Bots Beginner finally all beaten

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I began my journey playing chess.

I'm still slow, while at the same time doing 1-1-1 study plan. 

Daily I'm still doing it. Okay, 3-Day game actually. Dozens of ongoing games there, and I notice that I still need to improve my middle game and endgame. Blunders and stalemate all of sudden? Part of my learning process. Pandolfini and GM Aman Hambleton gave me hint to build the central first. 1. e4 ..., doing it so many times I literally saw it in my dream now.

When I play black, I play 1. ... e5. Quite basic, although I notice black is lagging behind for tempo. Ayongg told me black is more into defense, so it's quite natural I feel black is always lagging at the beginning. As the alternative, consider the opening 1. ... c6 2. ... d5. Caro-Kann? Yes. Funny that I read Caro-Kann lines like 10-12 moves ahead, only to find out in the real games it's very very very rare to have your opponents follow the pre-determined openings beyond the very first moves. Pak Ridwan told me learning textbook openings is nice, but always use your common sense. Chessbrah with GM Eric Hansen showed me so many crazy variants to counter with 1. ... c6 2. ... d5. 

Now look Will. You've been playing a lot of 3-Day, occasionally 30 minutes. Good. Yet, notice that outside there chess tournaments otb in Jakarta now mostly uses 15|10 timeplay... or even shorter tf. As much as I enjoy playing 3-Day and 30 minutes, I need to practice more 15|10. Chessnuts community? They use 10|5 and 5|3. I'm not into bullet chess for now, but I also won't deny that my gameplay is still way too slow at this point.

Puzzles. Oh god, puzzles. Bobby Fischer really did teach me chess. The book yes, not the guy. God rest his soul. It's basic puzzle, and quite enjoyable to do for any chess beginner. I highly recommend it. Chess.com puzzle I regularly do the Solve Puzzle and Puzzle Rush. That and with Pak Ridwan's Daily Puzzle email subs, I think I'm going to solve millions of puzzle for the next 30 years.

At the more positive note? I finally beat all the Bots beginner family. They're quite nice to play, especially when I'm not timing myself while playing. Of course, playing bots are not the same as playing humans. Human opponents are just sneakier than bots on average.

I am still barely able to play chess, yet there is small improvement. Not much, but it's there. I'll update the blog again when I have some more interesting things to share. Just want to keep an honest account of whatever I'm doing as a chess beginner.

Jakarta, 07 September 2025

William