Brilliance in the Basics

Over the last few weeks I have begun to reengage with chess.  I purchased some courses from Gotham Chess and the Remote Chess Academy.  I have gotten my puzzle score up over 2100 and have defeated several "bots" above my listed elo.  That being said - I played a few games today, and lost because I didn't see the big picture and was not properly using the basic fundamentals.  For future reference the games were:

September 8, 2023: vs "25foquitos" and "charurp" (classic but preventable bishop/queen mate), vs "theloathsomedungeater" (just outplayed me in the middlegame), and vs "Despo43" (ran out of time because I couldn't land an endgame where I had a clear advantage).  

I discovered a few insights:

• Humans don't play like bots
• I need to remember and be brilliant in the basics - memorizing opening repertoire is good, knowing why moves should be played is better
• I need to slow down and observe the entire board before committing 
• Playing games is great but analysis after after is where the learning takes place

Here's to more games, more learning, and always striving to improve.