2022 Chess.com Daily Chess Championship: The Man Who Fell to Earth

There are still 3,125 players remaining in the 2nd round of the 2022 Chess.com Daily Chess Championship. Alas, I won't be one of them for very much longer.

From the dizzying heights of a 22-0 first round, followed by a solid 6-3 start to the second round, I am now sitting at 10-6, with my sixth loss featuring a Botez Gambit of the worst kind.

That, my friends, is a blunder, and I didn't wait for my opponent to notice the neon sign pointing to it. I resigned as soon as I realized what I had done.

Too bad, too. My best game so far was probably the one where, like Rocky in Rocky II, I switched hands in a pretty even bout. Swinging my rook while my opponent had all his major pieces on the queenside worked out well.

After a few trades, I channeled Rocky II again, and went back to my other hand.

I was able to trade rooks and promote the pawn, leading to my opponent resigning while facing a mate in 1.

That was the apex, but the fall was inevitable. I may still reach my goal of finishing in the top half of this group, and I'm reasonably pleased with my performance. Hopefully by next year's tournament I will have improved enough to move into Round 3.

But for now, I turn to the last lines of The Man Who Fell to Earth — "I think maybe Mr. Newton has had enough? Don't you?"