(Road to 2200??!) New Rapid Peak with FLAWLESS game! 💪

Hey all! While my otb chess has been going somewhat poorly lately, I decided to beat the “you can’t calculate” allegations (allegations I’ve laid entirely on myself: I really do struggle with calculating deep in classical!) in this game.

Another Ponziani win, my fav, and once I knew that I must have a checkmate I decided to deep think for a bit and fully calculate the sequence that led to mate, and I’m super pleased to see that it was pretty much perfect and probably the fastest available! 

Adding to the mix a “brilliant” sacrifice (hardly) and ~94% accuracy, and this is a game for me to remember fondly indeed. New peak of 2136 is unfathomable to me.

Congrats bro gl with 2200 push 🥳🥳🥳

These games are proof that you either improve or that you already have great potential. This early d6-move is very dubious, I know that from my scotch game which has some similarities to your position, where my opponent plays d6(?!) I believe and then c3 one of the best moves in the position is and white already is better. And if I am not mistaken, you even have a tempo more in this variation. Althoug I am not sure… Could also be that black plays this dubious Bd6(?) in the opening in the scotch game after that c3 would follow… However you already have a great central control, so white at least looks familiar. 9. d5 is also obviously not great and I wouldn’t be shocked if you played e5 in a few seconds. Because after that, the knight becomes a pretty bad piece doesn’t matter where it goes. Sacrificing a pawn to keep the activity is probably the best you can do as black in this position. Then you both played relatively normal… 18. Bxh6 is interesting. You had a good timing where and understood that you are strong enough on the kingside to aford this sacrifice - Well played! Then your opponent took and you found all the right moves! That’s definitely impressive and a very good game overall! How much time did you had at the end of the game?

Ponziani the opening I’ve played when I first broke 2000 and then I think every time I’ve broken 2100 lol

Thanks mate!

Thanks for your comments, d6 is indeed dubious and I do have the immediate d5, but there’s little practical difference as far as I’m concerned. H3 is often a useful move to avoid the bishop pin in this line, and should my opponent take my “free pawn” on e4 I can then play d5 and qa4+ picking up the knight

What makes you doubt your ability to calculate? You're doing fine in my view, and this is probably more of a confidence issue. Very well done on this game and reaching your new peak!

I’ve realised I very much struggle to keep one line of calculation in my head, and I jump between moves involuntarily while trying to calculate beyond a few moves ahead. This is fine for rapid and blitz where it’s rare that one needs to calculate THAT far ahead, certainly in blitz, but in classical it’s a real problem for me I think.

Also! Just seen this puts me (just) in the top 30k on chesscom which is pretty cool.

Honestly, you don't necessarily need the best move every time even in classical chess. First of all, you need self-confidence.

You need enough confidence to say "I'm going to win" no matter who your opponent is. That isn't to say you consider your opps weak at all. If anything, treat them all as if they are your strength, so the possibility to win is well within reach.

You also need to be able to get positions which you enjoy. As that very wise 2500 suggested, if you aren't actually as comfortable with your openings as you think you are, you could experiment a bit in online blitz to find something you like better.

As for calculations itself, I myself do a few "calculation trip-ups" too, but the way I deal with it is trying to almost say the line to myself in my head. I think others would probably have better ways to help this.

As for your reading on pawn structures, that's great tbh. But what I will also say is that you should definitely experiment and see which side of different pawn structures you actually enjoy playing more. The theory provided by books such as "IQP benefiting the attacker" is more of a general guidance: just because you like attacking chess doesn't necessarily mean you'll enjoy having an IQP. So try out different pawn structures and see which positions are usually more comfortable for you. Again, online blitz is great for this, especially considering the fact that intuition plays a bigger role so will show which is truly more comfortable for you.

It’s funny, because sometimes playing someone I know is very strong (like Duck Chess Tim, who’s about 2100 ECF, or my decent attempt against GM Keith Arkell) helps me play better and more solidly, and sometimes it makes me shut down and think I’m going to lose!

Theres definitely some psychological aspects, but my hope is that if I can be more confident in my calculation then I can off-set this through pure logic and stop losing games to thoroughly avoidable mistakes.

This title was a joke, chess gods! I wasn’t really trying to immediately hit 2200! You didn’t need to punish me for my hubris and make me lose like 40elo today. cheers for that.

tragic, but you will get it back

Thanks, mate. I think I’m a little under the weather, which never helps