Um...It's Been Years...I Hope I Didn't Leave The Door Open...
*blowing dust off of the furniture and breaking down the cobwebs, coughing in the process*
There, that's better. *Ahem* Greetings everyone! It's been more than four years since my last blog post, and in that time, a lot has happened. It was a month or so before the COVID lockdown in the United States, and now, four years later, some parts of the U.S., and the world, are still dealing with it, although it's not as newsworthy as it was back then, but we're not here to rehash things like that are we? We're here for chess, not CDC updates and warnings.
I've only very very recently gotten back into chess after take a excessive sabbatical from it, and my skills have obviously deteriorated in that span of time. So much so, that I'm even struggling with Fritz 17 Friend Mode (upgraded from Fritz 12 and Chessbase 11 (have CB 15 now) a year or two ago)
My last online game here was 2015 and I've never had the courage to play live thinking I'd get laughed out of the building sort to speak, so I've stuck with Fritz and Chessmaster 11 for the most part, and sometimes Arena or SCID. It's not the same as playing against living breathing people obviously, but at least I still manage (for the most part) to learn from my mistakes. Hence, this blog entry.
Now, for the first time since i started using the Fritz program (going back to Fritz 12 like I said) I've actually started playing 3|0, 3|2 & 5|2 Blitz games and have gotten decimated each time, mainly because I'm so not used to dealing with time pressure and thinking under that same pressure. Friend Mode is relaxed and the program adjusts to your playing strength, which, as now, is pretty low (they start you out as 1000 if you choose "Hobby Player"...don't know if it's different playing as a "Club Player")
Anyway, I played one game yesterday and one today, and for some reason, my brain decided to fall asleep in the very beginning of the game that I played today after it left the opening book.
I'm going to include the game I played yesterday and the one I played a few hours ago that I'm still embarrassed about. The one yesterday was a win, the one today was a clear cut unmitigated, embarrassing and one of the worst and most awful games, if you can call it that, that I've played in my entire life.
With that, let's get going...
Now, according to the analysis afterwards, I did mostly everything right, with very little costly mistakes. Now, this is Friend Mode, so I'm not putting much stock in winning here. I've never really had a firm opening repertoire and I have 8.5 Million+ games in my Fritz17 Openings Book, and most of the time, I follow the book until it deviates, either to myself or the CPU. Yeah I won, but like I said, Friend Mode, so la-de-da for me.
The game I played today though was a joke. I just...I don't know what the frick happened. I don't know if it was my frame of mind that caused such a severe screw-up or the caffeine buzz I had from the cup of coffee I was drinking at the time. I can laugh about it now, but I was in a severe rage once I realized it and then more so after it happened.
How fricking embarrassing! Yesterday, according to the analysis I was almost flawless, today I was like a wort on the back underside of a toad.
When I play, I don't use the "Coach is Watching" or the "Additional Analysis", so I took my time with the first game and felt like I was a pretty decent player. Friend Mode is good like that since there's no time controls, but I knew the game wasn't giving me all it had since it's an adaptive training tool.
The three or four games of Blitz I've played since yesterday I got decimated, and that's the main reason why I'll never play LIVE Chess here or OTB in USCF events, even though I've been a member of it since 2017. I didn't even want to put the game here, but I am.
I never claimed to be a good player. Heck, I never claimed to be a decent player. I wouldn't even call myself a serious player. Maybe years ago when I was playing 10-12 games a day and having my face constantly in chess books and my collection has grown a little bit since then.
I don't know; at one time I felt like I was getting to be to a level to where I could handle myself in a casual game, and I also know I'm hugely, incredibly out of practice, but that second games was a fricking embarrassment and one of the worst "games" I have played in my history of being about chess.
If you've managed to make it this far without dying of laughter, I appreciate it. For those of you that passed out or threw up laughing, but still managed to get to the end...thanks. Just...be kind in the comments.
-Mark
