4th in the Chess 960 Arena. God this game is hard !

Two days ago I played the Chess 960 Monthly Arena on lichess.org. Only a few masters were present, the field will certainly be kind to me. So I thought.

After 7 games, I had won 3 and lost 4, and that was a lucky result, considering the amount of schooling, borderline humiliation, I had to suffer at the hands of opponents rated 1800. Other masters claimed that their losses were due to a pollution of cheaters in the narrow Chess 960 Sea. Though easy to grasp at, the explanation didn't make sense : positional construction more than immediate tactics was involved, and I must learn fast, or suffer ever more ignominy.

Then I came into an alternate state of mind. I can't describe it any other way. Taken by the ghost of William Shakespeare, I went on creating sonnets that, though not equal to the bard's were pretty decent knowing that I did not stop talking for the remaining 3 hours while playing and winning... 13 games in a row ! I finally took 4th place, which was a success considering where I came from. Not surprisingly, the wins started coming once I accepted the fact that every single player I faced might be much stronger than me at this game. 

I should go on and congratulate the winner of this tournament, Green Arrow, who massacred the field and was never in any danger of seeding his seat. And now, let's look at the material I have for you, dear friends.

First, lessons taken from all those games : a rook is not as strong in Chess960 as it would be in regular chess. This may be due to the fact that structures are so strange to start with and getting our rooks in is much harder when they do not both sit in the corner. Talking about corners, I forgot to develop a bishop on h1 a couple of times and only towards the end of the game did it suddenly make an appearance before the eclipse into laughing nothingness. Here it is, as a reminder that as proud as I may be of the result, the manner was not always there, far from it.

I consider this game to be my strongest performance in the tournament. Though not perfect, this was the closest I got to harmony from the 960 circles of hell thrown at me.

And here is my lowest point : I don't think I understood half as much as my opponent in this game, another FIDE Master who somehow did not finish very well.

If you like what you read and enjoyed the game, you may want to listen to the crazed, almost hypnotic voice I adopted out of sleep deprivation while reciting my soliloquy. Nah, maybe not. What you might want to do, though, is to look up my Twitch Channel. I interact with every viewer, you can play against me, laugh at my stories and learn quite a bit about chess, here you go. See you there !