Sunday 30 April 2017

Spring 2017 Chess Update

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I'd write a quick update to keep this blog alive and well. The main reason I've been so inconsistent is that I have not been able to make much time for learning chess. Instead, I have been busy raising funding for my start-up, Chessable. We just completed our first round of funding, so even though it took a while, we got there!

Regarding learning, despite not having much learning time, I have kept a 100+ day Chessable streak, so I am very sharp on my openings. I have made some time for some endgame studies and am also pretty sharp on tactical patterns. Lately, I've been trying to pick up an improved French repertoire as White, although I have been questioning the reasons why I never decided to learn the book by Chessable co-founder John Bartholomew on the Scandi!

I am playing a congress next weekend, and hopefully, after that and after a few things post-investment settle down I will be able to dedicate more time for improvement. Nonetheless, I feel that at long time controls I am currently under-rated at 1,817, after all at a tournament I played a few months back, I beat a 2,100 FIDE rated player as black. Except, he was only ECF rated, so I didn't gain any rating for that. I hope to continue such performances, and hence my rating should stabilise around 1,900.

2,000 is still my goal this year, although it does seem somewhat remote.

Stay tuned :)

PS.- Here is a game, just because.