I have played chess my whole life but was never very good at it.  Every few years I would try to play a chess computer, would easily defeat the first level and find myself completely nuked at level 2.  The learning curve was too steep, I just didn’t get it.  Summer of 2020, I started getting chess videos recommended to me by youtube.  I watched a few, figured out a few small things, and decided to try some things out.  On January 9, 2021, I created an account on chess.com.

This is my story.

Last year that was the intro to an article I wrote.  For some other basic details, read that article here.

This time, I am just going to give a stats update, because, why not.  All of this is based on chess.com, rapid games.  I don’t take blitz seriously and rarely play bullet.  I haven’t played a single daily game in the last year.

One year ago my rating was 1094 with a peak of 1210.  Currently it is 1262 with a peak of 1289 on January 3rd, 2023.  I was hoping to break 1300 before this update, but it didn’t happen.  Below is my progress graph.  It actually looks fairly linear, so that is good.  Despite my peak not changing much, I am clearly a better player, the 2021 peak was artificial, this one is realistic, I have been slowly pushing it up.

In the last year I played 1264 games, with a record of 602 wins, 581 losses, and 81 ties.  My best win was vs a 1330 rated opponent, that win pushed me to the 1289 peak.  My longest win streak was 8, both this year and all time.  I have had a streak of 8 multiple times, but 9 is apparently not possible for me.

As white I was 313-268-42, as black, 289-313-39.

Now the more interesting stuff.

I started to use openingtree.com to analyze my stats in different game stats to see where I struggle.  For example, I suck vs the French defense, so changed to playing the Tarrasch Variation against it.  More on that below.  The site is neat, it sucks in all your games from a website and allows you to see stats from various game positions.

As white, I always play 1. e4.

My record vs various opponent moves on turn 1:

e5 206-149-21

c5 (Sicilian) 31-25-5

d5 23-26-5

e6 (French) 16-26-7

c6 (Caro-Kann) 8-16-1

Others have too small a sample size to worry about.  The C-K is worrying, because I play the Caro as black, so should do better against it as white.

 

Re:  The French Defense, as mentioned earlier.  I used to play the Advance Variation, I am 2-7-1 vs it.  So I switched to the Tarrasch, I am 3-0-1 with it.  So I am now comfortable playing against the French, just need to figure out vs the Caro now.  I have been experimenting with the Fantasy Variation, but haven’t played it in rapid yet, I really don’t know what I am doing with it.  I will say I have already improved a good bit vs the C-K.  I was 1-9-0 playing the Exchange Variation, but switched to the Advance Variation and am 6-6-3.  So much better, but I am still considering the Fantasy instead.

As black, I have to prepare for multiple openings.

e4  199-213-26

d4 55-52-7

Against e4 I played almost exclusively the Caro-Kann, I did misclick and play the Sicilian by accident one game, and won it.  I also lost won game playing e5.  It was almost exactly a year ago that I started playing the C-K vs e4.

Versus d4, I do well.  I used to play the King’s Indian Defense against it, was 53-52-7.  I just started playing the Dutch Defense also, am 2-0-0 so far.

No other openings have enough games to discuss.

Last year there were some mild complains about posting a puzzle based on banned moves (vertical castling), so this year is more straight forward.  Hover for a hint.

White to move and force mate.

 

If you actually made it this far, you deserve music, so here is some chess themed music not from Murray Head.