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My Improvers Journey!!!!! (September 2025)

My Improvers Journey!!!!! (September 2025)

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theeldest1
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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 September, the rating milestones of this month, some featured games and puzzles, and the tournaments I'm doing next. 

This month I didn't have a whole lot to report, so this blog will mostly be games and puzzles. 

What's included in this edition. 

  • Openings I studied: (1.e4 and the Sicilian).
  • Games from this month.
  • Puzzles from this month.
  • What's next? 

Openings I studied: (1.e4 and the Sicilian).

Back in the day, when I was a wee lad, I loved to play chess. I would play for hours and hours on a website called ChessKid.com, basically chess.com aimed for children. During this time, the opening I played - under the username of "PsychadelicKarate" - was the Italian. That's it. That was all I knew, the bread and butter of my chess existence, and it's all I ever played. A typical game on ChessKid looked something like this. 

However as I started to climb the ranks of chess - into the 1800-1900 range - I realized that I didn't know enough about Italian theory to survive. I was getting into trouble out of the opening and having problems with the middlegame. So I switched to d4 as my main opening and chose a Colle/Zukertort based off of some books I read. I've played that ever since. 

Now I'm turning the other way. As I want to play more tactical games, I've been playing more 1.e4 games and turning back to my roots. I may even try it in a classical game.

From the Black side, I've never liked the Sicilian because I didn't know what to do with my light squared bishop. It always got stuck, and I couldn't handle it. But I have found comfort in one of the greatest movie quotes of all time by the great Vizzini (Wallace Shawn):

"Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!" -Vizzini

I only hope when I play the Sicilian I won't fall victim to the same fate as Vizzini!

I've played the Sicilian two times in classical chess. I've won both times. While the Sicilian may not be my main weapon against 1.e4, I will certainly be testing it out some more!

Games from this month.

Although I didn't have much to do this month in terms of OTB chess or milestones, I did play a lot of blitz. One afternoon, I got paired against NM Sam Copeland! It was truly an honour to play against one of the site's most well-known staff, and even more special to cap off the game with a beautiful knight sacrifice in less than 20 moves.

On the second of September, I played a Candidate Master in blitz. That in itself isn't so surprising, I've played over 50 CMs in blitz so far. But what was surprising was his rating of 2607, and then the fact that I beat him. I proudly present to you, my best blitz win of all time against CM Ananda Saha.

Although that was my best blitz win in terms of rating, I took down a far more impressive foe. On September 17th, I beat Grandmaster Rafael Vaganian in blitz, for my first ever win over a GM in blitz. 

In one of my games, I played so well and capitalized on one mistake so quickly that the Game Review gave me an accuracy of 100%! That's really hard to do, even if you win quickly, because you need to choose the exact engine moves. 

Playing like a 2850 is no easy feat!

This month I played 6 rated rapid games and won all but one of them (one draw). That catapulted my rating up to 2300 for the first time ever and I have proven that I can grind out wins and hang in long time controls. Here's the game that I won to reach 2300, an imperfect but steady endgame grind.

And I had the honour of beating 2713 rated @aa175 in puzzle battle after twelve puzzles. I will admit, this wasn't so much my skill as him messing up, but it's my best ever win in puzzle battle and I'll take that any day of the week. I also beat a GM in puzzle battle for the first time. 
He got three wrong in the first fifteen puzzles and I claimed the win.

Puzzles from this month.

I have compiled the best tactics and tricks from my games this month; can you solve them?

What's next?

Although I didn't do much in the way of chess in September, the same will not be said about October. I will be playing in two MSCA tournaments this October, the Northern Open and the Minnesota Quick Championship. In September 2023, I played the Northern Open as my first ever classical tournament, and two years later, I will play the 2025 Northern Open. Can I hit 2000 USCF on the two-year anniversary of my classical chess journey? I hope so!

Then I'll play the Quick Championship, with a time control of 10d5. That will be mostly for fun, but I also have ambitions to get a podium finish and cement my status as a true threat at the top. 

We're wrapping up the year, and there have been so many amazing memories and stories so far! There will be some more, no doubt, and this year will be the catalyst for a huge push in my chess career. But I'll take it one step at a time, focus on what I can control, and leave the future to the future. Thank you for reading and have a good one!

Past Improvers Journey 2025 Blog Posts