My Personal Chess Journey

   Hello everyone! For those of you who don’t know, Chess.com requires their users to write at least five blogs that meet their Top Blog criteria before applying for the status of Top Blogger. As this is my fifth blog before I’ll apply for that position, I decided to deviate from my typical articles on chess openings and OTB recaps, and to try something a bit different. It was just a matter of figuring out what this “something” was, and let me tell you, when trying to find an idea for this blog I was more stumped than I had ever been with my writing before. I was truly out of ideas and felt I had hit the dreaded “writer’s block.” Fortunately for me, @SilverBlade77 gave me the idea of writing a blog detailing my chess journey, from the day I first learned the rules of the game to the present. And that's exactly what I'll be doing today so much thanks to Silver for giving me this idea .

      I first learned the rules of chess around Christmas-time 2019 from a book about "essential life skills." When my best friend, who also happened to be into chess around this time period, came over for the holidays I decided to have a go at the game. At this point I had a very basic (and inaccurate, I might add) knowledge of chess and didn't even play it right. I had formed a misconception that "capturing" the king was insignificant and only ended the game. Once the game was ended, points were tallied according to the value of the pieces, and the player with the highest amount of captured points won. Thus, my first chess game against my friend concluded in a "tie." Although he had checkmated me, I happened to have an equal amount of captured points, meaning I had drawn my first ever chess game! I was slightly crestfallen when, soon thereafter, my friend told me over the phone that checkmate was an immediate victory and that the "piece points" were just for reference.

        After that game, I went back to my normal life of ignoring the very existence of chess. That was until a COVID-19 pandemic was declared a few months later in early 2020 and the U.S. underwent lockdown in March. It was then that my friend introduced me to this chess website and I created my first account sometime in February of that year. My username was the pseudonym @terryhockey, a combination of a play on the word "teriyaki" and a fictional persona I had created for myself at the time. Initially, I knew nothing about the social side of Chess.com (such as blogs, clubs, chats, even private messages lol). I wasn't even interested in playing anyone on Chess.com besides my friend and I practiced with him for a couple weeks. Below is my first ever game played on this site, which I have left unannotated so that the reader may enjoy the beauty and chaos of newbie chess in its natural state.

     Of course, I lost, as my friend had a lot more experience than me in the game, but wow... just wow. I showed absolutely zero strategy with my play, and hung the majority of my pieces. I don't mean to offend anyone with this statement, but let's face it: 600s are not very skilled at chess and I don't expect to see masterpiece games at this rating level. However, I played WAY worse than most 600s I see nowadays! At least most beginners have enough chess knowledge that they're able to keep track of equal exchanges. Most of their losses are to tactics or tunnel vision. In my game though, I didn't even take back when one of my pieces was captured! I'd even leave my pieces just sitting there, en prise. What a wreck...

        I refused to let that loss deter me and I continued to play my friend every day that week, determined to beat him. At first it seemed like a lost cause. I was defeated a whopping forty-two times, with a wide variety of odd time controls, all in the span of five days (February 22-27). Then came that fateful fifth day...

         It's amusing because after this game I felt so triumphant and proud of my performance, but in retrospect, I still played like trash. I suppose my play was a slight improvement over my first game; I was finally getting the hang of capturing free pieces. Also, considering I went from knowing nothing about the game of chess to beating an 1100 in five days is an impressive feat.

         I think that first win against my friend was the turning point in my developing career in chess At that moment, I ceased to play chess solely for fun. It was no longer a "game for the elderly." I had developed a rivalry with my friend and chess now became a competition. I raced him to rating checkpoints, faced him in matches, tried to outperform him in tournaments, etc. Not only did he serve as a rival to motivate me to get better, but he also taught me a lot of the material necessary to improve in chess. So big shout-out to @IMBrilliant01893 for being such a great mentor and friend to me . I wouldn't be where I am now without him.

         Once I broke the 700 rating barrier, I became stuck and took an online chess hiatus. Instead, like most 12-13 year olds on here, I became obsessed with clout. I tried to see how many followers and points I could get, joined tons of clubs to beg for admin, and just became a nuisance in general 😅. I even made my own club, where I spent way too much screen-time not doing anything productive. I originally named it "Excellent Chess," which was kind of cringey so I eventually changed the name.

     Soon I got sick of Chess.com and was frustrated that my blitz rating wasn't getting anywhere. Thus, I decided to close my account and create another on the last day of July 2020. Now you may be wondering, why does is @terryhockey listed as "closed for abuse" if you voluntarily closed that? I actually get asked that a lot and it's because of a simple misunderstanding. At one point ,my mom and my brother both had a Chess.com account, and the website was under the impression that I was using multiple accounts; thus, resulting in the banning of their accounts and all previous accounts used from my IP address, including my brother's first account and my former two. Since my family didn't care about their accounts I didn't want to start a hassle with Chess.com, but yeah, that's why they were closed. I guess Chess.com wanted to ban my old ones so I couldn't ask to reopen them? Lol.

      The username for my new account was @FrenchGuru2, since I was learning French at the time, although I later changed it to @BaltimoreRavens1, after my favorite sports team. I came back to Chess.com a bit more reserved and mature. I didn't join any clubs this time though, and kept away from the social side of the site so that I could focus on my personal chess advancement. I started playing a lot of bullet chess, and my main chess strategy overall consisted of moving fast enough to force my opponent to calculate on his time, rather than mine. Then it was just the easy matter of flagging them. I learned the French Defense during this time period even though I didn't know anything more than the first two moves of the opening. Most of my time was spent playing chess, instead of studying chess. And of course, improvement isn't going to come merely by repetitively playing a game over and over. You also have to spend the time analyzing those very games and learning from your mistakes. Needless to say, I was oblivious to this concept and closed my account within three months of its creation. I did manage to beat my friend again, who was 1221 at the time, and this was my biggest win on that account.

     This looks like I memorized the first five moves of French Advance theory and then ad-libbed the rest of the game. My play was a tad better than my win with my first account, although my play still isn't consistent throughout the game and it's really difficult to decipher what exactly I'm trying to accomplish. This genuinely is something I'd expect to see on an episode of GothamChess's "Guess the Elo."

    I created what was to be my main account for years a couple days before Halloween, although I had no idea of knowing that. I named myself @RuyLopezChampion, after the opening I was currently obsessed with. I finally began putting in the hours to study chess. I watched over 200 lessons on Chess.com in my free time (you can check my stats if you don't believe me), and I probably watched hundreds of YouTube videos on chess openings. I remember building myself a repertoire full of spicy gambits, like the Evans Gambit and Fried Liver. GM Simon Williams was a big influence to me, and probably my first real chess "idol." I modeled my entire early repertoire off of his video lectures. I purchased a diamond membership so that I'd have access to unlimited puzzles and analysis tools, and that's when the real grind began.

      As you can see from the above screenshot of my rapid rating graph, around November 2020 I was 978. However, that wasn't the case for very long.

   It was remarkable how quickly my rating skyrocketed. With all the vigorous study time I was putting in, I went from 1200-1600 in the span of four months, gaining at least one-hundred rapid rating points a month! It was also around this time that I discovered Lichess.org, and began playing a group arena every Monday versus rival groups, representing Team Alabama.

  In one of the tournaments (shown above), I finished in 11th overall and the #2 finisher for my team overall. You have to also take into consideration that this was an Open tournament and Lichess ratings are inflated, so while I was 1482 on Lichess, my CC rapid was only 1300 at the time. This tournament also featured my first win over a 2000 rated player, which I'll include below...

   In May 2021, I found a local OTB tournament and decided to enter the U1200 section. Because this was one of the first Alabama OTB tournaments, and with the help of the 2020 "chess boom," the turnout was massive, at nearly one-hundred players overall. I did very well for my first tournament, scoring 3/4 and finishing #4 overall out of over 35 players. My only loss was to the #1 seed, who ended up winning the section with a perfect score. I've included the PGN to that game below.

     Of course, to keep the blog concise I'll be leaving all showcased games unannotated. My biggest mistake was chasing after my opponent's queenside pawns, when I obviously couldn't promote due to his king's positioning. Still a great tournament overall and a big stepping stone in my chess career.

   Towards the beginning of summer 2021, I finally returned to the social side of chess. I joined  Lightning's club and Beginners & Masters, by far the best chess-oriented club I ever joined. It featured frequent newsletters which involve puzzles, guess the elo games, showcased member games, member interviews, and lessons from their high-rated players. They had an extremely active, helpful community of over 500 members and several forum threads where +2000 rated players analyzed your games and gave you advice to better your chess. I can truthfully say that without this club and its amazing community, I also wouldn't be where I am now. Unfortunately, me and the other admins had a falling out with the owner and we relocated to the great club Den of Patzers, so make sure to check that out if you'd like to experience a warm, friendly community and seek to improve your chess. 

    At the end of July, my friend (the same one who introduced me to chess, ironically) had an agreement with me that if he got to change my Chess.com username, I could also select a new one for him. I picked @IMBrilliant01893 (which I found hysterical at the time due to an inside joke), and he decided on @Nimzo-IndianaJones, which stuck. Soon after I changed my username, I beat my first titled player, an NM in a 10/0 rapid game.

      And just for contrast, here's my most recent rapid win (to date), which you can compare to my first ever win at the top of my blog:

     Just wanted to mention a few more things to wrap this up since most of what my 2022 chess career has entailed is before you. I started blogging consistently about OTB events and a motley of other chess-related subjects, and I'm working hard to reach the Top Blogger status. I hit 1700 and 1800 rapid this year, where I've plateaued since. I've played tons more OTB events, and while they haven't been successful, I feel like I'm finally beginning to get somewhere near a breakthrough. We'll see though. Nevertheless, it is insane to think that during the pandemic I was a lowly 300 and now I'm at what is considered the "advanced" chess level. It's truly remarkable and I hope this is inspiring to everyone out there who just got into the game or felt like they've reached their max rating. You can achieve anything you strive to do, any goal, any contingency if you have the determination and put in the work .

    I'd like to thank everyone who has supported and encouraged me throughout my chess journey. I have met an innumerable amount of great people and friends on here, and while I simply won't be able to name all of you, I'd like to shoutout a few of the special people I've met on this site:

@Lightning, @B1ZMARK, (OG members of B&M): @ninjaswat, @DasBurner, @LazyDog24, @Loshi01, @little_guinea_pig, @chaotikitat, @colorfulcake, @assassin3752, @ricorat, @Kesetokaiba, @This_Cruel_Moon (formerly @chz3369)

@wagyubeefdotexe, @silverblade77, @trophies100, @BillBelichick01, @kowerenai

(My staff at DoP): @mrfreezyiceboy, @xXCRY0TICx2, @rohithbala, @pawntonic, @Matthewch6v14

@2021blitzgrind (rip), @AwakenedVortex (@TheSwissPhoenix), @Joseph_Truelsons_Fan, @oranegjuice, @chesshistoryrocks, @KingMonkey400, @Batman2508, and last but not least, my alt (just kidding of course).

    As always, thank you so much for reading. I don't know when my next blog will be, but I know for certain I'll be recapping an upcoming OTB event in September. I'll be applying for Top Blogger after this drops so we'll see if I get accepted. Even if I don't I'll continue blogging, and reapply later. Feel free to leave a comment if you'd like

Until next time, -Nimzo