4 months in-State of the Game

Avatar of vanjr1425
| 2

Executive summary-still having fun.

I have slowly been transitioning over to daily chess. I like it, I get to play similarly rated people. It does not get in the way of life and work. I still play "too fast" in that I need to be more analytical in my moves. I leave hanging pieces and commit blunders. I do not see anyone using any chess engines (analysis always show my opponent has made a number of blunders that I did not see). 

I am currently 11 wins and 11 losses with one draw. I started out with four straight losses and 1 draw and 5 losses in the first 6 games with a low rating of 513 (it started me out at 800). I have since improved to a max rating of 776. Looking at my games, it suggests that I may be better at black (7 wins, 4 losses, 1 draw) than white (4 wins, 7 losses). I suspect at my level being white is really no advantage. I probably do better at counter punching than attacking. That said, I have not played a game where I tried to play all defense and aim for a draw. I probably should try that. Not even sure if that is an option. 

I do wonder if my daily rating is too high. I see many of my opponents are playing many other games. I did get a little excited and tried to play up to 4 games at at time and that was too much for my little mind. 

I have not been reading much in the couple of chess books I have, so I plan to focus on those for the next week or two.