Celebrating My 3-Year Anniversary of Playing on ChessKid!

I am very proud to announce that this past Friday, September 22, was the 3-year anniversary of the day I created an account on chesskid. To celebrate, I will be writing a blog to showcase some of the accomplishments I have achieved since that day. Before I start, I would like to thank @ChessKid and staff for all the hard work, designing, programming, and time put in to make chesskid.com the the great site that it is today. You turned chess from a hobby into a passion for me, and without chesskid.com I would have never known all the joys that come with playing the great game of chess.

Also, my heartfelt gratitude is extended to all of the great friends I have here on chess.com, who helped push me through tilts and cheered me on to victory on multiple occasions over the years. You all always managed to enlighten my day and never failed to put a smile on my face. Thank you for being such great friends!

List of users who helped and encouraged me throughout the years:

@Admiral_ChessBeard

@thepremover15

@theeldest1

@SuperAwesomeSarthak

@RisingFireLHK

@ThinLateCatapult

@sushiracer

Special thanks to my parents who allowed me to devote time to playing chess.

Quick shoutout to @Admiral_ChessBeard's blog ChessComTakeover, the blogs he manages to write are never anything short of breathtaking! Go check out his blog and make sure to follow him!

Before I go into showcasing accomplishments, I want to quickly show you one of the first games I ever played on chesskid:

Yeah, I didn't play that great.

Before I had played this chess game, chess had not been as important or significant to me as other games/hobbies, I was playing for fun. However, after this game, I immediately decided that I was going to take chess more seriously. Why the sudden change, you might ask? Well, you see, I am very competitive, so after I lost this game, I wanted to beat my opponent at least once in a rematch and try to improve my chess playing skills as much as possible so that in the future, I would be beating my opponents all of the time. I embarked on the start of my journey to becoming a chess master(still getting there, I'm working on it! 🙂) I was so serious about chess at the time that I started writing down my stats for the day and my overall stats and records by hand to compare how I had improved or declined from the day before! I didn't know it at the time, but that was the start of my long and immensely fun career on chesskid.

I won't drag you into all the details about the puzzles, lessons, practice, and time it took me over the past 3 years to climb up the rating ladder to where I am today, so without further ado, let's look now at some of the milestones and achievements I got on chesskid:

⦁ Since that first game I showed you earlier, I have managed to bring my current chesskid blitz rating all the way up to 1727 with a peak of 1850. My rating climbed much faster after I purchased a chesskid gold membership and got all of the great perks that come with it! (Again, HUGE thank you to @MikeKlein (aka FunMasterMike and the others who took the time to make all of the great lessons on chesskid!)
⦁ MILESTONE: November 20th, 2020 In a 5|1 tournament, I mange to get a top 3 finish for the first time ever, finishing 3rd with a final score of 4/5. Additionally, my blitz rating rises to the 1500s after it had been stuck in the 1400s for months. This day was one of the most special days in my chess career ever, I cannot explain the joy I felt after getting a top 3 finish for the first time.
⦁ In the ChessKid Monthly Championships(read about them here) I have managed to qualify for the Knock-Out Rounds a total of 4 times, however I have never made it to the All-Star Finals in December yet. My first time in the Knock-Out Rounds I eliminated my first opponent, but I ended up losing in the finals against @TopLumpyGator. Recap: October 2022 ChessKid Monthly Championship Knock Outs Later Edition My second time in the Knock-Outs(November 2022), I lost against skeYoni in a tiebreaker game in the first round, and most recently (June 2023), I was beaten in the first round against MisterFox120. Recap of these championships: ChessKid Monthly Championship: November 2022 Early Edition and ChessKid Monthly Championship: June 2023 Later Edition
⦁ I have managed to beat IM Shreyas Royal on chesskid in a 5|1 blitz game:

⦁ I have also beaten the face of chesskid himself, FunMasterMike on live stream. Here is the game: 

 I was able to beat him once, but this epic battle of me playing the FunMaster fully deserves to shown here as well. Before I begin, though, let  me give you my story behind this game as well:
 It was early morning. The sun had just risen over the horizon, drowning the treetops and surrounding woods in a sea of flame. Me and  my family were getting ready to depart to the airport, as we had a flight scheduled later in the day. I decide to quickly check my daily  chess games and look at my notifs real quick, when all of a sudden I see that FunMasterMike was online in the fast chess server. I quickly sent him a 5|1 challenge, it got accepted, and this happened: (not many comments, just watch the game and get ready to be shocked)

I guess that's what happens if you play too early in the morning without your coffee. Let's move on...

⦁ I was able to put on some speed and got the rare achievement of vision >40 on my chesskid profile, which very few users have.

⦁ Speaking of speed, I also currently hold the #5 Win Streak All Time on chesskid's puzzle duel with 202 games won in a row.

⦁ I also am #19 on the puzzle duel Wins All Time leaderboard right now with 7861 wins.

⦁ I have the highest rank possible at puzzle duel, champion rank:

⦁ My slow(daily) chess rating on chesskid is currently 1631, peak 1848.
⦁ Here are some big tournaments I performed well in that are worth mentioning here(not counting the chesskid monthly championships:
 ChessKid4Peace Tournament(March 2022): Finished 4th place.

12 Days of ChessKid Holiday Tournament Series: Day 1 (December 2022) Placed 1st and won 6 months of gold membership. Full final results: https://www.chesskid.com/learn/articles/holiday-tournament-series

 National Chess Day Tournament(October 2022) Placed 2nd and won 1 year of gold membership. Full final results: https://www.chesskid.com/tournament/chesskid-national-chess-day-tournament-1600491/results

⦁ Overall, on my chesskid account I have 27 1st place medals, 22 2nd place medals, and 20 3rd place medals.
⦁ (not really an achievement) I am a frequent challenger on chesskid's many events and live streams, so chances are you may see me there either playing or in the chat if you ever stop by to watch.

So, yeah. I've left out some stuff, but that pretty much sums up my main achievements so far out of the 3 years I've been on chesskid. I've come a long way from that first game I played all those years ago, and I hope the road ahead of me will lead on to even greater accomplishments, more OTB tournaments and eventually me becoming a titled chess player. With every win I give thanks to God for giving me the great talents that I have.

Anyway, that's it for now. If you liked this blog post and want me to write more, feel free to message me and say so. If you have any advice on where I could have improved in writing this, or if you have anything you want to say, leave them in the comments below. Thank you so much for reading! See you next game.

Until next time,
         ChessKidBadger, signing out.

Fun Facts!!
About 90% of this blog was typed using an old 2000s Windows XP Home Edition 40-pin hard drive
The external keyboard I was using had no spacebar, so every space in this blog was a copy-and­-paste CTRL+V
I am working overtime on this blog and stayed up late writing it when I was probably supposed to be asleep(currently 1:17 a.m.)
I'm going to be dead tired tomorrow because I have to go out with my parents and pick up groceries in the morning
I PROMISE YOU SHEEPY I DIDN'T STEAL YOUR OUTRO(is that even a word??) THAT'S WHAT I'VE ALWAYS IMAGINED ENDING A BLOG WITH

EDIT: THAT'S NOT HOW YOU END YOUR BLOGS ANYWAY (???????) lol

(You're not going to understand who I am talking to unless you are SheepySheep )
This is getting too quirky because I am tired, so now you are at the end.