Monday, January 29, 2007

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.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

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

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

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.

Monday, January 15, 2007

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...