Check-In, Blog Out: A Bold Journey Through Chess and Blogging
90% of success in life is just showing up. Show up! If you show up, there is a chance something will happen.
Woody Allen
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Welcome, dear readers, to the blog about my biography, inspired by @JustGettingThisOffMyChess, @Chesser1492, @PokeGirl93, @Alina_Bakhtina_24, and @VOB96. Today, I will be telling a tale of how blogging changed my life and chess career, how and why it happened, and how it all started.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
<< Chess & Blogging >>
1. The Start that should've been the Finale
2. A Single Sentence That Changed the Game
3. When the pawn comes into play...
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
(Penumbra by Scott Buckley | www.scottbuckley.com.au)
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Every great story begins with a single step.
Unknown
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
It was September 2024 when it all started. New work, new goals - a normal every year routine, but this time it was different. Every day, I felt demotivated and not able to do anything, except for staring at a wall or watching TV. In October, my chess rating started to drop. Each move felt like a hopeless chess piece stepping into the game - yet every beginning already whispers of the losses that lie ahead.
By January 2024, I had reached my lowest point yet in life and chess, losing 50-100 elo points in Classical, Rapid, and Blitz, getting smashed with losses almost every day. January 20th - I remember this day very vividly. I was participating in a blitz online tournament, and I was doing amazingly well. With 1 round left, I had prestigious 3rd place in the arena, what could possibly go wrong? It all came down to the last pairing, last game, last result - will I get the bronze?
I had the third place, but he just played with insane accuracy! Fun fact: after I reported him, the account is still not banned to this day. So what made me start my blog? It was not an interest, and neither was it for fun; I just wanted to show a big problem in online chess. And this is how my first-ever blog came to light. It was nothing special, just some screenshots and suggestions on how to improve the anti-cheat system, that's all.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Nothing can change you except for you
You
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The next day, I... just kept on living as I normally would. This one occasion was not supposed to change anything, or so I thought, because in the evening, a new message appeared. Usually, when someone sends me a message, it is a random person asking to play a chess game or a person accepting a friend request after the game, but this time it was different.
It hit differently. Someone as prestigious as a Top Blogger (for me, it sounded as prestigious as the chess.com staff) wrote a message to me. How did they find me? And why me? I had to figure that out. After I joined BlogChamps, my curiosity took over, and I started going through their announcements and forums. This was quite an old club, actually! What I discovered is that every 6 months, they open a new season of their own blogging competition.
I was in luck: Season 7 just ended, and the signups for the next season began. The competition will start in a month, so I have plenty of time to work on my blogging skills and start writing better and fancier! And here comes the truth: I... didn't prepare for the competition at all. Only 1 month afterwards, I suddenly remembered that I actually had to write something. Did I start writing my draft? No. Did I procrastinate until 2 days before the deadline? Exactly!
So here I am, 2 days before the deadline, 1 word written in my draft, and no idea what I am doing. It was time to pull a rook mindset! (@RookMindset is a blogger who kept submitting last-minute consistently during the entire competition in Season 8, which is why the joke is connected to him. Wanted to make this clear for people who are not a part of BlogChamps.)
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
At the kickoff, every participant holds a secret weapon: the will to keep moving forward.
Someone
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
With only 48 hours remaining, my pilot turned on the panic mode. I had no idea what I should write about, how, or why. I decided to go safe and decided to briefly talk about my YouTube channel - this was the only hope I had on advancing, since I had no time for research or creative topic ideas. I outlined all the chapters that my blog would have, made all the images and thumbnails, came up with a cool title, and... I was too lazy and I stopped there, ouch! My to‑do list is just a ‘to‑don’t’ list—because I’m already an expert at doing nothing.
Where did the rest of my deadline go? Don't ask. The only thing you need to know is that I have 4 hours, with all miscellaneous stuff for my blog, except for the blog itself! I was avoiding the hardest part until now - I had to write something. My brain already wanted to forfeit, but I just couldn't do that when I was halfway there. With no other choice, I started writing, writing, and more writing. It felt like I had a demon in me - I just couldn't stop. With one hour left, I submitted my wild creation to the blogging world.
Well, it turns out I am not as lazy as I thought. The feeling of writing a blog was like a breath of fresh air. I wanted to write more. This is where I found my new hobby - a new part of me that wanted to come out for over 6 months, and finally found a perfect spot. After a big writing session, I was thinking - surely I will advance, right? Looking back, the blog was pretty bad, it had distracting editing and it wasn't too chess-oriented (Editors note: Well, this blog is definitely not chess-oriented). You can really see how I lost the chess topic that I was writing about, but hey, this is better than nothing! I am proud of this!
While judges were making their decisions, I went ahead and read some of the blogs by other people. And how good were they! From Squid game, to GothamChess, to chess stories - there was just so much fun stuff to read! I left a few comments on their blogs and became friends with a lot of these people. I was starting to like the community surrounding me: it felt really warm and positive. After a painful 24 hours of waiting, the results were out... Surprisingly, I came in 5th and actually advanced! This was... too easy? Regardless of the result, I was looking forward to writing more and more!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The thinnest margin between loss and gain is where the most memorable lessons are learned.
Me
Somehow, I had reached the next stage of the competition. Over 59 people were eliminated over the course of 2 weeks, and the sweet, sweet 16 (17 actually, there was a tie for the 8th place, so one more blogger advanced) bloggers were left to battle with each other. It was all or nothing: I had to try my best to get into the Elite 8, not even talking about the Final Four and the Final Blog Bowl.
This was not looking good though. My opponent was @WinT0L0ss, a blogger who has much more experience than I do. I had to give at least a good fight, and I started writing as soon as I knew that I had advanced. I chose chess variants for my topic - it was something well-known and engaging to write about for me, so I kept going, researching, and writing. The judges gave me valuable feedback, and I worked on my editing, and started using grammarly to checked my blog for mistakes and typos (Fun fact: this blog had exactly 111 typos before the grammarly check, blame my keyboard), and after hours and hours of work, I published it.
And let's just say I slightly underestimated the length of my blog - so slightly that, in fact, it definitely didn't become the longest blog of the season! At that time, I thought it was good, but you know, I am happy to know what the balance is when I was on both poles. That is pretty anti-climactic, isn't it? Judges were truly having a hard time. Surprisingly, the results came in less than 24 hours, and it was time to figure out if I would move on or get kicked out. The moment of truth...
Oh, how I wish you both could move on. It really hurts that one of these two amazing blogs must be eliminated. Anyway, the rules only allow us to pick one, so the winner is:
@VOB96
CLICK HERE
@ChocoCaramelPawn (4-1)
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
YES! I DID IT! This was incredibly close!! I was celebrating very hard, as I had accomplished something I didn't even think I was capable of at the start of the journey. I would also suggest checking out blogs by @WinT0L0ss. He was a really good sport in the competition and he writes about very creative topics!
Advancing was an enormous jump for me, and I had to keep putting in the most effort I could and keep fighting. Interestingly, my next opponent is @JugadaBrillante - a Spanish blogger with very fun and engaging blogs to read. When I read his blogs, there is specifically one thing that stood out to me the most - he was the G.O.A.T. in editing his blogs. His editing allowed him to make anything - from a squid game to time traveling.
The situation became even more competitive when it turned out that @JugadaBrillante is a fan of Barcelona's football team. As a Real Madrid fan at heart, I could not let Barcelona win this time! I will do anything I can to get the sweet victory for Real Madrid! If I wanted to even come close to advancing, I would have to beat him at his own game - editing, and make my best blog yet.
I looked at all the editing forums and contacted multiple people to help me patch some minor issues I had. Shout out to @Sketch_28 and @JKCheeseChess, without their guides, this would not be possible. This way, I fully mastered my editing skills, paired with a lot of time spent on making images for the blog and my writing. Without any more hesitation, I published my writing with high hopes and many scopes. Now it was just a waiting game...
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
There is no real ending.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
As a result of blogging so much about chess variants, I got interested, and now, when I have free time, I can investigate more on this topic. I joined the Custom Variants Club, and what I found out amazed me. If you have ever visited chess.com variants server to play 4 player chess or duck chess, you saw that there are multiple sections of games.
The last section is called 'Custom', and it is entirely dedicated to variants made by the community. Great examples of that are Minihouse and Thermopylae. That means that you can create your own variant and submit it to variants.world for a chance to be added to the website as a brand new variant! While this is a very niche chess topic, it felt like making an art of your own mind, but instead of words, you are speaking in chess language. I met a brand new community of variant creators.
This was the time when I discovered a new hobby for me. I got hooked on this and had motivation to make a chess variant and write a blog about it, but I didn't have much time, so I had to finish my blogging competition first. After a few rest days, the BlogChamps results came in:
Are you ready for El Clásico? @JugadaBrillante is supporting FC Barcelona in their race to win the UEFA Champions League 2025. Just like Raphinha, his first BlogChamps season wasn't that brilliant, but he just needed to be given time to show his worth. Meanwhile, @ChocoCaramelPawn is a fan of Real Madrid CF and wants to prove that he can also win the blogging community's biggest competition, just as his club has done so many times in football.
Two competitors who were very positive additions to the club! Thanks for your amazing engagement in the competition. The bad news is that only one can advance. The judges have decided that our second semifinalist is:
CLICK HERE
@ChocoCaramelPawn (4-1)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I advanced again, and was one of the 4 bloggers left! This was the final push and time to lock in and advance onto the blog bowl! My next opponent was @RookMindset, an experienced blogger who tied for the third place last season. I decided to write a blog about chess variants again, but this time I aimed for a much bigger angle: a collaboration between 6 people (Including @JugadaBrillante) to make an alphabet of chess variants, inspired by this blog.
While I was writing miscellaneous material for the blog, I was messaging multiple people and checking a lot of information... it was a real mess. At this point, blogging filled almost all my free time. I was trying really hard, and the work was paying off. I just had to make one big step to reach the finale... Until a disaster struck me: one of my family members passed away.
This was one of the worst days in my life. Seeing a close person, a person who inspired you to start this journey, who was always here in the bad moments dead was the worst experience imaginable. Melancholic and pointless hours spent in warm and cold thoughts and memories, I couldn't bring myself to do anything. This was a disaster. I felt like giving up.
A few days passed by. While the pain did not go away, I reminded myself why I started this journey in the first place: my belief in myself. No matter how hard it is, you have to keep living and keep going, chasing your dreams. With each day, I tried to write at least a few paragraphs even if I didn't want to, and just a few days before the deadline, I was done. The blog didn't turn out as well as I expected, but it was better than nothing. As always, the results came in 24 hours, and it was time to figure out who advances.
And who will be the second finalist? Tough decision, as it was a very close match to vote. I dare say that this could easily be a final and still live up to expectations. Unfortunately, we could only choose one of them to move on, and the judges have decided that the winner of the second semi-final is:
CLICK HERE
@RookMindset (5-0)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I did not advance, but I take the journey as a full-deserved win. I tied for 3rd place and overcame the hardest moments in my life. This was a lot more than just a competition; this was an extreme life test for methat I passed with flying colors. I made a lot of friends along the way, and most importantly, I changed for the better! Now, with new goals in mind, I was ready to keep going and keep fighting!
Let's move to the present times. Looking at myself now, I have achieved a lot of goals. First of all, by a lucky chance, I got to be a second coordinator and a part of a judging team in the next season of the competition! Judging was actually a lot harder than I ever imagined, but it was an enjoyable thing to do!
Next, I became a professional chess variants creator and spent countless hours designing and improving my chess concepts. For now, I am not good enough to have any variants that got added to the variants server, but maybe, just maybe, I will achieve this goal one day...
Finally, I improved A LOT in chess. I got the motivation and the ability to overcome hard moments, and this is what I needed to boost my strengths. I participate in a lot of serious tournaments and play some online chess games, but I enjoy the process in general.
I am not regretting the path I chose, and I am glad of what I accomplished this year. While I am still a big procrastinator who started writing this blog 2 months ago and was too lazy to finish it, my birthday gave me an amazing motivation to finish the story. Big thanks to all these people (this list is big, I might have forgotten to include someone, so please forgive me in that case):
@Alina_Bakhtina_24; @WinT0L0ss; @Chesser1492; @PokeGirl93; @DocSimooo; @2000Knights; @DavidGaming08; @Sketch_28; @JugadaBrillante; @RookMindset; @OnyxOrca; @squirtle; @KevinChessSmith; @JustGettingThisOffMyChess; @VOB96; @AstroTheoretical_Physics; @nbrasington; @NMChessToImpress; @VishTheFish771; @imchesspro0930; @Anonymous_M-01; @yx-aynerik897; @TimeVeteran; @CzarnyResorak567; @BN1208; @asthebird; @JKCheeseChess; @ChessMasterGS; @Red_Kangaroos @OMISGOAT;
Thank you so much for reading this blog. Farewell, and I will see you in my next one!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Back to Top
