this seems very promising... how would you go about blocking it?

Yeah defo ;)  I am the same. by 2015 I really do expect to be 160 odd ;)  Thats my goal. By July list I wanna be 135! Should be possible. ;)

Well 26 games last season gave me my STARTER grade/perf of 116, I'll have about the same this year... but 139 perf after 7 games is a good indication that I'll have a grade in January of 126+  That puts me in the intermediate catagories for tourneys next year! You know me I love a challenge, I even put in my last blog post (the 3/3!!) that I don't like easy wins... I'd rather lose to a 140 than beat an 85. How else will I get better? I mean really better?  I have 160 in my sights for 2015.

Yes I cant wait till you start playing players over 125, you will notice to increase in play. Alot of your wins for the 2nd team have all been alot lower than you soa bit of an unrealistic perf so far. I reckon 20/25 games in a season should give an accurate perf. Anything less than that and you can get crazy perfs.

Yeah that's why I said about 126 realistically, whatever rate I move up, as long as it's consistent I don't care how fast or slow, just playing for the fun of it atm... and when my next grade is published, if you actually read the bottom of my blog, just a 14 point increase will see me on board 1 - that will surely get me some nice tough opponents

No Sam your rating is not worked out like that lol. Your perf wont be your new rating. Otherwise if I just played paignton this year my new rating would be 160 odd lol. They take a chunk of games from previous seasons if you have not played enough games to give you a new rating.

And come on you not played many players higher rated than you. if you did just a few losses in those would bring your perf down massive. But yeah you will go up a bit ofcourse. ;)

Thanks for the comments people! Now Mr.Cruisey, I've had 2, yes 2 draws against 130-odd players with 1.b3 , NEVER a loss

We both analyzed the game at the end and I showed her what my strategy was and how I deployed the tactics when I did... unlike my last opponent, this one was happy to take some advice about fighting 1.b3 in the future (hope I never play her again lol! ) and do some mutual analysis, that's what chess is about!

Lee, you have years of extra chess experience than me... you should beat me tbh... but my current season perf of 139 is no joke... all I need to do is win my last game before Xmas on December 5th and I'm sure to have a 140+ rating. Realistically it should be about 126 (1658 FIDE equ.) but why not have a nice high grade in time for Kidlington!?...

Aww you beat a 11 year old girl lol, you meanie ;)  But yeah wp at the end you did some nice tactics. But yeah all those queen moves were so poor. If you would f lost that you would of forever been embarrassed ;) Do you ever go over the game after or give them some tpis? I always do. ;)

And have you even played otb v someone higher than you lol? I doubt you could beat me with b3 lol. ;)

Nice game! I especially liked the Qa8+ and Rxg6+ tactic, good spot!

I just went over your game Pumpupthevolume, very well played!!!  She really struggled at the end of the game, great use of tactics and holding your advantage throughout the game.  I've yet to play b3 OTB in a tournament but  plan to do so as I have transposed from a d4 player to a b3 player recently myself.

I forgot to add... I was offered a draw 3 times, YES 3 TIMES LOL during the game, each time I increased my advantage, I was offered a draw... fair play to her she had some balls lol 

As a team, we won 4.5-1.5 so on our team we had 3 wins and 3 draws... a successful chess night out in Witney! I wonder how much practical studies I can get done over Xmas so I'm even stronger next year!?

Oh yeah, using the online rating calculator, my performance so far this season is 139 ECF!! That's 1762 FIDE equ. I've only got 1 more rated game before the new grades are published... it's a home game too, so I'll more than likely have the black pieces on board 5 

(secret weapon prep. as black underway )