The Speed Champion. 1900 Peak Rating Post.

Good morning men and chicas! Hope you are having a good day here. I ate some food that ended up not being all that great today and am struggling a bit but such is life! I wanted to do a post that would talk about my achievement today, I have been trying to get this achievement for a bit now.

What is that achievement!?

A RATING OF 1900 ON THE DOT! I had got flagged against a 2000 earlier today if I would have won that game it would have solved me some trouble! But I am very happy about finally achieving such a feat on chess.com. It was less than three months ago when my blitz rating on chess.com was in the 1500-1600 range! And while I had a peak a long time ago of around 1850 something I had not had a chance to really be that competitive in speed games. And I think a big part of that is that my openings especially from the white side were great! But maybe not so practical when it comes to speed chess.

My main opening with Black actually is one of the strongest things in my favor. As the scandi while in longer time controls can lead to you getting into some trouble in speed chess it is a very powerful weapon! I have also been trying some tricks in blitz that I used to only reserve for non increment bullet, but I have found if you are playing 3+0 some of these premove tricks work.

This is actually a tactic I've used to win many games. The idea is objectively terrible but in bullet/blitz games it works sometimes. And the idea really is that a lot of less experienced players who start doing these early fianchetto systems premove it and if they do then Bh6 goes from a blunder to an absolute brilliant move. But most of my rating has not been earned by these cheap tricks! It's more so that I've become more aware of them, and more importantly I haven't gotten in my own head about the "level" that we are at. As it matters a lot less in blitz than it does in longer time control games. A lot of these people even if they end up taking the bishop I still might be a pretty heavy favorite in the matches despite being down a piece. As a Scandi player, the worse my position is the stronger I get as a player!

And I think there is no better way to show that then the most ridiculous game I had on this grind to 1900 blitz! This was a game where I went for the same trick, but it didn't work out!

This was a game that was very topsy turvy! But one thing I have learned is even at this post 1500 level there are very few positions that you should give up. You always try for tricks in the position no matter how bad it gets! And actually this game was lost by my opponent because of GOOD instincts. They tried to transform the nature of their advantage into a winning endgame, but when we're both so low on the clock, it got incredibly tricky as my a pawn was rolling up the board! And with seconds on the clock my opponent didn't see the ONLY move that won the game Ba7! giving up the bishop on his own terms, and guaranteeing that my king gets stuck in a box, while his pawn is free to promote and if I try to set up a stalemate unfortunately my own pawns give me legal moves! Of course it's so tricky with less than thirty seconds on the clock, and he practically forces me to skewer his king and Queen.

And I think this game perfectly illustrates a lesson that is hard to learn. "If you don't mentally resign or checkout, there are so many games you're capable of winning even when you objectively are lost." And in longer time control games it's so hard to get out of trouble but you keep going, and what's helped me is a confident mindset. If you approach your lost positions with confidence then that helps. Also when you have games like this you have to have a moral boost. "A 1900 couldn't beat me up 7 points of material in a position that's impossible to lose, and not only did I not lose, I outplayed him on the board from an utter hopeless position!" And even last year I remember in long games drawing people despite them having an extra piece that were as high as 2300.

While it is true you should never underestimate your opponent, as you get higher in elo I think it's very easy to do another sin which is underestimating yourself. Telling yourself it's hopeless before it's actually fully over and I think at the end of the day in all time controls you have to have that dawg in you in order to be a great player. Carrying yourself with confidence can't hurt. Never mentally check out and go till the very last trick leaves the board!

Another great example of a lost game that I refused to resign and tried to set up a very silly trick despite blundering in the opening came from an opening I've really started to appreciate, The Smith-Mora.

And as you can see the position was completely hopeless I was getting steam rolled! But the moment my bishop landed on f6 I knew this pattern could happen, and while he could have won my knight and the game with Rxg2 check! I gave him just enough rope, and my opponent fulfilled my request, and I got a puzzle rush in a live game! And you know why? Because despite my overwhelming material deficit I kept my cool, and while I very easily should have lost that game, the mindset of "There might be chances, we play we try and maybe he makes a mistake." Allowed me to win a game that should have been resign-able at this level. Because no matter how hopeless it is you fight!

Another game that I have from earlier today I think is a prime example of a blitz/bullet exclusive lesson.

This game I won on time by flagging at the end. What's the lesson from this game? Sometimes in tricky endgames, where your opponent has a plan to win and you don't you have to fully utilize the 17th and often overlooked piece. The clock. In time scrambles when you know you are losing you have to move like the wind! And this lesson goes both ways. If you have ten seconds but have a winning position it might be worth it to play safe shuffling moves than waste time trying to orchestrate a precise win. And when you are losing but both you and your opponent have no time, move as fast as possible! If he wants to try to prove it on the board make sure you aren't giving him any of your time to figure out how he's going to do that! Because even simple winning plans take time, and that's precious extra seconds off of your clock. And I am a slow player but I've gotten better at not letting my opponents leech off my time to find their winning plan.

Then another lesson: Be willing to assert dominance, but don't let your pride allow you to get stomped. This is a lesson I think my opponent and me both orchestrated quite well.

And I will show you the three games as an example!

These three games every time I played I got a completely decisive advantage, two times with black and the person rematched me three times! And I think in rapid I often shy away from rematches as I really am not trying to trade points back and forth with someone but in blitz and fast time controls in general it's important to be able to smell blood in the water... From the first game even though it was equal till he hung mate in 1, I could tell from the first game alone my instincts and general play was just at a different level than my opponent, and if he wanted to donate me points... By all means~.. And this is just an experience thing, but as you get better at chess you often can tell by how much you are better or worse than a certain person. And my opponent after three games declined any further rematch which was smart! So the lesson being, if you know you are stronger than another strong player playing a couple blitz matches against them is not a bad way to get points however comma! If you send a rematch do so in specific circumstances. For example, never rematch someone if you hung a stupid mate, as it's hard to shake off that tilt into the next game, if you rematch someone you lost against, after 2-3 losses pull out. It's really not worth losing 50 points to prove you can beat this person "Once." And finally if you have beat someone a couple times in a row but you can sense that the momentum is starting to change don't let them bait you into continuing to play if they call you coward or nonsense in the chat. You know yourself best! And it's better to stop when you're still on top than let the match turn into exchanging blows back and forth.

Of course this all goes out the window in casual play with a friend, but I think it's a good mindset to have if you allow rematches at all. 

The final two things I think are probably the most important.

Do NOT. and I really mean this DO NOT, play the same openings you play in Rapid. If you are playing spicy openings in rapid and classical and you know them extremely well that is one thing! But I think a slower more positional minded repertoire for classical and rapid is the best approach, and in blitz, you really need to develop the other side of your chess. One reason I was losing so many blitz games was because I was playing Ruy Lopez, Queen's gambit, Slav, Open Sicilian English Attack/Yugoslav Scandi with early c6. Exchange caro-kann with pawn takes or Nc3. <--- (These lines are tricky if you are not bold enough to play fantasy.) And in short it led to slow positional maneuvering games. Blitz you need to make people uncomfortable with your aggression. And I found changing my lines to be more aggressive even without specific opening preparation yielded greater results. Also being a bit off-beat helped as well. 

Smith-Mora Gambit, with many Nd5s! have helped me a lot, and also the smith mora has a great chance to transpose into an alapin structure meaning you can really learn two openings at the same time by playing this because of the transposition! Against e4 e5, I started playing some more aggressive gambits too such as the danish gambit, which sacs three pawns but with limited time the piece development can often be overwhelming! I would also go for Scholar's mate, but putting my queen on f3 after it's adventure to h5, placing my knight on e2 to cover d4 and actually as a Scandi player these positions in all seriousness led to complicated games that I could tell got my opponent out of their comfort zone while also having very straightforward ideas even though almost nobody would be falling for Qf7# the positions were still very pleasant. Against the caro-kann I would play fantasy and get into main lines once I finally was facing people above 1850! Which a lot of people shy away form those main lines but they're really fun!

So change your opening approaches, in fast games try to be more aggressive even sometimes at the cost of positional chess, and let both approaches help you on your journey in a more general sense! Because if you train your attacking instinct to be good in those long games when a positional game gets tactical you'll have trained yourself to become a beast!

And this is the final thing, a couple people in the bullet and blitz pool are incredibly rude when losing to some of my tricks, or even just in normal positions calling me a coward or trash talking when I don't want to play after decimating them, ignore the negativity and have fun! It's not that serious and at the end of the day if you're not having fun you shouldn't be playing! So enjoy it. I will say these games in general aren't as interesting to analyze, but I will show you finally the game that got me to 1900 blitz for the first game, a silly game where I missed a free piece three times, with the queen check, but I got a free piece in an even more spectacular way!

The imposter knight winning a piece! With that I will let you all go, it's been fun and I hope you learned a thing or too. Whether you enjoy fast games or slow games, keep improving, keep flagging, and never give up!