TurqouisePLAYER

WELCOME TO TurqouisePLAYER

Hi,

Welcome to my main chess.com account: TurqouisePLAYER. This is also a diamond member account until August 3, 2024. I am an advanced chess enthusiast from “down under” and have been taking this hobby quite seriously for a few years now. I started playing chess at about 6 to 8 years old, when my family introduced me to the game, and (after not really bothering about its existence for some time, and pursuing involvement with my school’s chess club at a young age with a friend for some years, despite not being that good at the time [I did not really care about getting better as much, and was definitely not aware of how easy it is to get resources from anywhere to easily improve]), I began to realise that when one persists with chess for long enough, countless benefits become noticeable (such as a patience, memory, and problem-solving increase, just to name a few). From experience, I have noticed change in not only these three areas of my brain, but also many others. Overall, I really don’t see chess as "just another hobby.” To me, it is a way to improve your life indirectly whilst being able to witness yourself developing in the realm of chess alone. By seeing your rating go up, month by month, and year by year, you are proving to yourself that you have skill in you to master a craft. Though chess may not provide you with an actual thing you can physically use in real life (though the mental benefits are clearly abundant), such as the skill of woodworking or knitting, it still improves many areas of you that could have easily been neglected. And even then, chess is actually a war between two armies; it can represent many things depending on how you interpret it, but you could even see a bit of your own life in a chess game if you really tried to link situations together.

DETAILS

Does TurqouisePLAYER have a FIDE/USCF/ACF/etc. rating yet? No, but I expect to have one somewhere between 2024 to 2026, as I will hopefully be playing in many OTB tournaments in the future.

Does TurqouisePLAYER have a chess coach? No, but I will most probably get a good one in 2025; the common advice is to get one at 1800+ rapid, so I am planning on working on chess by myself until 2000, so I can reserve coaching for purely the expert to master transition phase.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Now that’s out of the way, what makes me certifiable to refer to myself as an “advanced chess enthusiast”? Here are all of my achievements from 2024 specifically (my 2023 achievements are saved, but not displayed here anymore).

1. January 1, 2024: Reaching 3000 puzzles after 150 hours of rated training, 13000 rated puzzles completed, and a full day of complete focus to triumph over the goal on the first day of 2024. A word of advice for anyone reading this to get to this goal as well is to completely and absolutely refrain from the brain’s instinctive nature to impulsively play the first forcing move it sees without necessary calculation beforehand. In short, stop playing the moves instantly, and instead start calculating (counting material is a good way to force yourself to start calculating, since the target time will pass. Check for checkmates then just count material and accept that you will be calculating for some time). I would have some puzzle highlights here, but I don’t know how to access full puzzle history, so I can’t find the exact puzzles that got me there.

2. January 11, 2024: Getting the very nice and even score of 50 in puzzle rush survival unexpectedly, way ahead of the goal (which was February 1, 2024).

3. May 11, 2024: Getting 1800 in all time controls (rapid, blitz, and bullet). The last one - bullet - took me many games far into the night only to go from 1548 to 1708. I played bullet when I was so tired, that I got immersed in the game, not recognising my surroundings. I considered taking a break, since I was not getting much results from these few days of playing multiple games per day, but I gave it another couple of days and got to 1750 - but then I dropped all the way down to 1628 in the following day! Nevertheless, I tried for one more day, realising that frequently playing bullet is very unhealthy (but still having my eyes laser-focused on the 1800 goal), and finally got to exactly 1800 bullet! Along with my 1802 blitz rating and my 1803 rapid rating, this meant I got all of my ratings (excluding variants and daily) to above 1800 - an advanced level.

GOALS

Though recognising how far you have come can help you continue to play chess, setting goals is my way to actually improve at the game. I will split them into two categories:

• Short-term – chess goals for the year of 2024.
• Long-term – chess goals past the year of 2024.

A ✅ means I have satisfied the goal in the chosen timeframe.

A ❌ means I have not satisfied the goal in the chosen timeframe. If this occurs:

A ⋆ may be used to link this goal to a new goal, which will be a re-attempt to satisfy the aim, in a different timeframe.

The goals are simply the end point I want to get to at a certain time; the means to get there is another thing in itself. I find setting goals to be a fantastic way to be certain of your chess growth over time, and if you set good goals, you can have an objective that is not too difficult for you, but also not too easy.

With all that said, here are my chess goals for 2024 (to be updated as required):

Short-term

1. Get a score of 50+ in puzzle rush survival by February 1^st, 2024. ✅ January 11, 2024
2. Get to 1800 blitz by February 1^st, 2024. ❌

         ⋆ Get to 1800 blitz by the next winter tournament (in June). ✅February 7, 2024

3. Get to 1800 bullet by February 1^st, 2024. ❌

         ⋆ Get to 1800 bullet by the next winter tournament (in June). 

4. Make chess endgames a strength instead of a weakness by the end of 2024 (and hence, become above average in endgames for my rapid rating by the end of 2024).

5. Get to 2000 rapid by the end of 2024.

6. Win at least one trophy from an OTB tournament by the end of 2024.

7. Get 5.5/7 for the first time in an OTB tournament by the end of 2024.

8. Read and study at least 1 chess book thoroughly in 2024 (scroll down for some chess books I like/have read/will read).

9. Surpass 200 brilliant moves on chess.com by the end of 2024.

Long-term

1. Satisfy the minimum FIDE rating for a National Master/Candidate Master (NM/CM) in chess.com rapid (which is 2200 FIDE) by 2026 (I assume I will adjust this drastically as my chess growth path becomes clearer, but for now I am giving a couple of years to obtain a couple hundred rapid points [assuming I reach 2000 rapid this year]).
2. Become a titled chess player as soon as I am good enough to attempt it, and map out a clear path of how to do so.

CHESS HIGHLIGHTS

Highest player beaten in rated rapid on chess.com (after-game rating): 1836

Highest player beaten on chess.com (rated/unrated, after-game rating, blitz/bullet/rapid): 2342 {bullet 1min} [https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/87821436899?tab=review]

Highest rapid rating on chess.com: 1803

№ brilliant moves I have gotten on this chess.com account: 200 (90 rapid, 61 blitz, 44 bullet, 1 daily, 4 Chess960)

Number of times I've gotten 2+ brilliant moves in one game: 6

My best game: TO BE DECIDED!

My chess personality at the start of 2024 (by chess.com, https://www.chesspersonality.com/):

Some chess books I am going to read soon/am reading now:

Chess books I own:

Favourite chess players:

*Note: I have not immersed myself in the analysis of master games, so this list is just from videos and events I have observed without much knowledge of the individual playing style of the masters. As I progress, this list will certainly change as I understand more about how the masters think and play.

So, if you read this whole thing, I hope you got inspired. Feel free to send me a message or friend request - I am normally quite active and respond.

Have a good day!

TurqouisePLAYER 2024