The 22Y/O, 2200!
Before talking about things more generally I'm going to put the 3 games that pushed me over the edge of 2200 for the first time!
[Scandi Fishing Pole Trap With The Black Pieces]
[The Lost Knight]
[The Catalan Knight Chase]
In the past I'd write down deep notes and notation on my games in past blogs, which I considered doing though these games were for the most part pretty simple. It was mainly a matter of trial and effort and at a certain point just trying to brute force it.
My win rate actually within the past 3 months with rapid specifically despite my rating going up was only 45%
Which the way I was able to go up a 100ths place despite having such a low win percentage was the amount of times I was drawing games instead of losing lost in games increased. Getting better pairings where even when I was losing rating sometimes the people were 150 points higher rated than me, and the big elephant in the room when it comes to the higher levels of grinding online chess past 2000... Cheaters. Which slowly get banned and dealt with and if dealt with quick enough does result in gaining some of the lost rating.
Friends can attest at one point I wasn't even willing to play rated because I felt like it was so infested with cheaters past the 2000 range. Chess.com does have good anti-cheat measures and I appreciate that they try to deal with fair play as fast as they can... Though the popularity of chess is a double edged sword. On the one hand it's always good to get new players in your game if you want to see it thrive but with that the amount of bad actors also increase. I wish I could say that the site really cleaned up everything and that's why I was able to get this new peak though the period of time in which I was refusing to play rated games I don't think the problem has been cleaned up. Even on this most recent climb I would get 2300 accounts a month old and just know I was going to lose the game before it even started for reasons outside of my control.
Even with people essentially using aimbots in the pool, my heart... I persisted. I would have loved to be able to achieve this earlier though it just realistically wasn't in the cards Now that it has happened I'm filled with two things, a quiet joy and a soft dread. I'd like to think that this is only the start. When I first became 2000 I had a soft somber talk with myself talking about the possibility that 2000 was my peak and maybe the rest was out of reach. I'm not sure I feel that way any longer though it can be hard to find the motivation. I want to coach people but being a 2200 as opposed to a 2100 isn't going to make any more people line up to be my student.
I also had my USCF expire I figured it wasn't worth it unless I could get to 2200, and perhaps more importantly find tournaments that are open where high rated players actually play. As the local places the people who show up to opens starts capping out at around 1750ish. Unless you get really lucky. And you could technically gain rating that way as long as you never lose or play someone who's underrated and suffer a loss. Though I don't know if that's realistic for myself. This year has shaped up to be probably one of the most productive years of my life, even earlier today I got a new achievement of crossing 2100 in bullet as well.
So to the doubters out there who say I'm only good at rapid and with time on my clock I can throw it down in the bullet realm too! I hope to get 2300, if not by the time I'm 23, before I'm 24. If I could keep up that pace the chances of actually being a real master at the game might not always just be a dream. I remember I wrote it down on my bucket list when I was younger to be a chess master before I had even ever crossed 1500 and one day it might be the case. It's funny to be able to beat a master but be to bad at the game to be considered a master. Funny how life can work. I'll study openings and keep on trying to expand my knowledge though at least for a moment, I'll try to balance other parts of my life out as well! (Bit out of shape I'm afraid)
I don't know how long it will be till my next blog so for the Blog enjoyers out there...
This has been Nightlen and I'm out peace!
