Day 20

Rating 1804

Puzzle Rush Score 38

Today I played one game to get my rating over 1800. I wanted to take a good look at the game seeing it was a small rating milestone, so I spent some time analyzing it.

I started the Climb To 2000 series with a rating of 1668. In 20 days my rating has increased by almost 150 points, which is great. It is however starting to become more of a grind and I am finding my opponents in the 1850-1900 range quite challenging to play against.

My rating may drop a bit before it gets higher again. I keep reminding myself that it is more important to continue learning than to worry about what my rating is. Something of even greater importance is to have fun and enjoy chess and growing my knowledge of the game.

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The Kings Indian

A few Kings Indian examples given in one of the chess.com training lessons.

 

 

 

 

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Day 19

Rating 1796

Puzzle Rush Score 39

Today I played a bit of 2/1 bullet chess and I am hopeless at it. I much prefer longer games and find that I learn more from the longer games too as there are far less blunders.

I played four 5 minute blitz games with an even score and my rating remained the same.

I continued to practice using the Kings Indian Defense in my games and I continued to lose. I did some training on the opening as well.

Here is a nice game where Garry Kasparov wins by wielding the Kings Indian with excellent precision.

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Blitz Game

This game was an interesting example of calculation. I had thought out and calculated a line that I believed was good. However, my calculation stopped after 3 moves and then on the 4th move my opponent had a move to stop me in my tracks. Luckily for me my opponent missed the move and I ended up with a winning position. It really shows though how its best to always calculate 1 extra move (or more if you have time and the position requires it).

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