Phases in learning chess, Phase Seven to Nine

The digital era has fully begun by now. After playing some chess versus a computer, ChessMaster 4000 as I recall, I found that it is no fun. Either it was way too difficult at top level or it just makes stupid mistakes at strange points if one lowers the level. Still, once I defeated it on the highest difficulty, granted I had to take the last three moves back, but at second try I did find the answer.
Even though the play was not to my liking, at some point I did install the mobile version on my Sony-Ericsson, which wasn’t even a ‘smartphone’ yet. Just to keep the routine of playing chess. Gave that up pretty soon though, since online chess found its way to the internet.

In 1999, at College -Hogeschool Enschede- I played my first online chess games, on yahoo.com, still I didn’t really play openings but had a rating of around 1200 anyway.
Which as far as I know those with that rating normally know about, yeah I played 1. e4 a lot and already 1. c4 when I was black but without any idea of the thought behind it,
just because I liked it intuitively.
To be frank I didn’t like playing on a screen very much, the square 2-dimensional playing field was not what I was used to, I (still) like the 3-dimensional board in front of me more. It comes easier to me, I find a real chess board more manageable. Well, let’s continue.

Phase Seven (to nine)

I mentioned before, I had discovered I could dictate the game by trading material and that it was a reason to do it. Here on chess.com a National Master I befriended also mentioned the flaw in that thought, but in these early days of online chess another player had already explained it to me too.
When you trade material and basically force your opponent's hand, you also take away his chance to make a mistake. Since if you don’t have a choice, you will do the right thing. At this point I learned that the playing style I wished to have has definite disadvantages. I want to be an aggressive player, but by playing defensively and handing the initiative to your opponent, you can wait for his mistake which he is bound to make.
Boy do I love this game! So what I figured out now, you can play aggressive by playing defensively, like a predator waiting in the dark for the chance to strike. This game has so many dimensions, this is probably why people who beat me all the time
get beaten by other players whom I beat all the time.
So the waiting game is what I strive to play, wish I wasn’t so impatient…
Never mind the blunders which happen way too often, the most difficult for me is to know when to strike, I had games I lost because I didn’t attack when the time was ripe and many more I lost because I attacked when I shouldn’t have. But remember this is for fun.

Meanwhile (the most beautiful end position I’ve had, on the mobile as mentioned before)

(last move: Bf4-d6# loved this discovered double check)

Let’s get to my phase eight or nine, doesn’t really matter how one counts, does it?
After those first games online I discovered a chess app on Facebook, Chessimo it was called, this must have been around 2010, yeah fast forward. I had already joined chess.com in 2008, but only to play livechess, never did daily chess back then, I am not even sure it was part of this site back then.
Here, at chessimo, I could play while also being in the social network which was a completely different world back. At one time I had over 150 games active and my rating and quality of play really suffered because of it. So my last phase this time is the real obvious: I have to reduce my number of games to play better! At this time I played at around 1300 elo, on a site full of cheaters, no fairplay closures over there, I regularly defeated 1500-1600 players but lost so many games to lower rated that it took ages to grow in rating. The games were fun though, played about 7 years and finished around 5000 games there.
And made a lot of friends. More about that later.
Next time: organising the ‘Unofficial World Championship’ and more...