Tag: chess

After exactly 6,000 rapid games on chess.com, I’ve decided to take a break. What this means is still to be determined, but I got some interesting insights from this first burst into the game of chess.

As expected, after a fairly quick climb in my rating I reached what feels like an unmovable wall. That’s how it’s supposed to work: you keep winning against progressively better opponents until you find opponents that are better than you, and then you start losing. That’s how your rating gets determined. Mine found its plateau between 1300 and 1350, with eventual drops into the upper 1200s and one heroic jump beyond 1400 (which only lasted for a couple of games).

I’ve been playing many games and learning a few things, but if I want to really evolve I need to study (especially openings). And studying chess, at least for me, is not as fun as playing chess. It requires time and patience, and it comes with the knowledge that no matter how much I study my progress is going to be minimal in the great scheme of things. I’m too old and probably not sufficiently talented to learn enough to be competitive at any serious level. That doesn’t make me sad, it just doesn’t give me much incentive to put serious time into studying chess. A rating of 1300 is already beyond my initial expectations and I’m happy with that.

Another thing worth mentioning is the emotional aspect of playing chess. I was extremely surprised with the exhilarating highs and crushing lows that it elicits.

When you win, you get a profound sense of accomplishment. When a well-thought-out strategy unfolds as planned, and every move you make outmaneuvers your opponent, the satisfaction is immense. The thrill of predicting your opponent’s moves and laying traps that lead to victory can be incredibly rewarding. The sheer intellectual challenge of chess, combined with the rush of outsmarting an opponent, makes it one of the most exhilarating experiences a player can have. 

When you lose, the sense of frustration is overpowering. The game demands intense concentration, patience, and foresight. A single misstep can unravel an entire strategy, leading to a swift and often unforgiving defeat. The disappointment of realizing that a mistake has cost you the game, especially after investing significant mental energy, can be overwhelming. This feeling is compounded by the fact that in chess, there are no elements of luck, only skill and decision-making. This means that when things go wrong, the responsibility lies squarely on the player’s shoulders.

Adding to the vexation, when you are playing online, there is the suspicion that sometimes your opponent may be cheating. The obvious cheaters are not a problem: they play so perfectly that the system clearly recognizes that they are being assisted by a computer, and they are soon banned. However, I have encountered too many people who play poorly at the beginning of the game, finding themselves at a clear and overwhelming disadvantage in the middle game, and then start playing like machines, every move perfect, with amazing tactical combinations several moves deep. Either they called a grand master to finish the game they started so ineptly or they decided to use computer help once they saw they couldn’t win the game by themselves. And because of the bad decisions they make at the beginning, the average precision for the whole game is not high enough to raise suspicion from the anti-cheating system. It’s very irritating.

I still highly enjoy playing chess. But I have decided to take a break for now. Will I study openings and come back toughened up and ready for a challenge? I don’t know yet. Will I not study and still return to the game, content with my current rating, and just be glad to play for fun without expecting any meaningful advancement? I don’t know yet. Will I never play chess again? I don’t think that’s a possibility.

Well, it didn’t take long. The first five games necessary for getting my rating on chess.com, all victories. The sixth game, a defeat. I was rated 1264 and got paired against a 1313 player. That’s what I expected from the beginning, advancing to a rating that reflected my abilities and then being held there by being paired against stronger opponents. So after fifty games my rating is not much different than after five games. I managed to cross the 1300 barrier, but was sent back down by a few defeats.

I am now at rating 1276, with 27 games won (54.0%), 2 drawn (4.0%), and 21 lost (42.0%). 100% win rate against opponents up to 1199, 48.1% win rate against opponents up to 1299, and 35.7% win rate against opponents higher than 1300. Average accuracy: 73.48. If I am to improve those numbers, I believe I need to do two main things. The first one is to learn more about openings. Many of my losses were due to a weak position after responding poorly to openings I didn’t know. The second one is to pay more attention and to play slower. I make silly mistakes because I don’t see some threats and move my pieces too fast before fully analyzing the position.

My next step is to be humble and study a book of chess for beginners. I chose Levy Rozman‘s new book How to Win at Chess, which is supposed to walk you from the very basics of the game to an intermediate level. I don’t forget that my current rating is already beyond my original goals, but I see room for some improvement. Let’s see whether a little study can make me a better player or if I’m already at my peak.

(This is the end of the post. What follows is just a list of notes for my own use, which you will probably find boring. Move on to the next post.)

*****

I will list below a long series of short notes I made about my first fifty games (well, the first five are here: Learning to play chess: my first five games). They are of little interest to most people, but I wanted to leave it registered for my own use and this seems to be a good place to do it.

For my first defeat, I was paired against a player with a rating of 1313. The game was pretty even for the first 20 moves. Then I secured an advantage by capturing two pawns, let him capture three of mine, and forced a trade of a knight for a pawn (otherwise I would crown the pawn). I was happy with my position but let my guard down and was forked, losing a bishop and arriving at hopeless situation on move 32. After that, I still fought for another 20 moves but was unable to stop his extra pawn from crowning, and decided to resign. That cost me 45 points in my rating. Despite losing, I got reasonable good marks in the game review: “You had a pretty competitive game there. The opening was balanced. It was an incredible middlegame by both of you. You both battled pretty evenly in the endgame.” My accuracy was 78.8, against 81.0 from my opponent. Estimated 1450 rating for this game, against 1500 from my opponent. Opponent from: Bangladesh. Opening: Colle System.

I rebounded from that defeat with a victory by resignation on the 13th move with the black pieces after my opponent blundered his queen. My accuracy was 78.2. Estimated 1400 rating for this game. Opponent from: Georgia. Opening: Saragossa.

Another victory by resignation with the black pieces, this time on the 52nd move. My accuracy was 62.2. Estimated 1050 rating for this game. Opponent from: Georgia. Opening: King’s Fianchetto. With this victory I reached a rating of 1307.

A strange game here. With the white pieces, I opened with 1.d4. My opponent immediately offered a draw. I refused and he aborted the game. Curiously, it didn’t count as a loss for him or a victory for me.

With the black pieces once more, a sad loss in the endgame, with one of his paws too fast for my king. My accuracy was 72.3. Estimated 1250 rating for this game. Opponent from: United Kingdom. Opening: Accelerated London System. Back to a rating of 1264.

With the white pieces, I played a ridiculous game where I had to resign on the 20th move for playing so badly. I just put my queen in a place where it could be captured by a pawn. My accuracy was 65.1. Estimated 1100 rating for this game. Opponent from: France. Opening: Zuketort, Chigorin Variation. Back to a rating of 1230.

White pieces again, and a victory by checkmate on the 38th move. My accuracy was 87.2. Estimated 1650 rating for this game. Opponent from: USA. Opening: Indian Game: East Indian, Colle, Grunfeld Formation. Rating of 1254 now.

Another victory with the white pieces, by resignation on the 41st move when mate in three was unavoidable. The computer said I played two great moves. My accuracy was 73.3. Estimated 1250 rating for this game. Opponent from: India. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Zukertort Variation. Rating of 1275 now.

I was playing such a good game with the black pieces, with an advantage of three pawns and a good position, and then on move 27 I blundered a bishop and resigned in frustration. My accuracy was 77.8. Estimated 1450 rating for this game. Opponent from: Canada. Opening: King’s Gambit.

With the white pieces, I got a quick victory by resignation on the 16th move, after some tactical combinations left my opponent down 17 points of material. My accuracy was 77.4. Estimated 1350 rating for this game. Opponent from: USA. Opening: Englund Gambit. Rating of 1270 now.

The next game was strange. My opponent was playing at a certain low level (even got a bishop trapped) and then suddenly started to play much better, like a computer. I felt he was cheating. But I didn’t play well either. My accuracy was 58.3. Estimated 950 rating for this game. Opponent from: Mexico. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Zukertort Variation. Rating of 1246 now.

Another loss with the black pieces, by resignation on move 40, in a hopeless position. He had a well studied opening and I had no answer for that. My accuracy was 58.3 (exactly the same as in the previous game). Estimated 900 rating for this game. Opponent from: Indonesia. Opening: King’s Gambit Accepted. Rating of 1224 now.

Then I played what was possibly my worst game ever. Good opening with the white pieces, a bishop sacrifice to corner his king, then two great moves, and when I was ready to give the final blow I blundered a piece exchange and resigned. My accuracy was 75.5. Estimated 1350 rating for this game. Opponent from: Brazil. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Horwitz Defense. Rating of 1206 now.

Finally, after several defeats, a victory with the black pieces, by checkmate. The game was decided much earlier, but my opponent decided to play until the end, even after he lost all his pieces and his king was all alone. My accuracy was 81.0. Estimated 1500 rating for this game. Opponent from: Canada. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Zukertort Variation. Rating of 1226 now.

And then a victory by checkmate on the 37th move with the white pieces. My opponent was paying attention to the pawn race we were engaged on, trying to crown his pawn first, and didn’t realize I was going to use my pawn not to make another queen but to trap his king. My accuracy was 80.1. Estimated 1450 rating for this game. Opponent from: USA. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Zukertort, Chigorin Variation. Rating of 1245 now.

And another win by checkmate, this time with the black pieces on the 54th move. He had more pawns in the endgame, but I had a passed pawn closer to the final line. He still tried to crown a pawn but missed the checkmate of queen and knight. The computer said I had five great moves, my record so far in a single game. My accuracy was 78.9. Estimated 1450 rating for this game. Opponent from: USA. Opening: English Opening: Reversed Sicilian, Kramnik-Shirov Counterattack. Rating of 1264 now.

Game number 21 was my fastest win so far. My opponent, playing with the white pieces, hung a knight on move four and resigned on move five after I took it. My accuracy was 100 (which is funny for just five moves). Estimated 2100 rating for this game. Opponent from: Indonesia. Opening: Queen’s Gambit Declined: Baltic, Pseudo-Slav Defense (does anyone know all these names?). Rating of 1282 now.

Then I got a victory by checkmate with the white pieces on move 31. My accuracy was 80.5. Estimated 1500 rating for this game. Opponent from: India. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Zuketort Variation. Rating of 1298 now.

The next game was a very bitter draw with the black pieces. I was moving my rook to apply checkmate when my time ran out and the game was declared a “drawn by timeout vs insufficient material” (king, queen and rook vs king). That taught me a lesson: enable premoves, so I can play faster in situations like these. Since my opponent was higher rated than me, the draw still gave me 4 points, enough to take me to 1302. My accuracy was 80.4. Estimated 1550 rating for this game. Opponent from: USA. Opening: King’s Pawn Opening: Leonardis Variation. Rating of 1302 now.

Another early resignation in the next game, as my opponent surrendered on move 11 with the black pieces, after realizing the only way to stop my early attack on the king was by sacrificing his queen. My accuracy was 92.7. Estimated 1950 rating for this game. Opponent from: India. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Zuketort, Chigorin Variation. Rating of 1318 now.

Then I got totally outplayed by another Indian player who knew his opening better than I did. I resigned on move 30. My accuracy was 76.9. Estimated 1400 rating for this game. Opponent from: India. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Horwitz Defese. Rating of 1302 now.

I thought I was going to lose the next game as well, with the black pieces, because I got to the endgame with three pawns less than my opponent. But I played a solid and stubborn defense and managed to take the advantage after 62 moves. He resigned. My accuracy was 84.2. Estimated 1600 rating for this game. Opponent from: Italy. Opening: Ruy Lopes Opening: Morphy Defese. Rating of 1315 now.

It seems that every time I pass the mark of 1300 I start losing. This time I resigned on move 46 with the black pieces, after getting outplayed in the endgame. My accuracy was 70.5. Estimated 1200 rating for this game. Opponent from: India. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Zuketort Variation. Rating of 1300 now.

And then I made my worst mistake ever, blundering my white queen on the 13th move and resigning immediately. My accuracy was 60.7. Estimated 1000 rating for this game. Opponent from: Uruguay. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Horwitz Defense. Rating of 1290 now.

It’s sad and funny at the same that that my next opponent also blundered his queen and resigned, on move 16 with the black pieces. My accuracy was 69.9. Estimated 1250 rating for this game. Opponent from: Mexico. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Zuketort Variation. Rating of 1304 now.

For my 30th game, I played the Blackburne Shilling Gambit with the black pieces, one of the very few opening tricks I know. My opponent was clearly not familiar with it and was checkmated on move 7 (that’s the main image for this blog post). My accuracy was 92.9. Estimated 1950 rating for this game. Opponent from: Argentina. Opening: Blackburne Shilling Gambit. Rating of 1316 now.

Not a good day for chess. Three losses in a row, and one was not even my fault.

I thought I had a solid position with the black pieces but then my opponent started taking my pawns, one, two, three, and that was a poor endgame for me with that material disadvantage. Resigned on move 50. My accuracy was 79.7. Estimated 1550 rating for this game. Opponent from: USA. Opening: Bishop’s opening, Berlin Defense. Rating of 1303 now.

The next game was befuddling. I had my opponent one move from checkmate. He sacrificed a bishop to avoid that. And then four moves later he checkmated me. I totally missed that, it was the first time I was checkmated in all my games. Very disappointing. My accuracy was 64.3. Estimated 1550 rating for this game. Opponent from: Kazakhstan. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Zukertort, Chigorin Variation. Rating of 1293 now.

Another frustrating experience. I was doing well with the white pieces, up a bishop on move 35, and then the electricity went off. Lost by abandonment. That brought me down to rating 1281.

Finally, I got a victory, with the white pieces. My opponent lost a rook in some poorly calculated piece exchange, and resigned on move 24. My accuracy was 78.1. Estimated 1450 rating for this game. Opponent from: Philippines. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Anti-Torre Attack. Rating of 1290 now.

Then a victory with the black pieces, by resignation on move 54. My opponent actually tried to give me the Scholar’s Mate. I defended appropriately, of course, and the computer classified my sixth move, a knight sacrifice, as brilliant. It’s my first brilliancy ever. My accuracy was 76.0. Estimated 1350 rating for this game. Opponent from: India. Opening: Bishop Opening. Rating of 1298 now.

Appalling game. Big blunder on move 22 with the black pieces, gave a rook away and resigned. My accuracy was the worst ever, 46.7. Estimated 600 rating for this game. Opponent from: Philippines. Opening: King’s Gambit. Rating of 1286 now.

Another defeat. Slowly outplayed, little by little lost material, got to the endgame with my bishop and two pawns against his rook and two pawns, nothing to do but resign. My accuracy was 69.4. Estimated 1150 rating for this game. Opponent from: Indonesia. Opening: Englund Gambit. Rating of 1278 now.

Finally, a win. With the white pieces, in an endgame of queen and pawns, I outmatched my opponent and he resigned on move 61. My accuracy was 73.4. Estimated 1300 rating for this game. Opponent from: Romania. Opening: King’s Pawn Opening: Goldsmith Defense. I’m not sure how this can be a King’s Pawn Opening if I started with 1.d4. Perhaps it’s a transposition, because I played 2.e4? Rating of 1287 now.

A blunder on the 18th move with the black pieces makes me lose the will to play. After losing a bishop that I didn’t see was being attacked, I resigned. My accuracy was 69.3. Estimated 1200 rating for this game. Opponent from: Russia. Opening: Polish Opening. Rating of 1277 now.

The next game, again with black, wasn’t much better. I messed up the opening so badly that I ended up resigning on move 28, feeling totally defeated. My accuracy was 62.2. Estimated 1050 rating for this game. Opponent from: Philippines. Opening: Blackburn Shilling Gambit Declined. Rating of 1267 now.

A draw is better than a loss, so I imagine I shouldn’t be sad about this game. I got a good material advantage but my opponent was lucky that he could force a draw by repetition. My accuracy was 69.0. Estimated 1200 rating for this game. Opponent from: Philippines. Opening: Indian Game: East Indian. Rating of 1268 now.

A little victory to get me going. Endgame of black rook and bishop (me) versus white rook and knight (him) resulted in his resignation on move 47. My accuracy was 75.0. Estimated 1350 rating for this game. Opponent from: Bosnia and Herzegovina. Opening: Blackburn Shilling Gambit Declined. Rating of 1276 now.

It seems every time I start to gain a little confidence I’m paired with a stronger opponent. This one had three Great Moves (according to the computer) and made me resign with the white pieces on move 42. My accuracy was 70.9. Estimated 1200 rating for this game. Opponent from: New Zealand. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Krause Variation. Rating of 1268 now.

Checkmate on move 66 with the white pieces makes me smile again, especially against a higher rated opponent who started the game with an insulting trap (1. d4 e5, 2.dxe5 Bc5, 3. f3 d6, 4. exd6 Ne7, trying to get my queen). My accuracy was 74.9. Estimated 1350 rating for this game. Opponent from: United Arab Emirates. Opening: Englund Gambit. Rating of 1278 now.

Got a bad opening, with material advantage but allowing my opponent to have two unstoppable connected passed pawns. Resigned on move 37. My accuracy was 68.9. Estimated 750 rating for this game. Opponent from: France. Opening: Blackburn Shilling Gambit Declined. Rating of 1268 now.

Then a quick victory with the black pieces, to keep my spirit up. My opponent resigned on move 25 after I trapped his queen. My accuracy was 80.2. Estimated 1450 rating for this game. Opponent from: Indonesia. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening. Rating of 1274 now.

Lost the next one with the black pieces in an endgame against pawn superiority and a stronger opponent. Resigned on move 67. My accuracy was 71.7. Estimated 1300 rating for this game. Opponent from: Canada. Opening: Slav Defense. Rating of 1268 now.

A strange game where my opponent tried to attack me very early and very forcefully with the black pieces, and after I defended myself appropriately he resigned on move 21. Even though I played solidly enough to make him resign, the computer wanted me to follow some other plan and gave me very low scores for not doing it. My accuracy was 49.9. Estimated 700 rating for this game. Opponent from: Kazakhstan. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Horwitz Defense. Rating of 1275 now.

I consider very poor sportsmanship when the player is about to be checkmated and, instead of letting it happen or resigning the game, lets the clock run until he loses on time. That’s what happened in this game, where I won with the black pieces on move 88 in a rook and pawns endgame. My accuracy was 73.3. Estimated 1300 rating for this game. Opponent from: Iran. Opening: Scotch Game. Rating of 1283 now.

To close my first series of fifty games I had a very silly loss where I wasn’t really paying attention to what I was doing and made a couple of serious blunders. Resigned on move 19. My accuracy was 64.5. Estimated 1100 rating for this game. Opponent from: France. Opening: Queen’s Pawn Opening: Zukertort Variation. Rating of 1276 now.

So, I put my plan in motion and began playing at chess.com. I started unrated and had to play five games to get my first rating.

In the first game I got a victory by resignation on the 16th move, after my white knight forked the black king and queen. But the game review said I played with only 69.5 accuracy. I guess it didn’t like me taking too long to check mate. Despite that, it said I played two great moves. Estimated 900 rating for this game. Opponent from: Philippines. Opening: Ruy López, Morphy Defense, Deferred Schliemann Defense (I wish I knew that’s what I was playing).

The second game, playing with the black pieces, I won by checkmate on the 43rd move. This time I had a much better accuracy, 83.0. Estimated 1350 rating for this game. Opponent from: India. Opening: Queen’s Pawn , 1 … c6.

The third game, playing with the black pieces again, I won by resignation on the 25th move, after my knight forked the king and a rook. My accuracy here was 76.5. Estimated 1200 rating for this game. Opponent from: Indonesia. Opening: King’s Pawn, Leonardis Variation.

I won the fourth game with the white pieces on the 48th move, by checkmate. There was a moment where I thought I was lost, but I managed to play a discovered attack on the black queen with check (a great move, said the computer) and that turned the game around. My accuracy here was 73.3. Estimated 1200 rating for this game. Opponent from: Brazil. Opening: Colle System (I learned that from Rey Enigma on YouTube).

The fifth game, with the black pieces, I won on the 20th move by resignation, after my opponent miscalculated an exchange of pieces and emerged with one piece less than me. My accuracy was the highest so far, 82.8. Estimated 1550 rating for this game. Opponent from: USA. Opening: Queen’s Pawn, Chigorin Variation.

So, after five games, I have a rating. To my surprise it’s 1264, beyond my realistic goal of 1000 and my optimistic goal of 1200. But I don’t think it will be so easy from now on, as I will keep getting stronger opponents. I expect my rating to stand around this level or even go down, because soon I will find players who will defeated me. I’m curious to see when I will encounter this brick wall.

It would be an exaggeration to say that I know how to play chess. Yes, when I was a kid I learned how to move the pieces and also a few basic principles (control the center, develop knights before bishops, etc). That doesn’t entitle me to say that I am a chess player. But one of my projects for 2024 (yes, I have many projects) is to properly learn how to play chess.

I have a plan. I will start by creating an account on chess.com. Then, before playing any real games, I will study all their tutorials and practice a bit against the computer. Only after all that I will start playing against other players, and analyzing my games in the hope of learning from my mistakes. I will play rapid games, ten minutes for each player, which I think is a good time control for a beginner like me. Their system pairs players of similar levels, so I believe I will advance fast through the rankings at the beginning, until I reach my real level. Then I will start getting paired against players who are a bit stronger than me, and that’s when I will have to get used to losing more than winning.

I’ve established a quantifiable goal for this project. Actually, two goals. One realistic and one optimistic. According to the International Chess Federation (FIDE), the best players in the world, usually called super grand masters, have a rating above 2700. On December 2023, only 35 people in the whole world were part of that elite group. And only one was above the 2800 mark. That’s Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen, possibly the best player of all time. The ratings at chess.com are a bit above the FIDE ratings, so I will round up the top rating to 3000 (for someone like me, 2700 is as unattainable as 3000) and use that number as a reference for my goals. The realistic goal is to reach one third of that mark, a rating of 1000. That would make me comfortable saying I know how to play chess. The optimistic goal is to reach 40% of that mark, a rating of 1200. Anything beyond that would require an enormous effort and may not even be possible. But it’s good to have goals.