Journey to 1800 Rapid

Hey! This is a thread where I'll be posting games of note that I play on my journey to 1800 Rapid, right now my peak is 1705, and current rating is 1685, hope somebody gets some value out of this!

I'm currently going through somewhat of a "reset" of my Chess style, before now I've played openings like the Caro Kann, Alapin, Vienna, Scandinavian, English and openings of the like, basically anything to avoid e4 e5 and d4 d5 which I always pegged as "boring".

But after coming back from a break from Chess, I've decided to build up my foundational knowledge of Chess, to hopefully to 1800, and hopefully oneday 2000.

Upon reviewing the games of my two high rated friends (2100 and 2300 Chess.com Rapid) I found that they play alot of e4 e5 and d4 d5! And after reviewing their games the middlegame looked anything but boring. So, I've been studying some free courses on Chessable and grinding puzzles, and I feel ready to tackle my next 100 Elo!

Edit: I'll be playing 30+0 games, hopefully giving me enough time to calculate

Very awesome! Good job

Also maybe you could make this a blog if you can make it longer or smth. I would like to read more about this!

First game of this journey! A perhaps slightly inaccurate opening & middlegame, into a theoretically drawn endgame, where my opponent blundered and I took the win!

The endgame was a very good calculation exercise, and I recommend trying to calculate the lines yourself!

Thanks! That's the plan, just posted the first game

Thanks for sharing your journey, I'll certainly find value in this!

That endgame was indeed interesting, amazing Nd2 find - being able to stop the pawn as well afterwards

Awesome!

For sure, that endgame was sitting on a knife's edge

Update since it's been a couple days: I've been busy IRL, so I haven't had time for a 30 min rapid game, but I've been drilling some endgames, grinding Lichess puzzle streak (new highscore of 35 with no skips!), and working on openings.

Here are the openings I've chosen: The Italian, Center Game, (I still really like the English, so I might throw that in there if I get bored), Two Knights Attack (against the French and Caro Kann), e5, Slav, and The King's Indian

I still haven't fully decided what I'm going to play against the Sicilian, but some of my candidates are: the Open Sicilian (either the normal or Chekhover variation), the Bb5 Closed Sicilian, or The Alapin.

It's so overwhelming to choose openings, but it's very important at higher levels, and I think I've finally settled on these

It is indeed overwhelming to choose.

I know you used to play the Nimzo-Indian and Vienna, what reasons led you to go a different path?

Just exploring all my options; I played a game in the Slav the other day and really enjoyed it, so we'll see if I end up liking the Slav or Nimzo more

Played 2 games today, blundered both. Down to 1664; I'll try again tomorrow

Stay optimistic and be patient

Thanks

Got a nice win this morning! Tried out the Semi-slav, checkmated with 2.8 seconds on the clock

Also a funny note about this game, move 17 where I castled was an accident; I was playing on my phone, usually I play on my laptop, and was debating between Rg8 and Ke7, touched my king then touched my rook and it made me castle! Ended up being the best move anyways so I can't complain haha

(Game review guessed my opponent (1700) at 1750, and me at 2050 )

I actually really like the Slav / Semi-slav, the queenside play it gives is fun

Great win!

You were very solid throughout

Thanks! That's what I'm trying to go for, I think that'll be a good way to reduce blunders

eboatwright (1699) vs wil_1994 (1741)

Just played this crazy game! The complete opposite of the last game; the last one was solid most of the way through, this one has tactics flying everywhere! I started out by losing a piece in the opening, but I managed to get 2 pawns for it, which then went into some crazy middlegame tactics where I came out in a winning rook endgame!

Nice game! :0

Thanks! :^D