel free to comment about it.
Maybe the amount of games I featured was a mouthful, if you have comments about that send them to @MeercatsforMayor.
I thank you all for your time and for checking out my blog.
Catch y'all later, keep playing chess and having fun!
Your friendly chess nerd,
Ray G. Scout
