OP is a Fide CM already it seems which is quite a bit more prestigious than crossing 2000.

Depends how it was earned. There are a lot of ways to earn FIDE titles these days that aren't indicative of having achieved the level of skill indicated. Perhaps OP could be nice enough to link us to his FIDE page?

I got it from a tournament, as I said in my post. I initially saw some prestige in that, and did brag, but I realise it doesn't mean that much now, so I haven't even mentioned it for a long time. Also I don't link personal details on internet, its nothing to do with chess, please respect that, thank you.

I'm below 2200 (which is required for CM normally) but I've never claimed to be good either. In fact, I don't have that much talent either (alot of confidence issue, lack of focus etc). But I'm surround by alot of FM/IM/GM players and alot of them have given me great deal of help, and hopefully it will translate to improvement.




You're half right about 50% tactics and 50% endgames, its probably something like 70%+ tactics. In terms of the endgames, I get alot of constrasting opinions, some IMs think it's more important to do opening preparation nowadays. But I balanced it abit and do both opening and endgames. I'm happy with my coach and his recommendations atm (in fact I just had a lesson)... I haven't played any FIDE tournies in the last 2.5 years apart from one because of studies and lack of funds, but been doing well in the national rated tournaments and online.

I know you don't like this thread as a whole, because of the "I did nothing period" a few years back when I was completely head over my heels between work, poker and university, where I was just being super honest to try to keep myself accountable. You think most chess blogger would actually straight up post about their failure to study properly, most people would be too embarrassed to post about that but I did and caught alot of flack as a result (deservedly).

I plan to actually take a gap sem to travel overseas maybe last 2018 to early 2019 to play a series of few tournaments which I've been saving up money for. I don't mind posting my progress and performance ratings then.

But yeah I hope you guys keep the vibe positive here ty

I'll post some tournament games I recently played, just been abit busy atm

Who is your coach? What is your peak rating and how has it been trending over the last year or two?

Had a session with my Hungarian coach yesterday actually. I actually almost haven't played a tourney (barring some unrated club games and a five rounder I think) for over a year until last January, they haven't played a tourney until last months. I don't mind sharing my games and progress, but would like to wait till im done with the tourney I'm currently playing. I actually have a game soon. Then in a few weeks I have another tourney then one in february.

You're in Australia, right? Your Hungarian coach wouldn't be Andras Thoth, would he?

^No, unfortunately not. I heard he's a great coach, I did email him in the past, however.

Anyway, I've been trying to put alot of time into tactics in the past week, mainly on CT ART and chess24, so I don't mind posting tactical things here.

https://imgur.com/a/0Q3wq



This puzzle was particularly tough, I couldn't calculate all the lines...

Does anyone know how I can embed an image on the thread like I use to do with photobucket before they start charging fees and took all the photos in the thread down?

After you've uploaded the image to imgur (whic in every way is vastly superior to photobucket anyway), there will be a dropdown menu somewhere on the right. Select "Get Share Links" and choose "BBcode". Copy and paste that in the thread.

Alternatively you can right-click the image and select "View Image", then copy its url (which will end in something like .jpg or .png etc). Then in the reply box you click this button ( ) and paste the url into the dialogue box that appears.

ty bro

I guess my chess new years resolution is to try to do tactics every single day at the bare minimum...

Today, I spent a few hours on tactics and quite a bit of time on this puzzle

I'll share my thought process while calculating this puzzle and maybe hopefully get some constructive criticism...





1. ... Rc7 is obviously forced, there's no other forcing moves that's really as good. I decided to try to calculate all the lines in my head to the end to train my visualisation skill, even though it's probably not that practical or time effective to do so...


I quickly eliminated 2. Qb6, as after Rc6 we win their bishop, and threaten to penetrate via a2, but maybe I should do deeper in the line because it's still a game.

3. Qa8 is probably the best move for white and both 3. ... dxe4 and 3. ...d4 looks like good option, but the game is still quite complicated. Stockfish actually consider the position equal, so the puzzle isn't a good puzzle afterall.

Now, the 2. Qxc7 Qxa6+lines require some concrete deep calculations and these were the lines I managed to calculate in my head either to a satisfactorily winning position or even mate.

3. Rd3 Qxa2+ 4. Kd1 Qb1+ 5. Ke2 Qc2+ 6. Kf1 Qxd3+ 7. Kf2
Qd2+ 8. Kg3 Qg2#

or 8. Kf1 Qd1 9. Kf2 Bh4+ (thought it was mate already but forgot about 10. Ke3 d4#)


3. Kf2 Qxa2+ 4. Kf1 Qg2+ 5. Ke1 Bh4#


3. Ke1 Bh4+ 4. Kd2 Qxa2+ 5. Ke3 Bg5+ 6. f4 Bxf4+ 7. Kf3 Qg2#

3. Ke1 Bh4+ 4. Kd2 Qxa2+ 5. Kd3 Qc4+ apparently there's a mate in eight when I checked stockfish, but at the time I was quite tired and there were at least two branches of forced variations to calculate


I had the most trouble here:

3. Ke1 Bh4+ 4. Kd2 Qxa2+ 5. Kc1 Bg5+ 6. Rd2 Qxd2+ 7. Kb1 Qxb4+apparently this wasn't the best line, even though it was winning.

Apparently 6. ... Bxd2 was the best line, but after 7. Kd1 I didn't calculate deep enough to realise Qd6+ doesnt actually lead to perpetual because of 7. Bf4 Qd6+ 8. Kd8 Qb8+ 9. Bc8 Qd6+ 10. Ke8 Qc6+ 11. Bd7 and no more checks This was an issue of laziness and not trusting my own calculations to keep going deeper...


So still alot more work to put into my calculations and tactics.

lol

I would not call your most recent result "doing well".

There are a variety of reasons I dont like your thread:

1) You consistently mis-represent yourself, both here and on chess.com

2) You acquired a title in what I view as very questionable circumstances (both in the tournament it was obtained and the manner the games were played - yes, I've looked at them)

3) Your blithe attitude about the "I'm going to become an FM" denigrates the people who have done that kind of work

4) You regularly ignore people who try to give you well meaning advice

I am going back to ignoring this thread for my own mental health. It is just you trying to make a public spectacle of yourself.

^ Sorry you feel this way about my thread. I don't mean to portray myself in anyway. I, on many occasions, stressed that my title was soft and I still had alot to improve.

I keep my identity private because I'm a very private person and mainly was using the thread to keep myself motivated and studying. If I wanted attention and public spectacle I would've made a thread on reddit or some popular site instead of 2p2 where there's been under ten people who ever posted on this thread, a few of which knows me personally. I wanted to keep the thread chill in the beginning. So please respect this.

I'm actually working quite hard on chess and not trying to denigrate anyone, I'm just not very talented and also not played enough games.

Also please don't imply my games was questionable. In the first zonal I played, it was my first tournament ever and I wasn't that good at winning so there was quite a few draws (though i had some fighting game with white), in the one short draw I had, both me and my opponent were nervous and didn't want to fight it out so we can secure the point required for the title. In the second zonal I played, almost all the games were highly fighting and decisive and I had the same score as the first zonal which would have also given me that title, only two years later. It was perfectly legitimate. I don't mind you saying I'm unrealistic, arrogant or stubborn - I've made alot of mistakes, but I played very fairly and with no underhanded or ill intent.

But thanks for your advice, I'll try to be more realistic about my goals. At the time, I didn't realise how tough the goal was and underestimated it when I started, I'll try to get it renamed to something like chess improvement and motivation log to not come across as so arrogant.

I've recently been doing puzzles on chess 24 along with daily chapters of the Yusupov Series. I might make my thread simpler like the structure below


The Classical Tactical Trainer on chess24 is alot more challenging than both the chess.com tactics trainer and chesstempo, I suggest you guys give some of it a try, these were my stats for the last 3-4 weeks...


Classic Trainer
Rating: 1801
Performance: 1934
Attempts: 434 (292)
Success: 67.3%
Tempo: 99.2 s/pos.


Build Up Your Chess 1 - Chapter 20: Weak Points
18/23

^gonna try to do monthly posts like this the way Yugo does so that I don't have to spend so much time on forums.

Yeah, I'd post a lot more if my thread was more active but it's not. If I posted a lot of specific stuff I'm sure it'd be more active but likely only incrementally so and it was a lot of work to post all the problems I was missing. And I never went back to do them over again so doesn't make much sense.

Yeah, it was alot of effort to make alot of these posts, especially with pictures and such, it's probably made my less effective in terms of studying, so I think I should just occasionally post with monthly summary or what not.

I renamed the thread at OP's request. There's no need to give him a hard time about being ambitious or how he earned his CM title.

Classic Trainer
Rating: 1846
Performance: 1934
Attempts: 518 (353)
Success: 68.1%
Tempo: 99.6 s/pos.


CT ART 4.0
Elo: 2137
Completed: 542/4322


Build Up Your Chess 1 - Chapter 21: Pawn Combination
18/19

Build Up Your Chess 1 - Chapter 22: The Wrong Bishop
21/25

Build Up Your Chess 1 - Chapter 23: Smothered Mate
18/19

Yeah, that was a bit weird.

I'm rooting for you, Loki!

^ Thanks

Been more of less sustaining 1hr+ of tactics a day and one Yusupov chapter a day, which is a solid start.

But I identified some weaknesses in endgames I want to work on (as well as finishing my lines), so I'll try to make sure i add on at least 1.5hr+ of general chess work on top of my existing daily routine.

Hey guys, back from the poker break I had, currently at uni again...

Will try to fit in 3+ hrs a day with at least 1.5 hours of tactics...