Diagonal tactics: just overcame a major hurdle and diagonal tactics made all the difference. I feel

I feel I have overcome a significant hurdle recently that pushed me into the 1300/1400 range and what seems to have made the difference is a better grasp of diagonal tactics; in particular a game I lost against Sokolov3 (fairly deep into my playing history). I did a deep analysis of the game and it kept telling me this is a mistake and that is a mistake and I kept wondering, “What the heck is it talking about?” I had to go through the suggested steps a couple of times before it hit me, “Ah, I see now, my opponent was pinned here diagonally and there diagonally, at this point diagonally and at that point diagonally and I simply never caught it.” Doesn’t it feel great to suddenly grasp something like that? It takes analyzing the games you lost. I didn’t want to do it and I hate doing it, but holy cow am I glad I did, because now that A couple of days have passed, I feel I’m starting to actually see the diagonal lines. In the latest game I won, against JSS1 1480, I feel THAT’S what made the difference. Who knows, perhaps my rating will start to drop again, but what I do know is I have some new tools in my repertoire for sure. So that Sokolov3 game I lost a while ago is an excellent game to study.

yeh diagonals are so cool!

Yes, by all means, we all need to celebrate those eureka/epiphany moments. Today you may understand "diagonals" better; tommorow it may be other tactical themes and checkmates; later on you will have found that your rating has improved a lot. 

The feeling of finally having something click (that had not before) does not change. This is the same feeling wheather you beat an opponent for your new "best win" or just learned how stalemate works. Celebrate even the small victories: Congratulations chesstenor2018