Improvers Recognition/Shoutouts

I hit 1000 on rapid!

shoutout to who?

to me!

It's not often I post in here but I really wanted to celebrate my recent tournament win. I went 4/4 with my new opening repertoire and took an undisputed first place in my section. I won $40 as first place prize and because I have earned money by playing chess, that officially means I'm a professional chess player. This tournament took my OTB rating from 860 to 1088 and I'm aiming to be 1200 by June when I go to play Nationals in Las Vegas.

The wins are always nice but now I have to prove that I earned my wins in the last tournament by performing well again.

After about 2 years of playing chess steadily starting around 1700 ELO in blitz, doing endless puzzles, battles, survivals, reading a bunch, and watching insane amounts of YouTube videos, I finally reached a 2000 ELO!!! (I went on an insane matrix-like streak of 22-3-1). Shout-out to Magnus and Hikaru for all of their educational teaching videos! Super helpful!

I've fallen a bit since then, but I hope to climb back up in the near future.

To all those with a goal in mind - keep practicing and play LOTS! And avoid those bots - human opponents provide a much better (and more practical) experience for learning! You can do it!

Let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You should try to meditate, I saw your games, they were a bit impatient, try meditation and read chess books, I have a FIDE rating of 1449 and am hoping to increase it this year to 1600.

I did the same thing XD

So, it's International Women's Month, and I just wanted to give a shout out to Anna and Pia Cramling and all the other women and girls here. I know you are here (well, maybe not Anna and Pia, lol)!!!

So, the great algorithm "gods" of Youtube put some videos of Anna and Pia Cramling into my feed, and I just really enjoyed watching their interactions with each other. When I moved across the country, I lost my board game buddies, and my husband just hates board games. Thanks to Anna and Pia, I thought I would give chess a try, and now I guess I'm participating in CoachChamps, lol.

I'm wondering if any other women or girls here have a story to share(?) How did you get interested in chess? What do you like about it? Who has been most influential? What's been hard? I would love to hear from you. And if you don't feel comfortable sharing in this space, friend me, and maybe we can play a game (or at least know you are not alone). 😊

Take good care!

hhart10k

Bro mentioned anna and pia cramling loll (in a good way!)

Bro, I’m clearly not a bro! 👩🏻‍🦳

Oops! I'm terribly sorry!

@QuickQuackChess, It's honestly a pretty funny interaction, but it also seems to highlight the fact that women and girls don't participate much in the forums. I just want to open up the "center of the board" a bit so that women and girls can feel welcomed in the forums if they want to participate. And if they don't feel comfortable posting, I want them to know they aren't alone. I mean, I would not be playing chess if Youtube sent me a video of Magnus. Sorry, I wouldn't. Now Levy? Maaaybe. He makes me laugh. Pia and Anna! Yes!

Shoutout to chess.com for starting my chess journey 4 1/2 years ago... It's been a long journey🥹

Thanks for sharing such a thoughtful, welcoming message, @hhart10k . Your example is very positive and inspiring, and I hope we can continue to encourage others to feel comfortable in sharing their journey with us as well.

Huge shoutout to Axel Smith @klippfiskkjerringa and his Woodpecker Method. I've mentioned this book many times but it is a real game changer!

Shoutout to @S9xfd and @ATM015 for being great members of the Improvers club who I think are deserving of Improvers of the Month for March. S9 has improved, among many other notable accomplishments, 100 points in Blitz and 200 points in rapid, and they have been very supportive on the notes. ATM is the most active person on the notes and always is willing to lend a piece of advice to whoever needs it! Though they are on a self-proclaimed tilt, with how much work they are putting in, it's only a matter of time before the results start appearing!

I'd really like to shout-out @S9xfd for really participating in the club, they've played me in some daily games as well so I can work on some calculation skill I usually play too fast to master, and it has really helped me reach that 1400 I achieved yesterday. They've also been improving a lot themselves as Speed_Swimmer_1 pointed out, and I think they should deserve to get some recognition (possible Improver of the Month?).

Some others might me @ATM015 for being so encouraging in the notes, and not to forget @WizzardA1 who was always so willing to play anybody in an unrated game. But of course full shout-out to @S9xfd, very glad that they've helped me and so many others improve.

Shout-out to my friend who won the grand champion for my school team who was 3th place after beating me 6th place.

Hey, hey, all!

This comes a bit late in the day as I have been traveling, but I wanted to take a moment and acknowledge and recognize World Autism Awareness Day, which is today (the 2nd)! I feel like the chess board is a place where folks who have superpowers when it comes to focused attention and strong pattern recognition skills, often traits of autism, can thrive. I just want to take a moment and recognize those who have these superpowers in our community.

Warmly,

hhart10k

I got onto my school chess team this year 💪/ Good job me too