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Eddy posted an update
Had a game which really opened my eyes today. There is a saying to the effect that you only start to get better at something when you truly realise how bad you are at it and when it comes to chess, for me this game is a great example of exactly that.
I play Rapid (10 mins) games a lot against live players. After starting out at around the 480-on-average mark I’ve slowly fought my way up to the 800-900 Elo ballpark (I fluctuate wildly) over the last 18 months or so. Oddly my highest was 949 over a year ago but that was a peak and I think more luck of the opponent draw than skill.
Most of my progress in the last 100 points gain or so has been down to working on playing good opening principles; developing pieces, not moving the same piece multiple times, not rushing into wild attacks too early, reserving the queen until the mid-game starts and so forth. I’ve had a fairly decent run through trying to retain discipline over the last month or so and had a few games where chess.com estimated 80+% accuracy which is always good to see as it’s at least an indication you’re doing something right.
Context, but I digress. The game in question was one against an opponent rated 940 (I was 918) and I had imposter syndrome and felt I was probably going to lose this. I started with a vanilla opening but didn’t feel I’d done anything majorly wrong but it was clear they were getting the upper hand early on.
Then I made a few moves which I thought were decent, one thing led to another, I snatched their queen, they resigned and I thought I’d done quite well … until I reviewed it. I played worse than most of the games I’ve played to date. So did they; the engine rated me 200 and them 150.
Not dispirited, more aare of just how much more work I have to put in to improve. This one went into the “Re-examine and learn from” category in my library!
Not proud of it at all but we’re here to learn!
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/120146521610 (I’m playing white).
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Edward S and Roberto4 Comments-
(Correction: “Oddly my highest was 949 over a year ago” – no idea where that came from, it was about 910 in August)
… and to round off my little journey, the game I just played after writing the above post, a radically different picture:
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/120146943626?tab=review (I’m playing as black).
Chess is such an amazing game. I love it, I hate it, I’ve got so much to learn and I want to get better at it!
I’m glad to be here, thank you Nelson for creating this course and may we all come out of it better players for it. I’m certain we will 🙂
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Nice miniature. If you are not married to a certain opening as white, you could consider d4. Much less confrontational than e4 and less tactics to consider in the opening. Queens gambit is super solid at any level. If you feel that tactics are an issue I would suggest trying it out.
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Cheers. I’m not married to any openings and I find black difficult to play. I used to play the Caro-Kann a lot but it’s a bit of a ‘hunker down’ approach which I found leads to a congested board with difficulty developing in the mid-game though that may be my lack of technical acumen. My preferred strategy when playing black these days is the King’s Indian which has worked well but I’m not academic when it comes to these things and usually ‘wing it’ after the initial moves which is in part why I’m on this course 🙂
I’m worse with white, usually leading with something vaguely Ruy Lopez-like or the Italian game.
Those are all I know. I play mainly by instinct, which is probably why I lose a lot of games due to making silly mistakes in the latter/end game stages. I also totally suck at spotting a good mate in the end game and that’s something I’m determined to work on!
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Hang in there. My ELO is below yours. Go through and actually think about the lessons here. Play regularly.
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