My Improvers Journey!!!!! (June 2025)

Welcome back to my Improvers Journey! This series is dedicated to following my chess journey through the Chess.com Improvers club, a movement that is helping over 30,000 members find coaching, helpful tips and growth. In this edition of my Improvers Journey, I will be showing you what I have been doing throughout the month of June, what I have learnt about chess, some beautiful games that I played, and some thoughts going forward. And a special feature of this month's post, I have two recaps to show you: from the Minnesota State Blitz Championship and the Chess.com Hyperbullet Chess Championship.

What's included in this blog:

• Some brief stats.
• Games from this month.
• Puzzles from this month.
• Tournament Recaps.
• What's next?

Some brief stats.

This month I played mostly bullet, reaching for the ever-elusive goal of 2600. I was soooo close, but sadly I fell victim to tilt at a rating of 2585 on June 30th and didn't recover. That aside, I played almost 1,500 games of bullet this month!!! (1,494 to be precise) I played 230 games on June 12th (thanks to the hyperbullet championship) and an astounding 207 games on June 30th, the vast majority of which were 1+0. I am putting in so much time and effort into chess and the results will be showing soon!

Games from this month.

Daily 960 is a very fun format. Combining a tactical mess right from the beginning with a long time to think, it's no surprise that I have a fun game to show you!

My tactical prowess had multiple chances to be released, here's one such chance when my opponent underestimated the threat.

Even against 2400s with minutes on the clock, it's never too late to fight. Comebacks are always possible, as this game shows. This was a 3+0 game, and my opponent still had a couple minutes left at the end.

I'm still beating GMs! I got another chance when I was paired against @dforcen in the pool of 1+0, and after missing chances to win on the board, I won on the clock. And that marks my fifth GM scalp on my wall, a handful of the world's best players have now fallen victim at the hands of eldest.

Puzzles from this month.

Here we have a puzzle from a bullet game played in the pool. After a back-and-forth middlegame, my opponent blundered a forced checkmate. Can you find the checkmate?

And another puzzle featuring a long checkmate attack.

Next up is a picturesque sacrifice. 

Here we have a bullet game against a 2600. Can you find the checkmate?

Checkmate in three!

A positional move to start with a tactical finish.

And the final one. Find an attacking move to start, and the rest is easy.

Tournament Recaps.

This month I played in two important chess tournaments: the Minnesota State Blitz Championship and the Chess.com Hyperbullet Championship. I played well in both, scoring wins against tough opponents and playing against top opposition. A recap of the Blitz Championship is especially important, as I'll tell you below!

The Minnesota State Blitz is a nine (double) round Swiss Open with a time control of 3+2. This is the third time I've played this event, and last year I played particularly well and scored 12.5/18 and placed 6th overall. There are always a lot of tough players - Linden Lee (the older brother of Alice Lee) was the champion in 2023 - and several players rated 2200-2300 always show up. USCF tournaments have the interesting peculiarity of using the higher of your classical or blitz rating for pairing purposes (although only your blitz rating will be changed/rated after the event). So I was paired as though I was 1962, while in reality my blitz rating was 1740. I played this tournament on June 7th and my only goal was to score more points than last year. Since I scored 12.5/18 last year, this year I need a minimum of 13 points.  But enough chitchat, let's jump into a quick overview of all the rounds. 

Rounds 1 and 2 (games 1-4) were fairly straightforward, as I more or less easily won against a 900 and a 1500, Shrirang and Ryan respectively. The first round in particular was more of a warm-up round, to get the muscles moving and the brain thinking. I did learn one lesson though, which was to play simple. My original plan going into this event was to play d4 with White and play my favourite Tiger Modern with Black. 

I played the Tiger in the first round during my Black game and although I ended up winning, I was in serious trouble for much of the game and was even down material that I gave up because of my lack of space. So for every round going forward I played following the normal principles of chess: control the centre, develop your pieces, and castle. 

Round 3: I played top seed NM Andrew Titus. That's all I really need to say. Onto the next round....

I'm just kidding! Although I did lose both games to Titus, the first game we played (I had White), I had a good position and held my own for much of the game, unfortunately blundering a bishop in time pressure. The second game wasn't close, I fooled around in the opening and got crushed by a kingside attack. When your king is on f6 in a Modern, and queens are still on the board, it doesn't end up well. (Check out my blog post where I drew Titus at the State Scholastic blitz!)

Round 4: I played a young man who I have played several times before, most notably during my first ever classical tournament back in 2023 (That game took over 3 1/4 hours in a 60+30s time control and I was arguably the worse player for that game). Ryker (rated 1398) is a very tough opponent but I played well and scored the two points off of him. After this round I had developed a feeling for how the pairings were going and I knew I needed to sweep my next match and then produce a result against a higher rated player.

Round 5: Playing against a strong 1500 who I have played in the past, I continued to focus on the chess and beat Mr. Davids 2/2. The new plan of playing simple chess worked to perfection and I employed the Caro-Kann and Colle systems to deadly effect. 

Round 6: As expected I played a very strong player. I was paired against NM Timothy, a gentleman with a current rating of 2144 in classical but who had a peak of 2308 in 1995. By every means the definition of a seasoned and dangerous veteran, this actually isn't my first rodeo with Timothy. In the 2023 State Blitz, I managed to draw Timothy when he went for an ambitious sacrifice on f7 that didn't quite work out. In 2024 I drew him in a classical game that went to queens and pawns. 

This match was very interesting. The first game I played with White and faced a Pirc. After a complicated middlegame I ended up down a pawn and thought I was checkmated. But my king had one escape square and wiggled my king out with a queen trade. With low time and a complicated endgame with two or three minor pieces each, Timothy's flag fell and I scored my first win against this legend of Minnesota Chess.

Second game started with a Caro-Kann and he played Bc4 move two. In the middlegame that followed I won an exchange and was certainly winning but blundered a fantastic tactic. My memory of that game unfortunately isn't good enough to add the exact position, but from my memory he used a pawn one square from promotion to attack a rook while simultaneously indirectly protecting his queen that was under attack. If I stopped his pawn from promoting he took my queen for free and if I took his queen he would promote and win my queen back. Very unfortunate, but chess is fair. I won a lost game in Game 1 and I lost a winning position in Game 2. Chess evens out.

Round 7: My prize for scoring a result against a higher rated opponent is that I got to play another National Master! I was paired against Jackson, one of Minnesota's best TDs (tournament director) and an absolute beast in faster time controls. Jackson has won the State Blitz multiple times and is always a favourite to win. My first game went terribly: I ignored the principles of chess and messed around in the opening instead of castling and playing solid. My punishment was an early loss. The second game was much better, with a complicated middlegame and a queen and pawn endgame. Jackson emerged a pawn up and despite all my efforts to check and check and check, he prevailed and scored the full point.

Round 8: I am currently on 9/14 with two matches (four games) to go. I needed to sweep both of my remaining matches if I was to achieve my only goal of 13 points. I was also significantly in the running for top U2100 prize, although the race was very close there as well. 

Anyways, I played a gentleman named James, with a rating around 1500, but with roughly the same amount of points as me. I've played James before, and the game was... interesting, to say the least. Suffice it to say that I was looking forward to revenge. The first game I got an quick advantage with my usual Zukertort and had the choice of taking material or continuing an attack when he abruptly hung his queen, apparently not seeing the threat of bishop-takes-queen. The second game was decided from the beginning: in a closed Caro structure, he put his light squared bishop on d3 and suffocated it with pieces, allowing me to trap the bishop with a c4 pawn push. To his credit, he kept fighting for a long time and made me do some weird maneuvers to infiltrate a closed position, but the effort was futile in the end, and I completed my first necessary sweep. 

Round 9: the final boss. I was fully expecting to play some crazy good NM or a 2000 rated nine year old and have to fight a long battle to sweep, but to my surprise and delight, I played a 1600 named Evan. I had met Evan before at a casual night of chess and lost two practice games to him so I knew he wasn't a pushover. But I was still incredibly relieved, because I knew I could sweep this match and my confidence was so high I knew I would sweep this match. It's just a matter of proving it, of making it official, so to speak. To be honest, I can't remember either of those games, I only know I absolutely crushed him and won both in convincing fashion. And with that, I completed my only goal of scoring more points than last year and I was absolutely content.

In the aftermath of the event, I ended up winning the U2100 prize and finished fourth overall!! This was one of my strongest performances, placing 4th in an Open alongside NMs where upsets are the norm. I beat everybody lower rated than me (which was so crucial because upsets were as common as blunders) only lost to National Masters and beat one as well. The future is bright indeed and I'm looking forward to the US Open blitz!

And the other important event was the Chess.com Hyperbullet Championship. Last year I played the upset of my life and flagged Grandmaster Aman Hambleton, co-founder of the popular streaming duo chessbrah! For those of you who haven't seen the game, here it is; in all of its messiness and blunders! The time control is 30s+0, and the time is more important than the board. 

This year was slightly less rewarding, as I came within inches of beating 2900 GMs but just couldn't do it. I placed my queen on the wrong square and hung it against GM @kleinebeer98, forcing a draw against him from a completely winning position. I also was up ridiculous amounts of material against @Oleksandr_Bortnyk, losing from a winning position. And then @KNVB leveled the score against me, and I didn't have another good chance to beat a 2900+ player, despite playing famous names such as @BardArtem, @Mykola-Bortnyk and @GMBenjaminBok, @yosephtaher and @Zhigalko_Sergei. This was the most fun I had in a long time however and I can't wait for next year!

I also had some special highlights in puzzle battle, from an enormous score of 49 in a 3 minute puzzle battle, to beating well-known streamer and content creator @Witty_Alien. 

What's next?

July is here! My favourite month of the year (oh my, that rhymed)! I am playing in the biggest tournament of my life in July, the US Open 2025. I will be preparing for that all month, as well as make it my goal to break 2600 bullet before my birthday! When's that? July 7th, so I better get cracking! 

It feels like summer is already over, and I haven't done anything! But it's never too late to work hard for something you love, in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: 

I will win it. I will work hard, start the grind and finish it. Happy 4th of July to all and have a blessed day!