Crossing 1900 USCF!
Three tournaments, 100 points. This blog is about my journey from 1814 to 1914. As of writing, I have a USCF rating of 1935! Hopefully, you find the games I show very instructive and can take something away that may help you reach your next rating milestone. Enjoy!Game 1: Pawns Go Bye Bye!
The game was quite balanced in the beginning although my opponent was able to get an advantage initially. Due to a tactic, I took one of his pawns, which gave me enough activity to gobble up some more pawns before winning the game. Discovery attacks can be very tricky, I could've had a cleaner win.
Game 2: Opportunity Slips Away...
This game was very good until I was unable to spot Qa6 which would've won me the game. When looking through this game we likely could've felt that there was a tactic in the air that would win. This was the feeling I had during the game, although since I had under 3 minutes I just couldn't seem to find it. Sometimes we need to take a step back and instead of looking for moves, we should look at ideas. We can see that on move 31 after fxe6, that there is the idea of taking on c6 and then playing Bb5, although that would run into Qd7. Then from there, I could see that I could play Qa6 which would basically force a trade and I can play Rxc6 after.
Game 3: How to Almost Lose
What a roller coaster game! From winning to drawing to winning to LOSING to drawing. I almost had a heart attack after that one. What can we take away from this game? One thing is that you should not always look for fancy ways to win, and similar to the last game you should look for simple moves and simple ideas. On move 43 instead of being fancy and playing Rb3, I could've simply dropped back and effortlessly won the game.
Game 4: Inaccuracy, Inaccuracy, Inaccuracy.
This game was very interesting, with quite a few missed opportunities this game could've been much cleaner. Instead of Rhf1, I could've played f4 immediately. Similar to the past two games when I calculated f4 I missed c3 which was a simple but deadly move. Instead of looking for a tactic there, I could've noticed the simple move. Later in the game, I could've had an easier conversion without b3.
Hopefully, you enjoyed and this helps you reach your next rating milestone. As long as you learn something I am happy. One day I hope you can apply this to your own games! That's it for me, thanks for reading and until next time!
