My Road to 1600 Rapid

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts" - Winston Churchill

Chess isn't an easy game, as you may all know at this point. It requires serious dedication, true passion, and a great mental game. For the newbies, you might not be at the stage with immense calculations that'll hurt your brain, but for those higher rated, wanting to achieve higher levels in chess, you know what I might be talking about.

Everyone who plays chess on chess.com has a rating for either/and daily, rapid, blitz, or bullet, depending on what time control you play. I've stuck to daily for most of my time, but I play rapid at times, and blitz rarely.

A few months ago, I had a sudden urge to play more chess, this being myself feeling I had accomplished more in chess. I took what I learned into my gameplay, and eventually, my rapid rating exponentially grew to what is currently, 1618. It's definitely a huge accomplishment of mine, and I want to take you through some key games and/or moves that I believe that shaped my course through the journey to 1600. Let's get to it

Great, Impactful Games of Mine

1. Sacrifice, Sacrifice, Win!

A game that I remembered calculating a lot for a win while keeping hope in this game was an aspect that played a role in this game. To start off, I was around 1300 when I played this game, so expect rookie mistakes. I had the black pieces and my opponent played the Colle System, the game below.

I really wanted to take advantage of this opening as this opening blocks in white's DSB, but I knew to not underestimate the solidity of the system, even as a 1600 player who throws winning positions.

When I was playing this game, I didn't play all that well; I kept missing my opponent's ideas and focused on myself, where I should've been thinking about my opponent's plans. For example, I played a mistake, being 23...Qa5?

Believe it or not, what happened after white forked my pieces, the position was equal, but in the game, I didn't play the most accurate way to get out of that situation. I played Qb6?! after my opponent played the knight fork, which chess.com thinks was a missed opportunity to threaten to win a pawn.

Find the only move that works for black in the puzzle, then try to create counterplay.

That puzzles sort of shows how counterplay can be a lifesaver when you're down in material.  It makes the game harder for your opponent to convert the game into a winning endgame, which I didn't necessarily want my opponent to do.

Credit: Position from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA4ZrKsonAU

After all, the counterplay paid off, as I managed to make my opponent fall for a little trap I set up with many piece sacrifices in order to checkmate.

Find the sequence here! (puzzle isn't the best)

Takeaway: One lesson learned here is to create counterplay when you're down, obviously. As previously stated before, it makes it harder for your opponent to simplify the position down to an endgame. Make threats, calculate various possible attacks, and overall, have a straightforward game plan.

2. One Blunder, Game Over

Many games end because of one blunder, they play a few more moves, and they resign, leaving the game in shambles and heading to the next one either motivated or frustrated. One example is this game, where I was in a tough situation, with my opponent pouncing on my mistakes early on, but couldn't capitalize completely, and eventually, one move changes the whole course of the game.

Credit: chess.com

An unusual Scotch Game, where the pieces in the Classical are completely traded off in order for black to try to get into a winning endgame, which I tried to avoid by trading as few pieces as possible.

The game review thought that I played interestingly well, with the review thinking I played like a 1900 and 85.6% accuracy, which seemed somewhat misleading. I actually thought I played poorly, but I took the analysis's opinion as a way to learn from my game.

Moving on to one of the main turning points of the game, I played 18.c3?, which was a mistake, considering the fact that black could've found a move that would've won material. In the game though, black didn't find the move, but played 18...c4X instead.

Find the only way black would've won material in that position after white's 18th move.

Takeaway: Always be aware of the pieces on the board, and the role they play on the game. The pieces aren't there as dummies; they have a reasoning to be in that position, and if they don't, think of ways to overcome that piece's obstacle standing in the way of your gameplan. This is also known as chess vision, which is determining whether a player is in danger, before or after a move they're considering. This skill is very important and I highly recommend the lower rated players to practice this more!

3. Early Scare, Nothing Much...

The final game I'll be going through was an intense one, as I made mistakes, and my opponent couldn't really capitalize on them much. That was a relief at the least, as I managed to win the game.

It wasn't the cleanest as previously said, considering that I played an opening that I've been learning for the past few weeks, the King's Indian Defense. A hypermodern where black allows white to grab the center, with black later creating counterattacks, there were ideas that were somewhat shown in the game.

I tried for pawn build-ups toward the center to counterattack my opponent by grabbing space and ideas of a kingside attack while playing a bit of defense because I felt like I opened my king a bit too much.

Though I thought that the game wasn't a great game, the chess.com game review thought it was decent. Yet, there was one move that engine thought wasn't a great move at all. 17...Qd7X

What was the only good move here?

Takeaway: I just moved my queen to a square where it would be safe without any explanation nor reasoning behind it; I just threw it there. This shows how analyzing your games afterwards, no matter a win or loss, you can always learn a thing or two to then improve your chess.

Conclusion

To wrap it up, a rating of 1600 isn't an easy achievement for chess players; it requires dedication to the game and requires a lot of learning of the game, from the opening and the basic principles, to knowing how to play the endgame in a proper way. As well as a healthy mental state and much more, chess isn't an easy game.

For those who are new to chess, and want to learn more about the game, I highly suggest basic chess, which are to determine where to develop your pieces (toward the center), how to create a plan (analyzing the position), looking and creating threats, and much more.

I hope you enjoyed this blog! Feel free to put a comment down, or feedback if you have any; I'm looking to improve my writing after a 6 month hiatus. For now though, have a great rest of your day!

-Ryan