Memorable Miniatures of the Month: June 2015

Well...June was relatively brutal month for me...chess-wise. At the end of May, I was on a pretty big momentum, coming off of a longest unbeaten streak of my life (16 games), and gaining well over 100 rating points on blitz, inching closer to the new height that was 1800s. 

I had every reason to look forward to the summer with optimism. And indeed, the first part of June went right where May left off. Winning games and registering my new highest rating record of 1795 on June 4th. 

Just 1 more win... 1 more win against relatively similarly rated opponent and I would have broken into the 1800s... But here was where things turned for the worse.

With 1800s so tantalisingly close, I lost, and even worse, I wrote off the defeat as fluke/accident and kept playing in order to climb over the wall of 1800s. I figured I'm good enough player that if I kept playing, I would win more than I lose and rating would naturally go up. How wrong I was....

I ran into one of the worst losing streak/slump I've ever had... I don't even know how many games I played and lost. But get this. On June 4th, I was 1795, yet at one point on June 5th, I dropped all the way down to 1672...

I knew I needed to take a break from constantly playing right after another, but... I couldn't bring myself to do it...

My bad form continued, until my rating eventually dropped to 1629 on June 9th... as if being demoted to 1600s wasn't bad enough, now I was afraid that I might drop into the 1500s.. Afterall, I was losing games to 1500s at this point.

It wasn't easy, but I had to go back to the tried and tested method of playing only 2~3 games a day. That way, I can really care about each of my moves rather than mindlessly pushing wood. And the remedy worked perfectly. By June 25th, right before I left for vacation to Croatia, I managed to raise my rating back up to a respectable 1750.

Needless to say, I did not score a whole lot of meaningful miniatures this month. (Maybe miniature losses) But some are interesting none the less.

Did not see this one coming.(this was one of the most inexplicable game I've played this year. I still have no idea what was going on in this game.)

Defense First

Bee Storm

A knight for your King's Protection

Don't get Distracted