Milestone: 1300 on Chess.com Rapid
The San Antonio Spurs were my favorite team in the NBA from 2002 to 2016. That was the era of the Big Three, when Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili led the Spurs to four championships. After a victory against the L.A. Clippers in April 2004 in which Duncan scored just 8 points in the first three quarters and Parker and Ginobili shot a combined 0-5 from behind the arc, Tony Parker remarked, "It was an ugly win, but I'll take it." The game that elevated my rating from 1292 to 1301 was a similarly sloppy affair. Black, rated 1297, replied to my 1. d4 with the Englund Gambit -- except he pursued a line I hadn't explored in "Fuck the Englund," namely 2...d6. After move 10 my clock was down to 7:35 while Black still had 9:34 on his. Increasingly nervous, I proceeded to blunder a bishop on move 12 and was on the verge of giving up hope, but two moves later my opponent hung mate. It was an ugly win, but I'll take it.