2024 Opener. Quick Updates.

Howdy people. It's been awhile since I have last posted anything on chess.com the last time I posted I was a mere 20 year old. A youngling as they say and had yet to experience life to the fullest yada yada. Anyway between now and then I wouldn't say that much has changed. My peak elo over the board in 2023 was 1760, it dropped down to 1600 something and I got it sitting nicely right now at a nice 1736

After a long tournament where I came clear first this monday night. And actually I want to address one of my opponents directly in today's article, I won't have any notes on the game, but just want to share something about it, this was the final round and this tournament was for rating but their wasn't really any money on the line so it was more casual, but I was playing a very strong player who I have friended on chess.com though I do not remember their username. Luke Wajhicki if you are reading this I didn't dirty flag you! We had a game in the scandi where at the end we briefly looked and chess.com stockfish on a low depth said it was a draw, but after closer analysis it is indeed winning for Black. Let's look at the game in question.

This was not the exact game, and I can show you the final position. I will show it in another slide I didn't notate so if I did the game a disservice via inaccurate move order but I couldn't remember the exact moves but we got a position close to this however I do remember the final position!

So the final position in the game before my opponent flagged was the starting position of this second pgn, so if you felt bad for losing on time it is completely winning for black, we just didn't give the engine enough time to see the break through. This Queen endgame is winning for black though if my opponent had more time and we got into this it is possible I throw the game away if I allow perpetual check, but with my opponent having 5 seconds in the rook endgame I knew I was gonna win either way. That being said while I initially believed the engine, I had some doubts on my way back home from the tournament and ran a hire depth to confirm my suspicions that this was a winning endgame. So Luke if you are reading this it was lost anyway and it's an interesting endgame study if you want to look into how black wins!

And this is my quickest tournament victory of the year winning in just a couple moves with 1.a6 against e4. Now it is worth noting their is a gem I missed in this position Dxc5 was possible giving up the rook on A1 because after Qxa1 there is Qb3!! and Nd2 is coming winning the queen if I bite. Both me and my opponent didn't see this possibility for white. (Embarrassing I know. Considering there are similar ideas in some other french lines ive studied.) That being said this was probably my cleanest win so far this year at least in these faster time controls otb of 25/5. Going away from the most recent tournament though i just wanted to give everyone a little update on where I am in the chess world more generally speaking.

I played a lot of tournaments last year really ramping it up in February and March, and this year I didn't play at all in January. The start of 2024 was very rough with my whole family getting sick and generally feeling unwell. And much of February I took a break from otb chess despite playing a lot online. I was thinking a lot about how comfortable I am pursuing this as hard as I am. As I do realize despite my best efforts playing in these local tournaments I find very fulfilling and do enjoy for the most part despite how mentally taxing it can be. That being said... Money isn't in the chess world even if you are pretty good at least not where I'm from. And I realize just pragmatically despite my wishes I will need to spend less time on it and on other things to make money to make sure I can fund these hobbies more in the future. Especially because my pc has a crack in it and while it's operational it can't be prepared so I also need to be prepared for that expense.

There has also been many times that I've thought about just trying to exit the chess world all together as I find it endless intriguing but it can take up all of my time sometimes in ways that I'm not that fond of. I've been trying to cultivate a healthier relationship with the game and see the fun in it and not exclusively the competitive side of it which is why I play silly openings sometimes nowadays. Game of the year so far isn't in this article I had a very practical queen sac recently which was very fun but maybe ill cover that game another time if I ever find the notation sheet. 

Another achievement I suppose I should mention is I've got 2100 several times and lost it several times in the rapid rating pool on chess.com as well as achieved a peak blitz rating of 2040 which speed chess has always been a very weak area of mine. 

Also a quick thing but I've appreciated being more part of the community on chess.com. I have been for a long time in some sense of the word but I've helped mod on chess.com both the discord and site making the platform better for everyone which has been great. I've enjoyed doing that albeit I wouldn't complain if it wasn't merely volunteer work but contributing to chess.com has been a pleasure and I am very grateful for everything this platform has done to elevate both me and the game in the 21st century. I've also been thinking of some future ways I might contribute to this world meaning chess world and the larger world abroad.

I didn't think out this blog to much it's just been awhile since I've posted anything and I wanted to give a short and brief update of what's been going on in the chess world for me, and I hope you guys enjoyed the update. And Luke thanks for the game! That was truly a fun one as a scandi lover.