How I played a perfect game on Chess.com
After hitting a peak rating of 1900 on chess.com in January 2024, I took a 3 week break from playing rapid chess and set my sights on training even harder than before to improve. During that 3 week break, I studied some new openings to add to my repertoire and solved many puzzles. I hit a peak puzzle rating of 3004 on Chess.com, and I believe that taking the time to solve chess puzzles is one of the best ways to improve at chess. I recently noticed patterns in my games that were similar to those of the puzzles I solved. Here is a game I played with a fellow teammate of mine, @AlmostR3d where I recognized a critical tactic I solved in a puzzle:
The game started as a Queen's Gambit Declined Modern Variation, normally I would avoid going into symertrical openings with 1. d5 or 1. e5 as black but after learning how to play positionally, I studied the Queen's Gambit Declined Ragozin Variation so I was prepared for a strategic grind. However, during the middlegame, I noticed that my queen on a5, x-ray attacked the undefended bishop on g5, that was when I remembered the same position I had solved in a puzzle. I played a provocative move that added pressure to his knight on c3 offering an exchange since it was being attacked 3 times and only defended twice, knowing very well my opponent would want to preserve his bishop & queen battery to attack my kingside, he would most likely trade knights with me, unfortunate for him that trade only benefited me as my queen's vision was unleashed onto the undefended bishop on g5 and the pawn that recaptured the knight was now attacking his light square bishop (a double attack). After analyzing the game and going back to the puzzle I noticed the similarities and imbalances in both positions and I'm now realizing the importance of pattern recognition in chess.
On February 23, 2024, I did some puzzles in the morning to get the day started after which I booted up Chess.com with the intention of gaining 50 elo that day. In my first game, my opponent played 1. e4 to which normally I would respond with 1. d6 but I felt confident in my second favourite opening for black, the French Defense so I played it without hesitation. My opponent played in a way that tried to occupy as much space in the centre but I wasn't fazed by this since the French is renowned for strategically breaking apart white's center in the middlegame. During the middlegame, I took the time to notice some of the fundamental mistakes my opponent was making and I think that helped me to gain an edge, he tried to play in a very aggressive way which, to be honest, had me shaking with fear that I might lose my first game in a while, but his pawn structure was weak which allowed me to break them apart while keeping a solid setup and the most critical point in the game was when he trapped his queen and I was able to take advantage. After finishing that game I went to game review with the expectation that I played a horrible game because I was nervous throughout the game and to my surprise I played the game at 91% accuracy with a 2,350 estimated rating, I was impressed with my performance.
After that game I got some fresh air to calm my nerves before going into the next game. My opponent played 1. d4 to which I confidently replied with 1. d5, I must point out that I did make some small mistakes in that opening and luckily my opponent didn't capitalize off that. I was left with an isolated queen's pawn in the middle game where rather than defending it passively I decided to take the initiative and go on an attack, so I swung my queen over from the queenside to eye his king, setting up threats with my minor pieces and the queen after which I realized that my knight could be kicked from its post in the white position but for some reason my opponent didn't but instead retreated their knight to f3, now I thought this was inaccurate since it doesn't stop my threat of checkmate with my bishop coming to h3 exploiting the pin on the g2 pawn to the king, he defended incorrectly and I was able to trade queens and win material through a tactic called Zwischenzug where instead of immediately recapuring the queen I forked his king and rook forcing a respond then recapturing the queen going up the exchange after the forced sequence. After my opponent resigned I breathed a sigh of relief and I now had the feeling that my training had paid off and I was playing above my rating. the following day I reviewed the game and again I was astonished that my accuracy was 94.5% and an estimated rating of 2,600, I was amazed.
I noticed that after my second victory, my heart rate slowed down and I wasn't so nervous, so I started started a new game and upon entering I glanced at my opponent's ratng of 2031, and without hesitation I played 1. e4 and went for my now favourite opening the Scotch Gambit, I have been studying this opening since Decenber 2023 and I've learned the ins and outs of this opening so I blitz out the first 8 moves of theory, the position was roughly equal until my opponent defended passively allowing me to gain a hugh initaitive so I pounced upon the opportunity to win a piece through removing the defence of his bishop then I opted for a queen trade since Im up material I wanted to avoid giving my opponent counterplay with his most powerful piece, I defended well against his threats and upon developing my bishop to an active square and connecting rooks on the backrank, my opponent resigned knowing well that his position is about to fall apart, I was relived but disappointed that I didnt really get much of a challenge from my higher rated opponent. I went over to my second account to analyze my game and I could not believe what my eyes were seeing, I thought Chess.com had a glitch for the reason why I was seeing a 99.9% accuracy on my screen so I double checked on the app that says it was 100% accuracy and I was so proud of this, it makes me wanna dedicate my life to this game.
I wanted to play a few more games that day to gain 50 elo but alas I fell ill so I had to take a break from playing to recover and come back stronger than before. I hope this blog gives inspiration to all who play chess. Thank you for reading 
