That's some journey. Congrats! 
10 years of life & chess
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Congratulations! All the best in getting that NM title. It is always good having a goal to aim for!
Jan 25, 2025
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#4
Wow getting 2000 elo on your first OTB tournament is amazing. Usually online players struggle.
Wow this is an awesome forum post congratulations on 10 years man 👏
Jan 25, 2025
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#7
Your dedication and perseverance are truly inspiring! I have no doubt that you'll reach your goals with continued hard work and determination! 
Jan 26, 2025
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#8
As someone who got into chess at around the same time, I gotta say you're ahead of me. I've crossed 2000 USCF, but haven't sniffed 2100 yet. Dig in and finish it man. I've seen even kids stall at 2100 for 1.5~2 years before finally breaking through to 2200, so it's nothing to be ashamed of when it happens to you. Best of luck. Hope to join you!
Congratulations!
It's been over 10 years now since I started playing chess on chess.com. I have loved playing chess but it has become somewhat stressful now, and I wanted to take some time to reflect.
I first learned the rules of chess from my father when I was a kid. We played a game or two to learn the basics. I remember being overwhelmed by how complicated it was and preferred checkers.
I became interested again in chess in 2014 when my classmates would play games in the college dorms. I played several games and started to get into it. I typed in chess.com into the browser and sure enough landed here. I created this account and started playing. I lost almost all my games and figured I wasn't ready for online chess.
A month later I had a long flight and needed to kill time. I downloaded a chess app on my phone that had various levels of bots and started playing. I pretty much played the entire flight and was able to advance up a couple levels by copying the bots strategy.
The next day I logged back into chess.com and started playing 10 minute games. My rating stabilized around 600 and I was finally getting evenly matched opponents. I played everyday and progress started showing.
Initial Rating Progress
My initial goal was to get to 1200 but now I wanted to do something more. I set a goal of 2000 elo, and I made a forum post asking how long it would take to get there: How many hours to reach 2000 blitz? . My rating continued to climb and the 2000 goal seemed to be getting closer.
Rating Progress:
For the first time I started to feel some plateauing when I reached the 1600 goal. 2000 had felt so close when I crossed 1500 but now I wasn't even sure if I could make it to 1700. I kept playing and hoping I would get better, but things were definitely changing. My strategy up until this point had been to disregard pawns and go for checkmate every game, but now players were good enough to defend and go into winning endgames. I was forced to learn to protect my pawns and play more sound chess. After 5 months progress started showing again.
I hit 2000 and almost couldn't believe it was real. I remember how incredibly difficult it felt to get from 1900-2000 and I was certain I couldn't go further. I figured I'd stop playing and find something else to do.
That lasted about 2 days. I couldn't resist playing and jumped back into the pool. I wanted to be able to maintain a 2000 level of play and knew that any progress would be slow.
Progress
I graduated from college in may of 2017 and started my first job. I worked in a cubicle from 8am to 5pm and hated it. I didn't think about chess much. In September of 2018, my friend, who was a software engineer, told me there was an opening at his company. I had almost no training in software engineering but thought it was worth a shot.
I interviewed and basically begged them to take me, but it was clear I did not have the background. After getting rejected I started spending hours a day working on coding projects to transition into software engineering. A couple months later the company decided to re-interview me and I ended up getting hired on a 3 month contract. I couldn't have been happier.
I worked as hard as I could over the next couple months and managed to get a full time offer. I moved to San Jose and happened to end up right next to the Kolty Chess club. It was now time to venture into tournament chess.
Progress
Online I had played masters before, so I set the lofty goal of becoming a national master. I would need a rating of 2200 in over the board chess and had no idea what I was getting into.
I played my first over the board tournament game in July of 2019 and drew against a 1400. It was a tough game and I was very discouraged. How was I supposed to be a master one day if I couldn't beat a 1400 rated player? I had trouble transitioning from a 2d board to 3d and didn't use my time effectively. I worked on these problems and did well enough in the remainder of the tournament to get a provisional rating of 1862 and advance to the higher rated section.
The next tournament was the big test. I was playing 1800+ players and wasn't sure where I'd stand. I ended up having a great result, going 4/5 and reaching a provisional rating of 2011. I now believed my goal was possible.
I continued playing the next couple tournaments and stabilized around 2000. I was happy with this as national master felt like it was in reach. My last tournament was 2020-03-05, and then covid hit.
With the chess club closed, I went back to playing online. My rating was now stable in the 2200s for blitz and I was looking forward to improving for the return of over the board chess. I started to venture into the 2300s sometimes and was hopeful that I was making progress.
Progress
On 10/20/2021 the chess club opened up again and I was back playing classical chess. Over the next year my rating climbed from the low 2000s to the high 2000s, and I ended 2022 by winning my club championship and reaching a rating of 2094. My goal was getting closer.
I crossed 2100 in March of 2023 and reached 2150 in September. My online rating was improving as well, and I hit 2400 blitz and 2500 blitz for the first time in April of 2023. I felt that 2024 was the year I would get the title!
Progress
2024 came around and it started well. I moved to Milwaukee for a work assignment and started playing for the first time outside of my club. This was initially daunting as I was used to playing the same 20 or so players. But after 3 good results I reached a rating of 2172. I moved back to the Bay Area in June and started playing again.
The first tournament I played was the 2024 national open in las vegas which was by far the biggest event I had ever played in. In the 4th round I was paired against a national master and blew a winning position. Had I won it would have been enough to put me in reach of the title. I was devastated and lost my next two games quickly. My rating went back down to 2156 and I knew I still had a lot to work on. Against these higher rated opponents I was usually getting much worse opening positions and figured it was something I needed to work on.
I made a lichess study for all my lines. I hired a GM coach for 10 hours of lessons. I tracked my training using chessdojo and followed their guidance on analyzing games.
I started playing at the mechanics chess club and things started to look up. In October of 2024 my rating reached 2187 and I was one good result away. I went back to my local club to try and get the title and reached a live rating of 2192 after a couple wins. Unfortunately, after a painful draw(I was losing then winning then blew it at the end), I went back down. I signed up for a weekend tournament last minute but didn't play well and my rating went down again.
My work on chess does seem to be paying off, and I have crossed 2400 online more times in the last couple months than I ever had. I feel I can get back to 2500 blitz this year and maybe even push higher. I can only hope it shows in my over the board rating.
My current rating is 2173 and I am still a couple good results away from the title. I've been stuck between 2150 and 2200 for over a year now and there are times I get discouraged. Chess has been more stressful than it ever was in the past worrying about every result. I am playing more chess now than ever and am tired but will keep going for the title. Hopefully the next 10 years of chess will be more relaxed than the first.