Journey to Master
Submitted by
on Thu, 12/04/2008 at 12:23pm.
12/05/2008 (ELO 1737, down 85 points, 463 points to go to Master)
I've started communications with an IM who I will be paying for some coaching. Hopefully I will be teachable enough for him to help me out. We are going to start by him analysing some of my recent tournament games. I suspect an IM picking apart my games will be painful yet revealing. More info later.
12/04/2008 (ELO 1737, down 85 points, 463 points to go to Master)
I recently got back into chess after a 10-year hiatus. Before quitting completely, I had obtained a provisional rating of 1822. At my best, I was probably an 1800 player. Life happened and I dropped out of tournament play in 1998. Now it's 2008 and I've come back to chess with a new goal. I want to obtain the USCF Master rating of 2200. Difficult? Yes. Impossible? Hopefully not.
My results thus far are not so good. My first game back, I tanked to an 1100 player. It was an unbelievable loss for me. I managed to get 2.0 points out of 4 rounds of that tournament and take some dignity back home.
My next tournament I actually tied for first, drawing with the only other undefeated player in the final 4th round and finishing with 3.5 points.
My next tournament I found old habits coming back: moving too quickly, attacking too early, time trouble. I left with 1.5 points and doubts. To top it off, I had my pet defense dismantled in the last roung by a player about 100 points below me.
As of today, 12/04/08, I am rated at 1737. I'm going the wrong direction and have a long way to go.