
Untitled Tuesday Test Event - May 20, 2017
On Saturday I took part in a test run for an awesome event called Untitled Tuesday, which I am currently helping to manage. I played some incredible blitz games and some not-so-awesome blitz games, and I would like to share them with all of you today.
So, what is Untitled Tuesday? Exactly what it sounds like. Untitled Tuesday is a monthly "show after the show" run by super admin and cheater-hunter @MGleason, annotators and report writers @solskytz and @dpnorman, moderator and news writer @ijgeoffrey, and other admins @ChristopherBTrapper and myself. Our first event drew 29 players out of a group of about 150, and our numbers are growing quickly.
But the best thing about Untitled Tuesday is that it attracts a dedicated group of players, and so 2000s get to compete for the top spot, 1600s get to put on a show occasionally, 1200s get a break from all of the weird stuff 1200s play in the regular pools, and almost everyone gets a shot at beating stronger players.
Here's my win over an 1850 from the first round:
This sort of thing is fairly typical for me, and it's probably true of most people currently sitting on a plateau in that they possess the knowledge and skill needed to outplay much higher-rated players, but rarely are able to use it for a full game due to various other small problems with their game.
What's also true for me is that I tend to be wildly inconsistent in blitz play, simply because I'm not tactically savvy enough to play any large number of blitz games without blundering, and I also find 3-5 minutes to be a relatively short time when stopping to think for even a little bit wipes 10 seconds off of your clock. Sometimes I lose ugly games because I try to play too quickly.
That leads to blunderfests like these two: