Oraoradeki's Chess.com Site Feedback and Log

I joined Chess.com, right after my 16th Birthday after watching a friend of mine play live games here during our Recess time and Free periods in school. I've been playing chess since I was 7, but never seriously "studied" chess before. That year, i joined the chess club in school and decided to give this hobby a go. I was thrilled that chess.com offered many features (it was also the first chess related website that I dedicate my time into). I wil briefly talk about those features.

Online correspondence Chess.

Good feature because it gives me a new perspective of playing chess.

Chess Video Lessons

Offers high-quality chess lectures which I find really helpful. I get an insight of how better players think, and their recommendations are very powerful to me.

Articles

I only read ones that I think are interesting, but I usually enjoy the articles and appreciate the authors put in time and effort for it.

Tactics Trainer – The biggest reason why I get Premium Membership (when I can)

This is by far the best feature. I fell in love with this feature; it enhances my tactical vision, which is important in real life games. I think this feature is responsible for lifting up my OTB rating points 200+ in the past 2 years.

Forums

While this is sometimes informative, I think the number of “trolls” outnumber legitimate bloggers.

Groups and Teams (also team matches)

Excellent idea, being in a group gives me a sense of camaraderie – which is important in team matches because you are not only helping yourself but also the team.

Tournaments

I don’t really like this feature but I think that’s just me. It gives me too many games to work on, and I can’t handle it.

My Log – Starting 11^th April 2013.

These are my ratings right now. My goal is to work on Online Chess and Live Blitz and get them both to 1600.

These are my past Tactics Performance, and my ranking Worldwide. I am in 2050-2150 range, which makes me a Decent Tactician!

Thank you to Chess.com, and everyone who read this. I hope this keeps up.

Good job!

Its May 20th 2013, and I am doing an update. As a premium member, I have access to my entire archives of games, and the graphs of my progress.

Here is a screenshot of how I was doing from when I started chess.com till now.

I had heavy ups and downs, but my rating was around 1400 for the whole time I play here. I said I want to work on Blitz and Online play (I used to be rated 1750 in Online Chess but after having alot of timeouts because of me being too busy, my rating declined). 6 weeks ago, I made a short term goal to get both to 1600.

This past weekend, I played Live Blitz, but only in Mornings when I am awake. The reason is of course, I tend to play better when I am more awake. This did help my chess play.

However, by making a log like this, it helps me get motivated because I want to show progress. I've also met many people both from Online and from people whom I met in real tournaments. They are the pulling force of my motivation to improve in Chess.

Too bad I don't like spending money and I don't trust the internet, so I can't buy myself a diamond membership... Good job on your ratings, by the way. Hope you'll get to 2000 soon.

June 26th, update. I have temporarily achieved my goal of 1600 Blitz and Online Chess. As Summer holidays are starting (also I graduated from HS) I hope I can devote more time into Improving my games. 

How did I get 1600 Online Chess

Basically, I thought through my moves and spent full time control on games which game me difficult positions. By thinking through alot of not dropping pieces, I played better than an average 1600 Online Chess player. I would now like to get 1750 Online Chess, and in order to do so I think I should try for more Tactics in game, and not give up in hard positions (involving material loss). 

How did I get 1600 Blitz

This has alot to do with confidence, when I felt I am confident I'll get 1600, I did. I picked my opponents in an exclusive way, I set my seek parameter so that only players who are rated -70 and higher from me can accept my seek. By playing decent rated players I was able to collect points more efficiently. Also I quit playing normal openings, and decided to opt for the obscure ones (i.e. mainly 1...e6 2...b6, etc.). Faster time controls = less time to take advantage of the bad openings. Finally, as White I play 1.d4 instead of my mainstream 1.e4 because many people here in chess.com are familiar with 1.e4.

Just hit 2100 Tactics for the 3rd time ever (July 3, 2013). I am considering taking a break from this game since it is starting to get addicting - I think I play more than an hour a day which is too much. A little break wouldn't hurt, it might even give me a new appriciation for the game which will enhance my play. 

Short update on Achieving 2000 Wins in Blitz, as well as a New High rating of 1635. My 105th Draw was from Doduobird! Also, Free bumps are welcome!

I've decided to focus on long(er) time control chess since playing all this Blitz killed my chess skills. I played in a recent tournament where I lost to a USCF 1750, 1317 and drew to a 873. In order to heal my chess, I try to get every opportunity for an OTB game, and started playing 15|10 standard here (unrated, but I play all sorts of opponents). Playing 15|10 reminds me of the old days when I played on Yahoo! Chess, only because I didn't know this site existed. I played 10|15 games exclusively. Here is my profile/data

I've also been trying Tactics Trainer and its hard to get to 2200. Its always those 2200 problems that do me in. 

I am also trying to quit Online Chess, in favour of playing standard. It's just I can't take those online games seriously. 

By the way I started chesscube, but always come back here because I always go "bankrupt" there! xD

cc's best deal imo are the 200 cubit rated games (payback's 360 if you win, just play weaker opponents to make sure you win most of the time if you want to build up your 'bankroll' of cubits), comparable pay-off to choosing the 2000 cubit games (without risking the high sandbagger component).

sftac

Fantastic!

March 1, 2014

I haven't been posting my stats here much... 7 months inactivity in forums but here is my new stat picture:

It is actually cool to see how much progress I made so far. There isn't much to say, except I noticed a change in Tactics Trainer. I believe you get lesser points from solving problems now. A year ago, one fully solved problem would get me about 13~17 pts but now I only get about 7~9 pts. I've been doing about 4000 tactics problems, so my rating fluctuations were not because of provisional rating reasons either.

I also started playing in OTB tournaments, and I have a rating of roughly high 1400s.

The funny thing is, 1800 Online Chess came naturally, when I started to not care about ratings. I believe chess has some psychological component to it, as I did better in games that I felt more confident. All I did, was to try and make the best moves possible and try to double check if my opponent didn't spring any traps on me.

I won't be posting any memorable games here but if you are interested, here is a list of some.

http://www.chess.com/blog/Oraoradeki/breaking-the-1800-barrier-online-chess