Duckfest Digest 12: Progress Update Q1

Introduction

In my yearly review posted in February, I did a full breakdown of the past year. For my quarterly review, I’ve decided to make it a bit shorter and just post the highlights.

In this article i will share

• An overview of my progress
• Two of my recent Daily games because I want you to know I 
  • played my best game ever
  • played another game that also might be my best game ever
• My experience in the Chess community

My Progress

 Daily

My focus has been entirely on Daily games, so there is no progress in Live games, neither in Rapid nor in Blitz.  The main reason for playing Daily again was to develop my middle game play and improve my ability to ‘make plans’. A secondary motivation for me to play Daily was that it allowed me to work on my opening repertoire a bit more, especially since switching to a new d4 repertoire for black. I’ve started to rely more on the opening explorer to guide me in the early game, deviating from what I posted on the forum earlier. This alone should inevitably lead to a higher rating, but not by much, as it appears most players do the same. the more I played book moves, the more I faced book moves. That being said, my results have been great. 

In the last 90 days my winrate has been over 65% and I’ve gained around 120 rating points.

My first tournament win

My first win in a Daily tournament is also something I am proud of.  Only 25 payers, but I had to fight for the top spot. 

Puzzles

While not my main focus, I try to keep working on tactics by playing puzzles. I don’t have a plan or schedule, I just play Puzzle or Puzzle Rush every now and then. While not earth shattering, I did make some steady progress.

My Puzzle rating increased from 2100-ish to a bit over 2200. Beginning of the year I also increased my Puzzle Rush personal record from 34 to 37.

My Best Games in Daily

My plan for this article didn’t include sharing individual games but these games I have to share as I am incredibly proud of them.

Game 1: Winning against a 1900-rated player

Obviously, the main reason to share this one is because it is a game against a player rated roughly 400 points higher than me. Statistically, my expected winrate was around 7%, so it wasn’t impossible. But I have never beaten a player with such a high rating. Not even close.  That's why it ranked #2 in my all-time best Daily games. 

In fact, I was complaining to my friends about playing him, and about playing higher rated players in general. Playing higher rated players is supposed to be a good learning opportunity, an argument that I won’t oppose. But, I really hate it. Players like that suck all the fun out of chess for me. Even when I play well, they play just a fraction better and, move after move, they slowly strangle me. In my other games against the same opponent, I never had a chance. In two of them I never even once held an advantage, in the other one I had a +0.63 advantage (as white) until move 7. 

For the record, I don’t mind being outclassed by a better player. It’s just not fun playing when every move I play feels useless, because it’s either on par with his moves or a bit worse. 

My previous games against this opponent made it clear that I have no win, unless he makes a mistake. Luckily, he did. It wasn’t a Queen blundering mistake, he only gave me a 2.69 advantage, which is far from enough against him. But the opportunity was there and I gave it everything I had. In the 15 moves that followed I played 4 great moves, 1 mistake and even a brilliant move, ending up with the same +2.70 evaluation. I had to wait until move 28 to finally secure my position

Game 2: Winning with 99% accuracy against a 1600-rated player

Accuray is now adjusted to 98.4%, for unknown reasons. My opinion on the game remains the same. In 16 moves, 2 of them book moves, I played 9 best moves, 1 excellent, 1 inaccuracy, 2 great moves and 1 brilliant move. 

Additionally, it was the first time I played this line, which included a Rook sacrifice. 

What can I say? I’m proud of this cool game.

Chess community

The real treasure was the friends we made along the way

Special thanks to Sholom, Kevin and Graeme who accepted me into their circle. I encourage all players between 700-1700 who are looking for a friendly club to share knowledge to join their club the Bookworm Club. 

My blog

Q1 has been a productive quarter for my blog. If you haven’t read them, feel free to check out

Duckfest Digest 07 Decision to study openings

Duckfest Digest 08 Messy Methodology

Duckfest Digest 09 Organizing my Openings part 1 Practical Progress

Duckfest Digest 10 My 1 year review

Duckfest Digest 11 Organizing my Openings part 2 Conceptual Considerations

What’s next?

My return to Rapid. Not sure when, but sooner rather than later.