Chess - The 1|0 Bullet Arena (Revisited)

Winning a 1|0 Bullet Arena is not exactly a walk in the park. Intriguingly, it does not even pace or play smoothly as a jog in the park! It requires your own manner of agility, wariness, and well, strategy. 

It was apparently my friendly tournament in need back in 2018 when my Bullet rating was in the 1100s. I used to think about what tactics were required to reach higher ratings. But it did more help then than right now. 1 minute standoff plays its 50-50, but can be an advantage in forming your position, surviving with more time than your opponent, or just putting up all it takes to be the other one standing.

This simple tip does not entirely help after advancing to higher leagues. Being higher in rating implies winning a bunch of games with those of the same league to unknowingly be paired with a lower league player, and if fate has it toss otherwise, lose up to 10-15 points and worse, a series of those out of laggy internet, miscalculation, or timeout and whatsoever-not.

Persistence led me to winning two gold medals on August 26, 2018 and August 28, 2018 respectively. My performance in the first arena had 11 wins and 2 losses, the other with an unmatched 13 wins. Although, some of it played out by luck of survival till the end. Here is the thing in Bullet, luck favors bold preparation. Knowing a thing or two most certainly leads to a gold medal or two!

I saw a 1|0 bullet arena that was to start in a minute. Considering the momentum it took before and potential disturbances that might have been, I headed to a 3|0 Blitz game instead. It ended so fast with my highest Blitz rating of 1863. Bullet stood at 1700 or more. I knew for a fact that winning five games to lose two to a much lower rated player would only decline to the 1600s. But the timing suggested I nab the opportunity within seconds left prior to commencement.

The formula of organizing the position really worked as I consistently won a series of games, mostly by organization and slightly through luck, which was a skill of time management. I kept in mind the downsides of losing 1 in the way and de-escalating to #10 just like that. Overall, a few disturbances had me finish #66 of 623 players. I was happy having had a good chance and not getting my hopes up.

Here are all the 12 games. I will commentate on them later as the arena only recently ended. Sounds ironic for a lot of text till this point, but hey, this August anniversary only connects the encounters together.

One was game abandonment, but what keeps you at #1 is the actual checkmate or timeout win streak.

(Something tells me these games aren't in order, but more sorting out later).