I tilted... then I recovered

Hi friends! Welcome back to my blog. As I've been preparing for Pan Ams, I played some rapid to try and get some warmup. Yes, playing 10|0 to train for a 90|30 tournament is a genius idea, right? Anywhoo, when I was playing, I experienced several emotions and stages of emotions... including... tilt. 

Now, if you're living under a rock, "tilt" in chess (or, I guess in any competitive context) is losing/performing poorly at such a rapid rate that it builds on each other. So one bad loss turns into six. That's exactly what happened to me. My most recent tilt-fest (Jan 2-3), consisted of a 6-game losing streak. That was not the only rodeo. I had a separate 6-game losing streak on December 28th and a 5-game clunker from Dec 13-19. At some point, I was 1-11 in meaningful rapid games. 

This post will be focused on my most recent 6-game tilt. I thought about picking and choosing one or two to highlight some key moments... but I think I deserve to showcase all of them!  

LOSS #1:

I think loss #1 was a sign of things to come because my opponent hit me with a "Greek Gift" sacrifice, and had I done some basic calculations and accepted it, I would have refuted it and maybe won. 

LOSS #2:

The classic "I was winning until I lost." Yup, I won an exchange vs a weird Dutch (mainly weird on my end). However, I allowed unnecessary counterplay.

LOSS #3:

This game was another example of "I was winning until..." ya know now. This was a little bit cleaner compared to the mess that was loss #2. However, the monster that lurks behind 10|0 games is time pressure... not having a lot of time, to begin with, and no increment. I probably should have at least drawn if I had more time 

LOSS #4:

Let's go; we're halfway done with the losses! I tried to play speculative (for who? idk) with a Rxh2 sacrifice. The funny thing is I am fine after the sac, but it was much better to not sac and maintain my advantage. It was kinda up and down from there but ended down for me.

LOSS #5:

Despite being in the bleak of tilt, I thought that this loss was actually a good game throughout, and my opponent just found some resources and outplayed me.

LOSS #6:

Want to know what tilt rock-bottom is? When you lose while having two queens on the board -_-

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RECOVERING FROM TILT

Finally... after that six-game clown show, the tilt was done. RIP. I think that in order to properly recover from tilt, it's important to win at least two games in a row. That ensures the fact that you're "back in the flow", because one win then ten consecutive losses to follow doesn't validate the snapping of a losing streak. So here is win #1... a little messy, but not a bad game in my opinion.

That was a pretty good game. Not the cleanest, but I'll take it. Can I prove once and for all that I'm out of the tilt-zone?

I won't lie to you guys. The game was special to me, not only for untilting officially (by my definition), but I think I found my playstyle again. I'd say most people past, say 1400 (and some lower), have a set style. Aggressive, positional, dynamic, whatever. I'm a positional player and love generating counterplay on the Queenside. This I felt like reflected how I used to win games when I was in peak form. Sure, who doesn't love a nice [insert piece] sacrifice/combination, but something about winning the game according to my style is satisfying. Anyway, I hope I did a good job demonstrating my thoughts lol.

Also, if I'm counting correctly, I think this was my 1000th rapid win on Chess.com! For what it's worth...

I've won and lost more games since these games. As of this writing, I'm 4-2 my most recent games, which I'm happy about! 

A REFLECTION OF MY TILTING AND UNTILTING

Here are some of my thoughts about what I experienced from the tilting and how I got out!

• First of all, tilting is VERY EASY when you don't recognize your opponent's resources. The advice I always give is that chess is two games: your game and your opponent's game. Put in about as much effort into your opponent's ideas as you do your own.
• Tilting led to some superficial play by me. For example, Rxh2 sac wasn't needed. It wasn't properly calculated out and ended up backfiring. 
• Ultimately, in order to win games, you can't just "play moves and see what happens." You need a gameplan. My first win, I attempted to exploit their weakened King, then when that didn't work, traded into a winning endgame.
• As I mentioned earlier, play true to your style while being as objective as possible. That will help out. 

Also, as of the time of my writing, I'm about to leave for Seattle (over 2000 miles away) for the Pan American Collegiate Championships. It's going to be fun. Baylor boasts the third-lowest team in our section I will have updates on my blog about how I do individually, and how we do as a team. Wish me luck. No. Wish me chess skill. Hopefully, I don't tilt!