How I went from 300 to 1900 elo on Chess.com

November 26, 2022

I became aware of Chess.com a few days before I decided to create an account on November 26, 2022. It was my close friend, @Insanity_sl, who encouraged me to sign up so that we could play online. Initially, I was reluctant because I wasn't particularly passionate about chess, and I only wanted to play for enjoyment. However, my curiosity eventually led me to register on Chess.com as a beginner, considering I only had a basic understanding of the game's rules. After playing a few games at the 300 level, I noticed that my elo skyrocketed from 300 to 500 in just a few days. I was quite thrilled that I gained so many rating points in such a short time frame. Here is a look at my first game on Chess.com:

December 31, 2022

By the end of 2022, I had achieved a rapid rating of 770. I was still only playing for fun and the rating gain and I say this because I had no knowledge of opening theory, middlegame plans, endgame theories, etc. My main objective was to capture all my oponenet's pieces (I was dubbed the collector by a friend of mine) and deliver checkmate. It was fun at the beginner level; those were good times to play chess without worrying about elo gain or loss. The game below was the last game I played in 2022 against my good friend @Insanity_sl:

January 1, 2023

The month of January chess was booming everywhere, and it seem like everyone was either playing chess or talking about it. I remember one day after coming home from school, I went on YouTube and to my surprise I saw a GothamChess video about the unbeatable chessbot Mittens in my recommend feed,and after watching that video I was confused that a bot whose rated 1 was defeating chess masters so the day after my friend and I played against Mittens and oh boy we got destroyed, but that didnt shatter my enthusiasm for chess in fact it allowed me to gravitate more towards the chess words and I started consuming chess content on YouTube, Tik Tok and other socials. 

Febuary 12, 2023

I Started to play chess more competeively, gaining more rating points, friends and rivals along the way. Before I hit the milestaone rating of 1000 on Febuary 12, 2023, I started to learn about openings, so I chose an opening that was simple to learn, tricky, and beginner friendly, the Scotch opening was the perfect opening that I employed in many games with a whopping success rate of 60%. It was a very fun opening to play for me and i learned the tricks and traps of that opening, But one thing I will never forget is the day when a good friend and rival of mine (@beginnertielt) recommend that I learn the Pirc defence for black. The Pirc defence is a solid, setup based opening that can be played against litterally anything White throws at you. I learned all the variations of the Pirc and the one that stuck with me the most was the Czech Pirc, which allows quick queen side development and has many tactical blows in the middlegame. Here is a game that made me a fan of the Pirc defence: 

March 31, 2023

I was considered addicted to chess at this point, I played chess everywhere, at school, in class, on the bus to school, on the toilet lol. After climbing the rating ladder to 1250 i started to notice that I might actually be good at this game but at the same time I was in competition with @Insanity_sl to prove who the better chess player was so I owe it to the rivalry between us that gave me the push to go even higher. During my experience I can say with confidence that chess at the intermediate level online requires you to notice the oponent's mistake and capitalize off the advantage meanwhile being aware of your mistakes as well, here is a game that demonstrates how I implement that rule:

June 30, 2023

I took a long break from chess because I had exams to focus on so I had no choice but to snap back to reality althought I rather stay in the chess world forever lol. During the one month break I took I also used the time to study more details about chess such as endgame positions, I explored other openings and I was interested in watching Grandmaster games to observe how the elites play this facinating universal game we call chess, I enjoyed watching every round of the 2023 World Chess Championship, I was rooting for Ding Liren all the way. 

July 8, 2023

I dedicated majority of my summer holiday to improving at chess and I did so by utilizing Chess.com resources i.e. puzzles, lessons, and playing until my heart's content. This was the best time I ever had becuase I was so focused during this time and I gained 187 elo in less than 10 days. I was proud that ive come this far and then the elo anxiety kicked in, I feared that if I play another game I would be in a losing streak and go back down the rating ladder. Those thoughts of losing clouded my mind whenever I opened Chess.com, so I took approximately 2 months break from playing rapid chess on Chess.com in fear of losing all my gains. During that time although I wasnt playing rapid on Chess.com I was obtaining more knowledge about chess and now that I think about it it really benefited me in the long run. After crossing 1600, I challenged my rival (@ATNoAcc1618) to an unrated rapid game, I saw this as an opportunity to train with a fellow rival:

November 24, 2023

After winning The Jamaica Open Chess Championship U1300 section on October 28, 2023, with a perfect 5/5 score and a performance rating of 1800, I became more confident in my skills as a chess player and I wanted more. So I trained even harder than before. I knew that the level I was at, I couldn't keep relying on tactical knockouts to win a game of chess so I started shifting my focus to learning how to play positionally. This decision was the turning point in how I improved this much at chess. Around this time is where I started reading How life imitates chess by Garry Kasparov and its a really extraordinary book that helped me a lot.

December 31, 2023

On this day I rememebered a promise I made to myself sometime during the summer of 2023 and it was to reach a rating of 2000 on Chess.com before 2024, but there wasnt enough time and I was still anxious about elo loss so i narrow it down to reaching 1800 before the end of the year and on that day I played a very accurate game of chess that made me cross 1800. I won that game by staying calm under pressure, executing positional concepts and taking advantage of imbalances in the position. 

January 27, 2024

After my chess club team mates qualified for the National Highschool Chess Championships finals on the previous day, I felt inspired to become even stronger, so I opened Chess.com and I started to play. Even though I lost the first game, I got back up and cleared my mind for the next game and in just a few hours of playing 10 games I won 6/10 and acquired a peak rating of 1900. Looking back at the milestones is an amazing feeling and I hope to someday master this wonderful game CHESS.

THE JOURNEY WAS AMAZING!!!