Blazing Out of The 1900s
I started to day a little differently than I start any other. I thought to myself, a conscious thought. "Today, is the day I take a break from chess. I'll take a day to recover before jumping back into the pull as I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, and I might perform worse because of that." Alas, telling myself that I wouldn't play chess today, was just about as true as a newly married couple promising to only kiss and embrace one another after the wedding ceremony. While the thought at the time was a genuine thought, like a newly married man, I just couldn't resist.
My hands having a mind of their own, I hit that play button and load a new ten minute game. This would be the first of three games I played in the early morning. I also played a game midnight of last night, admittedly I didn't realize it was a new day at the time. To not waste everybody's time with every little dip and then increase that happened I will only share these last four games. Considering I was in the 1960s this morning and now I am 2000, it should surprise no one that all of these were victories. Where I valiantly slayed my opponent, and took them all down. Two of the games actually feature the Scandinavian defense. My black game I missed a very straight forward win and got insanely rewarded for it. But let's start with the game I played at midnight in the wee hours of the morning.
This first game! I didn't miss the tactic of taking the knight with the desperado but I misevaluated how strong keeping the queens was. My opponent could have put up a lot more resistance and didn't have to hang mate. It was an interesting game where my opponent played a little bit of an offbeat opening. Which I respect their decision as at this point in some main line stuff I'm not sure I'd want to face myself in it. And with him being a 2000 and me being a 1900 at the time I'm sure he wanted to prove himself and destroy me by getting me out of mainline theory and creating some imbalance early on. Unfortunately for him the lack of the dark square bishop, along with my pawn on f6 proved decisive due to him being just a wee bit careless and probably taking his position for granted.
Missed tactical opportunity where I should have been sharper and the game was surprisingly decided by a one mover. It happens even at this level! I should have been more precise and calculated my opponents counter-play
I figured out how to add the highlights from the png! Honestly not that hard, and saves me a lot of time having to explain everything with the comments in the game pgn. This was a topsy turvy game. Honestly out of the opening I understand better the positions where my opponent immediately takes back with the queen, but this was a bit of a strange way to play. In the end I think because of the time situation my opponent gave me sufficient counterplay to get back into the game. And ultimately trying to rush his moves as I was lower on time he hung the bishop. That being said while I am confident I would have won the resulting position I was very surprised he didn't make any attempt to flag me. But as I climb the rating ladder I notice my opponents all have more faith in each other's conversion. Even I do to some extent, that being said if I was black, I would have played on till I lost my rook, and after that probably gone for some cheeky stalemates if I was permitted the chance.
Biggest mistake this game was offering the rook trade on f7. Apparently black can bail out into a drawn bishop endgame there. Which doesn't surprise me, me offering the trade was partially inspired by the fact that with my low time, I knew while I might not win that position I would never lose it. So I decided to go for the safe play of going for that endgame, and have a better position where only black would have to prove they could hold. We end up getting opposite color bishops in the game but a much better version. This is one case where if the opponent would have traded on my terms I might not have won the game! We both offered inaccurate rook trades here which is ultimately what cost him the game at the end of the day.
This final game... I didn't originally plan to play any more chess today. Chess and me are like a newly wed couple perhaps a bit literally. No matter what I do, I can't keep my hands off of it! This final game I ended the "knight" with (I put the quotation marks so that my family doesn't just think me silly, and doing typos, this was a completely intended pun. That is thematic with the game in question too) But my Friend @BrilliancyMaster taunted me a little bit after I told him that I had reached 2000. Me and him had a friendly debate about whether or not you should be jumping into the pull if you're not in top form. He implied that I probably didn't want to play the pool after my new milestone. That being said-- While I am ecstatic to be 2000, I don't want to be a 2000 forever. Sure being better than 99.8% of chess.com users in terms of rating is great, but I can still get to decimal points higher with enough work and perseverance. That though will take a lot of time, and I will be humbled in the near future, I'm sure that I probably will go back to the 1900s sometime in the future. But I don't think rating matters, everyone can climb up or down depending on form. And not every loss means you're getting worse. Every defeat should inspire you to get better! To have new ideas! And to just enjoy yourself!
I wanted to prove him wrong... That I wasn't scared... That I didn't need to hold onto this 2000 for multiple days before risking jumping back in the rated pool. I might take a break from rated games till I feel my preparation is the strength of a 2000, but if I do it's not because I'm scared, but more likely than not because I would plan on studying chess more than playing it. You have to do both though! 2008!! That's my peak rating. In 15 days, I will be receiving my fifth anniversary notification from chess.com. When I started playing I was 500, I was a kid that didn't know any better. Someone who could be stomped by the 4 move checkmate ten times in a row and be nonethewiser. Well not anymore. Long gone are the days where players can consistently bully me into submission with simple tactics. I've learned how to play slower positional games where tactics can rise, am starting to experiment with different move orders and, it is sincerely my biggest hope that this BIG milestone for the moment, will one day be the most minor of footnotes in a much larger story. I hope to keep everyone updated with my chess journey as I continue, thank you everyone who took the time to read. And if you're an inspiring chess player of your own, no matter how bad you are at the start... or if avoiding simple tricks took you a long time, you too can make it to 2000. If I can do it anybody can if they are willing to put in the work. Anyway, this is ThatMagnetMan signing off for the night.
-Nightlen.
