Games 99-103

Games 93-98

Games 86-92

Games 80-85

Games 74-79

Games 71-73

Games 65-70

Games 60-64

Lots of great mistakes to pour and agonize over.



This was a correspondence game between my friend Kevin and me. He's much better at chess than me, but I think I gave him a good run for his money this time around. Looking back, I should've taken his bishop on move 14 instead of offering a Queen trade.



I missed a good fork on move 18.

Games 55-59

Games 52-54

Lost by checkmate.



Lost by a stupid checkmate.



Won by resignation.

Games 48-51

Won by checkmate.



Lost by checkmate.



Lost on time.



Won by checkmate.

Games 44-47

Lost by resignation.



Stupid checkmate.



Lots of pieces lost to carelessness. Resigned this one.

Games 39-43

Won by checkmate.


Won by resignation.


Lost by checkmate. If you look closely, I made several mistakes that my opponent completely missed. Not that it helped me any.


Lost by resignation. I got stuck in a nasty bishop-knight combo from the beginning.  4. ... d5 would have blocked the whole evil affair from going through.


Won by resignation.

Games 36-38

Won two, lost one. It's funny how you lose your proclivity for chess, then gain it back again as if it was never really gone. One thing all of these games have in common is me coming back from a deficit in material to win (or almost win) with superior positioning. I always say that chess is less about the pieces and more about the spaces between them, so maybe this would be a good demonstration of that.


Won by checkmate. My opponent really flubbed it on move 29.


Lost by checkmate. Should have moved the pawn to f5 on move 13. I sacrificed a knight for nothing. What ultimately did me in was the pawn box that trapped my king in at the end. g6 at any point would have saved my hide.


Won by resignation. Brought out my queen too early even though I should know better by this point. 13. ... Rxc3 would have moved things along more speedily.

Games 33-35

Won two out of three today and that ain't bad!

Won by resignation.


Lost this one on time. I flubbed it early on in the game, but I managed to go pretty far in making it up. If I had a minute or two longer, I would've nailed em to the wall.


Won this by resignation.

Games 30-32

I won all three games I played yesterday! Finally getting back in my groove.


Won by checkmate.


That's what you get when you try to do some weirdo queen opening!


Won by resignation.

Games 25-29

Won by checkmate.


Lost by checkmate. Should have accepted that queen trade on move 11.


Won by checkmate. My bishop could have taken the rook on move 10.


Lost on motherfucking time. And I was so goddamned close! Queen and knight endgames are quite difficult.

Games 18-24

Pro-tip: never play chess while inebriated.



Lost to checkmate. HOW COULD I HAVE MISSED 8. ... Kxe2!?!! And lose to such an amateur checkmate?! So embarrassing...


Well, at least I made up for it with this guy's stupid mistake.



Lost by resignation. Another stupid queen mistake. I'm just going to trade queens as early as possible. Makes the game much more manageable.


Won by resignation. Yet another queen mistake.


Lost by resignation. These blitz openings are really cheesy and stupid, but ones like this have always stumped me. I managed to contain the queen in h8 for a while, but I should have kept her longer.


Lost by resignation. No point continuing the king and pawn ballet when you're that far down on material. Should have done 7. Kxe4.


Won by resignation. Just another queen mistake. Thrilling in the heat of the moment, but boring in retrospect.

Games 15-17

I won all three games today! I abandoned the opening I had been irrationally attached to and went back to more conventional games.

lichess.org/QbNA3kgE/black

The pawn pattern on g6 and g7 help keep my king safe.


https://lichess.org/VQTeeLU7#0
I won this one by resignation.

https://lichess.org/apT0uNDY/black
I think this was just a stupid mistake on my opponents part in move 8. I could have checkmated earlier with 21. ... Qh2#

Games 12-14

I resigned this one. Move 11 was a serious mistake.


What a fortuitous checkmate! That was definitely intentional, I assure you...

Well, at least I fought to the bitter end.

Games 8-11

Lost on time. Shouldn't have let my knight linger on a5...


Resigned. Maybe I castle too early instead of seizing the center. Should have done 13. ... Bc1. I made a stupid ass mistake on move 22 which threw the whole game for me. I'm starting to think early queen trades are the way to go.



Won by checkmate.


Won on time. Opponent stopped after twelve moves and sat idle for seven or eight minutes until the clock ran out.

Games 4-7

Still out of it, but getting back into my groove. I won only one game, but I would have won more had it not been for my personal oversights.


I won this by resignation.


Should have played 13. Kxd7. The knight would threaten the rook and would have to be dispatched.

13. ...        Kxd7
14. Bxd6  Q(wherever)
15. Bxf8

Either way, my workplace's wifi was acting screwy, so the server auto resigned.


Lost this one on time. 45 moves is way too many. Gotta tighten up.

As in life, one oversight can cost you everything. I had them on the ropes, but the h2 pawn betrayed me. After castling, it's always a wise idea to move one of the pawns forward a little ways into the game. In this case, g3 would have saved me.

And why didn't I take that e5 pawn earlier?! Gah!

I played another game, but the person resigned after three or four moves. I won't count it, but at least it brought my rating up.

Games 1-3

Thankfully my goal isn't to win 1,000 games of chess this year, because then I'd be in trouble. I lost all three games, but I finally began to get my bearings towards the end.



The less said of game #1, the better.



This game was going good until move 27. I should have moved the queen to H6. Instead, I ruined the pawn structure that was keeping his rook at bay. 31. d4 wasn't too bright, either. The pawn blocked off any help my queen could have provided when the fix started coming in.



My biggest takeaway from game three was that's it's sometimes better to sacrifice a few pieces to clear up the board than to cling on to them behind an impenetrable wall of pawns. My mobility was totally shot to shit.