My 8 Memorable games in the 2021 Daily Chess Championships

On January 1st 2021, the annual "Chess.com Daily Chess Championship" started. Despite being an active daily player myself (see blog post one), I had never competed in this particular championship or even played in a tournament with one day time controls. 

Day one began with a cascade of notifications about my different ongoing games. Although at 1 day a move, which you would think would be sufficient time to play all the games, playing 22 games simultaneously with no vacation time, made the first week of play feel like a full-time job! Factor in that I had also forgotten I had signed up to an English Chess Federation tournament which started at the same time (albeit with a more leisurely 3-day time limit). I suddenly found myself in a position where on 1st January I had 34 games on the go! Not even the strongest of Grandmasters would think about playing 30 games in a simultaneous display! 

Imagine if this were a simultaneous display...

However, the initial shock of so many games on the go quickly vanished. For one, as expected, due to the faster time controls and it being an open tournament, four of the games were quick 24-hour time-outs, and after the first week I was able to take care of most of the field fairly quickly. Seeded at number two in my group I felt confident that I had a good chance of securing first place and progress into the next difficult round of competition. 

In this blog, I am going to share with you a collection of some of my most memorable games from the tournament and provide detailed analysis about some of my thought processes. I was inspired by another blogger to also provide some lessons of improvement to myself after each game. - A shout-out to @romank66 who has provided some excellent analysis of his daily games in a very underrated blog. A big thank you to my opponents, who all put up a very brave fight against me! Each game will also feature a video blog so if you don't fancy reading through my notations, give them a watch on my Youtube channel instead!:

My lessons from that game:

• Sometimes it is important to keep resisting temptation, however hard it may be. 
• Deeper calculation. Don't just stop at the first loss of major material. 

Game 2 against @21BRock21 (1110 rating)

Another near-flawless game that was sadly marred by a blunder from my opponent

Lessons from that game: 

• I guess being more objective and not so willing to transpose to the main-line if there is a move that is simply better than it

Game 3 against @Nix_BG (1474 rating)

This was a big game against the number 3# seed in our group. I was happy with the result due to it being one of my first Najdorf Sicilian wins with black .

Another near-flawless victory!

A silly blunder that cost me the game, but an interesting game nonetheless! 

Lessons from this game:

• Always blunder-check before you make a move! 
• When you see a good move, look for a better one: In particular, the Na4 line would have been crushing to my opponent

Game 5 against @TheRock619 (1415 rating)

This next game was crucial for me in securing my place in the next round. My opponent was certainly a dark horse in this competition. Starting out at around 1400 ELO, he quickly crushed most of the competition, including the top seed and was racing into first place with an impressive 100% record

A tough loss, especially since I could have saved the position at the end! Such is life in chess.

Lessons from the game:

• Don't give up! Keep searching the position for the answer
• Don't be in a rush to regain material - especially if it already lost anyway (the Qxd6 move). 
• Make sure to calculate lines to the end. Even after Qxd7, I had then missed Rad8 - Thankfully saved by Qa4

Game 6 against @TheRock619 (1415 rating)

It was a shame to lose the last game as it now made it extremely difficult for me qualify for the next round. I knew that I had to win this game in order to give me a slim chance of getting to the next round. However, this was very dependent on him losing another game, which was looking increasingly unlikely...

Lessons from the game:

• Don't justify your opponent's weak moves - In particular, the knight jump to g5 was weak, but I had justified it with Bg4... 
• Calculate, calculate, calculate - I think this weakness has been identified somewhat in my games..

Game 7 against @RoadToMaster1994 (1788 rating) 

• Don't be too overly cautious. Calculation is the proof, intuition is the experience.

Another extremely lucky game from me that was decided by a blunder

My results?

Despite my best efforts in the final two games, it was not enough to secure first place. @TheRock619 did extremely well to remain consistently good and finish 1st place in my group. I was still very happy with my results. 20/22 is a strong performance and I met my expectations of being seeded 2# and ending up coming second in the competition. 

Should you play in the Daily Championships 2022?

You should most definitely consider doing it! Ignoring my rant at the start with all the notifications, the experience has been wonderful for me and I enjoyed the many fun positions that I had in my games. I was of course was disappointed about not getting to the next round (and potentially playing a master-level player!) but I will no doubt be competing next year bringing my finest daily play to table!