Rapid (slowchessleague.org)

As the games will be played at chess.com I will include my experience here, even though things are organized by slowchessleague.org.

The Background

I want to slightly move away from these long term tournaments. Therefor I joined slowchessleague.org. They organize Live Chess games ("organizing tournament chess for online players at live time controls of G/25+10, G/45+5, G/45+45 and G/90+30"). I see this as a challenge and want to find out if my overall improvement that I feel has any effect on something that is closer to "real" OTB chess.

Qualifier

At the beginning one has to go through a qualifying process. The idea behind this is to check if one will stick to the rules. Negotiating playing times, being online for the games and reporting results have to be understood — some discipline is needed for that.

First Experience

The good news is: I could handle all this. The bad news:  I lost my first qualifier game like a beginner. "Ian124" deserved to win. Congrats!

For the qualifiers it is one live game per week — I like that. The first game took about two hours and I have to get used to that intense time of concentration.

Outlook

Hopefully I will play my second game a little better. I'll find out next week.