Phases in learning chess, Phase Twelve

This blog is getting closer and closer to the present time and as mentioned before will become more and more detailed. The game of chess is really the one thing which has followed me since I could think for myself and maybe already before that. On the one hand I'd like to have become a better player than I am, on the other hand I always saw chess as a puzzle to solve, in puzzles I don't want to hear how to solve it, but rather simply solve it. So I stand by my decision to learn this on my own merits. And I simply love to play chess, the winning of a game is just an extra, the game itself is fun.
'The Journey is the Goal.'

Drawing versus a NM was the last topic. According to stockfish it was forced so it felt like a victory. This time some victories versus 1950-2050 rated players. My best results on this site considering the opponents' constant rating strength. Three times I had such results against this rating range, not counting winning on time, while probably attempting over 70 times cumulatively over the three opponents. Over my totally 1770 actually played daily games here it is not much of a big track record, I confess. 

First my victory against the highest rating I achieved, also noted in daily stats on the profile.
It was versus a long time friend, we probably go back 13 years by now. The very first game we played I was actually winning, but didn't know enough to clinch it and it ended in a draw. He had 1850 back then, on another chess site. We've probably played over a hundred games in total, 49 of those here on this site. I won once, here at least, and we had two draws ...yes, the other 46 I lost!

This was a pretty messy game according to analysis, but (!) I found that analysis often sounds very illogical. Recently I had a game analysed where it said excellent move for the opponent because he save his rook, meanwhile that move caused mate in 4 in stead of mate in 20...

Second time a win against an ~2000 player. I've played about 20 games with him, also won on time, which doesn't really count, and won a few while he was still rated lower. Yes indeed, if I lose I normally keep trying and trying, I like a challenge. It was a good feeling to get a success against another high rated player...

With my current understanding of the game I saw several mistakes I made, but my opponent made worse one's

Third my win against another ~2000 player. We probably played 5 - 10 times and I was surprisingly successful. This game was really fun! Have a look.

This one had a pretty big reversal of fortune in it, I love these kinds of games, where it seems to go wrong and one still gets the win.

I am not sure whether these were the best games I have played, not according to accuracy at least. Also not the most beautiful games I have played. I'll see later if I can find those in between the thousands of games I have played...

Next time: Creating tournaments and combining several hobbies...