My Return to OTB

Ever since the pandemic started, I've been playing, studying, and practicing lots of chess. Now that OTB has begun, I, and many other people finally get rewarded for our hard work. As of right now, my USCF rating is 1568, but I am still really underrated. I managed to increase my rating by 400 in the last couple of months, and today I will show some of my recently played and analyzed games that brought me to where I am now.

Game 1: How to Not Play Chess

I think that most of the game at the end was just incorrect play from me and my opponent, just because we spent way to much time thinking in the opening. I don't necessarily have much takeaways from this game, except for the incorrect opening play, and the bold reminder to not play chess like this! 

Game 2: Crushing the Kingside

At the beginning, the position was pretty balanced until my opponent made a critical mistake by letting my pawns advance on the kingside, and I capitalized using this. I probably should've played a cleaner game, but I can't control everything I guess.

Game 3: Winning a Dead Draw

Wow! I can't believe that I won that! I think that it's also worth noting that I was at 2.5/3 before this round started, and my opponent was at 3/3, so a draw wouldn't have been enough, since only first place qualified. I still don't understand why my opponent couldn't have just traded off the queens and played a closed position, but I guess there's reasons for that too.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed the games! I think it's insane how just 4 months ago, I was 1100, and just how quick I've improved. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of OTB tournaments in my area, but I go off of what there is. In the meantime, I'll keep increasing my USCF rating, and see how high I can go. I hope that you got entertained or learned something new today. Thanks for reading, see ya!