Welcome Back to my Blog! :)
Hi friends, and welcome back to my blog! It's been about ten months since I last posted, so I'm very excited to be back writing for the chess community!
I thought about writing a long and elaborate blog post about all of the tournaments I played since I last wrote. However, I realized that would take a lot of time and energy, and I didn't want to do that! Here is a screenshot of the tournaments I played since then, so you can see my rating progression. Warning: all of the tournaments with "dog" or "cat" in their name are hosted by this guy in our local chess club who obviously likes animals! 
So as you can see, a lot of ups and downs. I got as low as 1700, almost being in the 1600s for the first time in forever. But my most recent tournament, I broke 1800, which I am proud of! This post wasn't intended to be one of my usual tournament recap posts, however, why not show off my most recent tournament where I went 4/4 and broke 1800! There won't be as much analysis as usual, you will see the highlights and critical moments of the game. Without further ado!
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Overall a smooth start to the tournament! I did make a couple of mistakes though, but fortunately, they weren't costly, and my opponent didn't punish me!
I knew round 2 would be tough, as my opponent has played well against me in the past. He won the first game we ever played, followed by two draws, and I finally beat him I think the week before in a local quad. He's a very solid player, so I knew I had my work cut out for me with the Black pieces!
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I felt happy after that game. I'm 2-0! My round 3 opponent was also 2-0, both wins against higher rated players. So I knew that this would be a tough game for me, but I was also hopeful that another 1500 should be beatable.
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Well, it's always a relief when your opponent blunders in a tense position. I think this game was a good example though of I was never winning according to the computer, but I had just enough pressure, made him defend, and ended up cracking. Sometimes, that's just what you need to do to win.
My round 4 opponent, Darryl, is a player I've played many times. He had beat me a couple of tournaments ago, but I got him back at a quad. Who would prevail? He was also 3-0, so this game was for all the marbles!
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And we did it! Clean 4-0 sweep, won some decent cash, but more importantly, crossed the 1800 threshold for the first time in two years. It was a great day!
What's Next?
This is the main reason I wrote this blog... to address it. What is the future of my blog... tournaments... content such as Youtube channel and things like that!
Well, let me first of all let you in a tiny bit on my personal life. I recently started a job in Business Intelligence. I had interned for this company last year, so I was excited to rejoin. That said, we're living the post college graduation life, and it's a grind. In theory, I should have more freedom with my time than when I was a student. However, I'm sure many of you can relate, working a day job can be taxing so it's difficult to work on chess after work.
If you look at my tournament history, I've won 11 games in a row (🤓OK, technically, nine, since one of the matches was played over two weeks, and I had a tournament where I lost in between...). Somehow, I was able to do that barely studying. All I would do is some puzzles here and there, and refreshing on opening lines.
That said, I'm deliberately taking a small break from tournaments. Selfishly, I wanna sit on 1800 a little bit. But not just that, I want to get some consistent studying going before I get back into tournaments. I'm probably going to post it in my discord. I'll link to my discord and Youtube (where I'm also gonna start posting) at the end of the post.
I'm still trying to decide what I want to do with my blog. I will still post tournament recaps, which is what I had been doing. I'm also thinking of making more instructional content. During my OTB "break" I may recap my training for the week or something like that. Might also do some cross posts on my Youtube, and take you behind the scenes in my discord.
I think that's about it. Sorry if this wasn't the most eloquent blog post ever. I just wanted to get something out and update you all. Future posts will be quality!
With that said, I will be signing off. I will see you for the next post, but in the meantime, I hope you win all of your chess games. Peace! ✌️
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P.S. please please pleeeeeaaaaasssseeeee join my Discord and subscribe on YouTube!!! 
