Getting worse

Strange things happen to me. Although I had about 6 months period in last autumn when I practically played no chess whatsoever, I managed to make a stunning comeback couple weeks ago. I noticed that I hadn't got tactically worse almost at all, and also my blitz was in good form. But maybe it was just an illusion. Or maybe it was something what has happened before; "fresh" attitude (thanks to 6 months I was in military) towards chess might have improved my game for awhile. But not for too long; all too sudden I was again playing hundreds of bullet games on playchess. And I started to get bored.

Suddenly I started drawing games. Now I have drew three long games in a row against weaker players. In first game I was struggling with the black pieces, and only barely managed to draw. In second game, I outplayed my opponent in every ways, until I missed forced 3-moves-mate and thanks to that ended up with very dangerous position. Ultimately, I defended very well and drew the game. Third one, which ended three hours ago, was an opening catastrophe for me. I messed up my opening, and my opponent ( black) got great attacking chances with his bishop pair. I was surely losing the game, but again, I defended well, and in the end I managed to trade down material so that although he had two pawns more, he had no way to break through thanks to opposite coloured bishops.

So what have I learnt? That nowadays I only play well when I am in troubles.

2000

after winning a league game about week ago, I finally broke the 2000 barrier. still I am pretty sure that my rating lags at least 100 points behind my true strenght

Statistics so far

well I was just pondering what the heck should I write here on my brand new blog. Then I got an great idea; what would be better way to start a new blog than summing up my records so far.

Rated tournaments I have played: 15 (including 1 team contest)

First tournament: April 2004
Latest tournament: August 2006
Tournament wins (not shared): none
Tournament wins (shared): 1
Runner-up finishes: 3
Highest perf. rating: 2222
Lowest perf. rating: 1781
Average perf. rating: 1967
Most rating points gained in a tournament: 85
Most rating points lost in a tournament: 4
Total rating points gained/lost in tournaments: +249
Rating points gained/lost on average per tournament: +16.6

Rated league games I have played: 9
Score: +3 =5 -1
Average rating of opponents: 1798
Rating points gained/lost in league games: +35

Rated blitz tournaments I have played: 3 (incl. 2 team contests)
Wins/Runner-up finishes: none
3rd places: 1

Overall:
Scoring percentage in rated games: 71.1
Scoring perc. in rated blitz games: 61.1
Number of rated games played: 102
Number of rated blitz games played: 112
Highest rating: 1990
Lowest rating: 1704
Rating points gained/lost on average per month: +8.9

Thats it. Took a while, but fortunately Finnish chess federation did most of the work (sends information about rating changes, aver. ratings etc.) for me.

Does this thing work?

Testing testing...


well I hope this does work. So, where to start...


Oh, I am 19-year-old finnish club player. My national OTB rating is approx. 1990. I created this blog for keeping record of my performances. And to practice my poor english...