My Epic (or pitiful) Battle With A 2200 Rated International Master

Let me paint you a picture. Not in a literal sense, my skills in art are lacking, but a metaphorical picture.

The year? 2022.

The month? November.

The day? The 15th.

I opened up chess.com to find a curious number near the 'play' tab. After a moment of confusion, I remembered, I had joined the 'November Legends 2022' Arena, a small tournament from a small club. As my mouse scrolled over the tab, my eyes widened.

There he was.

Chesscoach_Golichenko, an International Master.

I tentatively made a move in the two games that had been set up, and my realization of the huge gap in our skills began.

The first game lasted a measly 22 moves. He played the queen's gambit, and I played the Albin Counter Gambit. He then proceeded to destroy me positionally, until the evaluation read +3. After a couple moves, he had lost .6 advantage, but gained it all back when I x-rayed his rook through his queen, apparently a mistake. Soon after my rook fell, and then my king. 

I had lost, but that wasn't too much of a surprise.

The second game lasted a little longer, but only because he needed to push his 2 pawn advantage and destroy me in an endgame.

So what did I learn?

I'm not quite IM material yet

Maybe FM, we'll see.

I learned that I'm not quite at IM level yet

second game is one of those soul crushing games that make you ask why you are still playing