A New Year, A New Spirit, its getting Near... | NM Journey 🎴🐉🎆

Hey, it's a brand new year and we're all looking forward to new beginnings! Today, I want to talk about my journey towards becoming a National Master in chess. I'm pretty excited about the future and all the cool chess stuff I'll get to do. Yeah, there's been some drama in the chess world lately, but I'm not too worried about it. The only thing on my mind is getting that NM title. Trying to achieve it over the last couple of years has been a bit of a nightmare, but I'm determined to make it happen even if I have to rely on bad positions to stay alive.

How is my Elo currently?

So, as we all know, Chinese New Year just happened three days ago and the party is just getting started with a huge festival. That same day was a funny coincidence, I was wearing my panda shirt with Chinese characters on it and it made me laugh. I played this event and scored 4.5, which helped me boost my rating from 2082 to 2099. I plan to play more tournaments and break not just 2100, but also this NM barrier so I can finally end this crazy chase.

Here is a Game I like to highlight from a critical round during the Tournament against a top contender in the race for the podium, he was rated 2068 so I had an opportunity to gain.

I practically secured the lead with that win and in the next round, my friend and I decided to do a funny draw referencing the Dubov-Nepo controversy from last year's World Rapid and Blitz.

So me and my friend were motivated by that game and decided to add our own twist on it. One of the players questioned whether it was legit, but in the end, it wasn't a big deal since it was a small event with few participants. we decided to take a break after drawing and went to grab a quick bite to eat. Then we returned for the final round and I ended up winning the event. It's always so much fun to hang out with friends, especially when you're doing something silly like this.

I just wanted to make a small recap as I will be summarizing my trip to Nationals in April so stay tuned for that and I also am going to continue the motivation I have for the NM title. I am currently at the time of this blog a full point away from 2100! ik a 100 points may seem a lot but I know in my heart that if I just put more spirit into it I can make it close before April or even accomplish it just when National hits! I also would like to commemorate Valentine's day to all the families and loved ones out there to have had a blast and a nice night cheers as always!