Intermittent Bullet Grind | Crossing 1600

Hello everybody, and welcome to another post in the Astro's Supercluster! Yes, I am back at writing after almost a month. Feels good to be at it again! 

As a chess player, it is very common to set rating goals. Let's take an example. If you are currently a 800 rated rapid player, you would at least want to be around 1000 or 1100 at the end of the year. But it's the thing about rapid. Then what about rating goals in bullet chess, where you can be a 1300 rated player from being a 1200 in just an hour, and drop back to 1150, also within an hour or two? 

Coming to myself, I love playing bullet chess. But I try to play it a little bit less, and that is why my bullet grinds are very intermittent ( now you know the reason behind the title ). You can relate it to like drinking 3 cups of coffee in the morning and deciding to play some 1 min time control games on the very next moment, after a month. 

It had been a long time since I had crossed the rating of 1400, and I was stuck at the level for almost a year now ( including my previous account ). At the end of Jan, I made a comeback at bullet chess, playing the format almost after the gap of 2-3 months ( or more maybe ). It was due to the fact that my club was participating in a multi club bullet arena, and no player from my club was participating. So, I decided to step in the battle field myself ( yeah the leader decided to lead from the front ). Ok, jokes apart, tbh I couldn't really make any big climb in the rating ladder, beginning the comeback with a rating around 1415, and finishing with a rating of 1450. It ended with me having a score of 21/30 ( I hope my memory hasn't faded away ), because most of the players in the arena were below my rating. This was my first game during the return to this format : 

A very terrible game. Though, decent in the terms of the end result. The engine UNO - reversed the ratings here and said I played like a 800, whereas my opposition played like a 1400 after the game analysis was done. After this arena, I played a lot of bullet chess in the upcoming 3-4 weeks, crossing the barrier of 1500 in like 3 weeks. And within 5 days of crossing 1500, I managed to get my highest ever rating in bullet, and became a 1600 rated bullet player. And in this blog, I will be presenting the 5 games that took me to that rating, and all of those 5 games were a win because I was on a long winning streak. After this milestone, I again decided to step away from bullet chess, and now it's been a month since I played a game in the format. 

Before tuning in, shoutout to @ChessPawn921, because it is his series of Perpetual Bullet Grind, that inspired me to write this blog. If you haven't checked out his blogs yet, you should definitely do! 

Alright, let's get into it!

 Game 1 : Almost Threw It, But Time Comes To The Rescue

A very common thing you will find in these time controls is that many times you do not play the board, you play the time. And many of you would start making pre - moves when you see that your opponent has 10 seconds less than you and is on the verge of flagging. And sometimes in the process, you blunder mate in 1. Cannot say whether you have done it or not, because not everyone is as trash as I am. Here is the game in which I threw away the advantage that I had from an early phase in the game, and my opponent had a mate in 3 before his clock ran out. 

Ok, that game saw a quick turn of tides, but I managed to win at the end. Not a game with horrible blunders, but it did contain some miscalculations. But again, it's bullet, you never know when you have a 10 point material advantage but get mated after 3 moves. 

                    Game 2 : Always Look For Checks

This is the game where my opponent made a couple of blunders, but I didn't capitalize on them the way I should have. But anyways, a checkmate is what you want at the end. 

A good game. Some moments of nervousness, but I found the correct moves at the right moment. Also, this game was an example why you should always look for checks and captures. And sacrifices are important in some endgames, to pave the way for the pawns to promote.

    GAME 3 : Look For Pawn Breaks In Closed Positions 

After the previous game, I said to myself, " Ok, we are very close. Just 3 more wins, and we will be joining the 1600s club. Just try not to blunder anything. ", and went on to play some more games. Yeah, the title might be giving the vibes of your chess coach trying to teach you a very serious closed positions middlegame lessons, but it is what is it. 

A very chaotic game, where both sides played with an accuracy of 50. Yes, 50% accuracy. A bunch of blunders, mistakes and missed wins towards the end from both the players. Also, importance of pawn breaks to rip apart and open up the position is clearly visible here. 

                        GAME 4 : Never Resign Ever

This was a pretty high accuracy game. My opponent played with a 88% accuracy, with no blunders, mistakes or inaccuracies. But, how can a bullet game be a normal one? Yes, while my opponent was probably playing the bullet game of his life, on the other side, pieces were hung by me in a huge amount. Beginning with a knight, then a queen, and at the end, a full rook. However, the clock again came to the rescue, lol. 

A great piece of play by my opponent, though this game was an example why you should never resign. There weren't really any tactical miscalculations, but some straight forward blunders of full pieces. Anyways, I was very close to 1600, and a win is what I had wanted at that moment. 

Before any further adieu, let's get into the final game! 

                       GAME 5 : Immortal King Run 

This is probably the most hilarious game, where the king, in the middle of a pandemonium all over the board, runs to save its life. Yeah, this is the game which has been referred in the thumbnail. I mean, what else can I even say. 

Wow, that was a really insane game. Many mistakes from both the players, but the credit should be given to the black king for taking the responsibility and the route of safety, all by himself. 

And here, I finally reached 1600! 

                    CONCLUSION 

There are many conclusions from these games. The very important one was, that you should never resign, and wait till the end. You never know if your opponent flags, or makes a more horrible blunder than you made, as anything can happen in these chaotic time controls. Also, the importance of how much time you are spending on each move in this format of the game, can really be a vital factor affecting the end result. But, enjoyment is what you want at the end, if you play bullet chess for fun!

THE " Wow, did you really make it till the end " PART OF THE BLOG 

Wow, did you really make it till the end? Congrats, if you did, and thanks for viewing and reading the blog! I hope you enjoyed the post, and enjoyed the games! 

This will be an end to this, but I will be back with more posts in the future, so stay tuned for my future works! 

Regards,

@AstroTheoretical_Physics