I Forgot How To Chess...

Why hello there, welcome to the Lightning Reports! Wow, it has been a minute, hasn't it? I'm not even sure if y'all remember me and my quirky blogs. Am I a has-been in the blogging world now? 

Apologies to the people who enjoy my blogs for some reason, for I have not posted since September. Nowadays I'm only interested in writing about my otb chess adventures, and I recently had a lengthy 5-month break from otb chess... which meant no blogs for at least 5 months. However, I got an opportunity to compete a few weeks ago, and after putting this off for all of February, I'm finally here to recap the event. Ya know, so that future me can look back on this and have a good laugh at it. Oh and for my dear readers to have a good laugh as well of course. Anywho, let's get to it!

TOURNAMENT DETAILS

• There are 23 players in my section, myself included. I am the 4th highest-rated player here. 3 NMs towering above me, 6 experts right behind me. Strong competition.
• 5-round event. Time control for rounds 1-3 is G/90;d5, and time control for rounds 4-5 is G/120;d5.
• My goal is to win it all... but I'll settle for not embarrassing myself too much after 5 months away from otb chess. Just don't lose too much rating...

ROUND ONE

Alright, here we go. I'm ready to play some chess. After winning Alabama's state championship last September, I've continued to stay away from Alabama chess. It simply isn't worth it to go play in the local events as I am always one of the highest-rated players competing, and what often happens is I am basically playing to not lose rating, as opposed to playing to gain rating. And based on what the playing fields look like in the tournaments I missed since September, for the most part, I have no regrets. So why am I coming out of hiding now after 5 months? Well. There are 3 NMs registered for this event. 3! If I can survive against the lower-rated players and get a chance to play one of the NMs... I could gain rating. And thus, on February 3rd, 2024 I find myself on my way to Tuscaloosa to play some chess, filled with hope that I may play someone stronger than myself, and very excited to play some chess...

...and then I got a bye. My first-round opponent requested a half-point bye beforehand, so I shouldn't have been paired with him, which led to me receiving a full-point bye. So, uh... 1/1 now, great? Lol ok, so I wasn't overly thrilled, because I wanted to play. But now I don't have to risk my rating in round one, and I get to rest for 3 hours. My round one experience consisted of exploring the building, reading a book, resisting the temptation to fall asleep for the rest of the day, and preparing for round 2. It was nice and relaxing and I came to view this accidental bye as a blessing in disguise. All in all, I'm 1/1 to start the event, so I can't complain. I'm chillin. 

ROUND TWO

*Take two*

Alright, here we go. I'm ready to play some chess. And look at that, this time I got paired with someone who was actually there... but the pairings weren't workin in my favor. I was paired with Georgia's young and extremely talented Saharsh Santosh. I played him a year and a half ago when he was a 1700. Now he's up to 1940 and causing problems for my fellow Alabamians. Heck, he nearly drew me as a 1700. Dangerous opponent here... he put up quite the fight and gave me a very interesting game.

Welp. Things got a little crazy there. I did my best to navigate that mess of a middlegame but failed to capitalize. I do wonder how it might have played out if I had managed my time better, enabling me to think longer at the end and figure it all out. Practically I think I played fairly well, but not as well as I should be playing in these games. I'll give myself a slight pass since it was my first real game in 5 months... but that's certainly not great. But hey, I didn't lose. I'll take the draw there, all things considered. I've got a 1.5/2 score and shook off some rust, so that's pretty solid. But I probably can't afford to take a loss now if I want to gain rating. The pressure is on...

ROUND THREE

Well, it has been an... interesting event so far. A first-round bye that shouldn't have happened, and a hectic round-two game that didn't fully go my way. This next game is a big one for sure. I was paired with 2021 Alabama State Champion Chibuzo Ilonze and this is a tricky matchup for me. He is rated 2006 but fully capable of playing much better than that (his peak rating, non-provisional, is 2161). He should have beaten me when we played last year. Heck, he's actually coming off a win against an NM in round two. He's a very strong player who is also 100 points below me, so that isn't ideal, but I was ready for a good game... 

Now that's a game I was happy with (until I looked at it with the engine and got yelled at). There we go! The opening was a little iffy - I can't recall another time I had my knights on e1 and d1 at the same time like that - and that middlegame was better for me but I messed it up. I'm disappointed with how I played the middlegame, slowly giving away all of my advantage. But I am pretty happy with my endgame play there, that was pretty nice. There was more good than bad from this game, and I didn't end up blowing it in the end, so I'm happy with it. 

ROUND FOUR

Well alrighty, I somehow find myself on board 1 now with 2.5/3, playing for first place. I felt pretty fortunate so far, I barely managed to win in round three, the round 2 draw coulda gone either way, and round 1 was gifted to me. And yet, here I am, two wins away from winning this very odd tournament. First, though, I've got my steepest challenge so far... Aaron Decord. My most played opponent. This was our 11th regular-rated game. I used to be terrified of playing him because... well, he always beat me, and it wasn't usually close. He was always better than me. These past few years though I seemingly caught up to him. I've had his number lately as well. Which I knew wouldn't last... I knew it was bound to be his turn to win. I was pretty determined to not let it happen here though, not on board 1, at the Queen of Hearts, with first place on the line. Nope, there's no way I'm about to let him beat me on board 1 in a huge game here. No way.

Yeah... so... about that... look I promise I'm good at chess, mkay. Even in this game, I played with 99 accuracy before I threw the game away. Which honestly makes the end sting even more. Yikes. Sometimes I just forget how to chess...

For real though, what the heck? I can't remember the last time I made such an awful move, I really can't. For all you can say about my flaws at the board, it's not often I blunder like that. I knew once I made the move that I had thrown the game away. I hoped and prayed my opponent would somehow miss it. But of course, my opponent knew at once. He seemed as shocked as I was that I blundered a whole piece like that. Even now, weeks later, I'm still shocked I did that. As devastating as it is, the best thing to do after that is process the loss, forget it, and move on, cause there's still one game remaining. Gotta be ready for that. But hey, let this show y'all.... even masters blunder. I'm a USCF CM, Alabama's reigning state champion, and I still blunder pieces. It happens. Not often, but it happens. We all blunder... we are human, after all. Just gotta try our best to not blunder and strive to make the best moves. On and off the board. 

Good game, Aaron. This won't happen again...

ROUND FIVE

I now have a 2.5/4 score and my tournament is ruined. I'm guaranteed to lose at least some rating points no matter how round 5 goes. If I lose round 5 then the rating loss would be devastating. A win means I lose very little. In the end... I was still here playing to not lose rating. I was understandably unhappy with my situation - blundering a piece to ruin your entire tournament just like that tends to make a guy unhappy - but I can finish strong. The pairings were again not kind to me, pairing me with Michael Porcelli who was having an amazing tournament, enjoying wins over two NMs. Michael is an opponent I never want to face as he is capable of beating anyone here... he's got two wins against me in the past, and I've learned the hard way that he will beat me if I give him an edge. I was pretty motivated to not lose though. My 2100 rating could have been on the line. And in general, I always want to finish strong in a tournament, going home with a last-round loss is never fun. After what I did in round 4, I figured it couldn't get worse here.

Wow. I never would have expected that in the opening. If his goal was to surprise me then he succeeded there. He definitely had me thinking. I was very careful not to mess up early on and I'm pretty happy with how I handled it. I have some things to work on here, but overall I'm happy with the game. Good game, Michael, hoping we don't have to play again any time soon...

FINAL THOUGHTS

And with that, I finished with 3.5/5, and I even accidentally tied for 3rd place and won $60. I paid $80 to play, so I almost got my entry fee back at least, that was a pleasant surprise. And when all was said and done, I only lost two rating points, dropping me to 2135. Not bad. I'm 7 points off from my peak, which is nice. I went 5 months without playing otb, showed up to this tournament with little to no preparation, played some weak chess for a 2100, lost my mind, and blundered a piece at one point... and only lost 2 points. Honestly, I'll take that. I'm thankful I got to play and I'm thankful I only lost 2 rating points. And I'm even thankful for that horrid loss I took... it has become an instructive game that I've proudly shown off to several students of mine who were shocked to see that I blundered a piece 😅

THE "GOOD JOB, YOU MADE IT TO THE END" PART OF THE BLOG

Good job, you made it to the end. Whether you read all that, skipped here, or even went straight to the comments to say "first" or "good blog" without reading, congratulations, you exerted effort. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed your time here. I enjoy writing these up for those of you who like my blogs for reasons beyond my comprehension, and I enjoy embarrassing myself by sharing some of my worst moves. Hopefully y'all learned something from my games here. I sure did lol

Now, as for what's next... Lord willing, I'll be playing in April in an invitational event in Bama. That should be a great event, if I actually remember how to chess then I could earn a new peak rating... and more. We'll see what happens, and I'll keep y'all updated here. Beyond that, I don't know with certainty when I will play otb again, but I would expect to play somewhere late in May or early June. TBD. I'm 65 points away from NM right now, possibly one big tournament away. Or a couple of really good ones. I'm eager to go out and play some chess. 

One other casual side note here btw... I'm thinking about starting a YouTube channel, I've had a lot of people in the past tell me that I should. So I figure I might as well gauge interest here... let me know if that's a terrible idea or not 😅 I might just do it regardless, for fun, and see if I enjoy it. 

Anywho, thanks again for reading, I hope you enjoyed your time here, and I will see y'all in the comments 🙃