Milestone: 1500 on Lichess Blitz

The best venue for playing Blitz chess on the phone is not at one's desk in the office, not on the couch in the living room, not on a park bench, and not on the bus. It is on the toilet. Without going into excessive graphic detail, there is a quality to one's sitting posture, the hands' grip on the phone and the bathroom's peaceful isolation that maximizes board vision, motor response and mental focus at fast time controls.

The most recent demonstration of this reality was furnished earlier today during an extended bathroom visit. In a five-minute Blitz game against a 1487-rated player, I was able to play just well enough to flag my opponent despite his having obtained a winning position. orhun20's sloppy play in the opening resulted in my going up three pawns already on move 11. On move 24 he started to turn the game around, but by then he was down to ten seconds on the clock while I still had two minutes. The win elevated my rating from 1489 to 1505.

1. e4 e6
2. Nf3 d5
3. e5 c5
4. c3 Qb6
5. d4 Nc6
6. Be3 Qxb2

orhun20 opened with 1.e4, to which I replied 1...e6. He then brought his knight out with 2.Nf3, and I attacked his e-pawn with 2...d5. After 3.e5 c5, I was expecting 4.d5 followed perhaps by 5.c3, but he reversed the order; and after 4.c3 Qb6 and 5.d4 Nc6, we transposed into a typical Advance French position. Here 6.a3 is the engine's top recommendation for White, leading to the Paulsen Attack -- but orhun20 played 6.Be3, hanging his b-pawn.

When I first started playing the French Defense, especially when I favored the move order of ...Qb6 before ...Nc6 to prevent Bb5 pinning my knight, White would often overlook the threat of ...Qxb2 and add defense to his d-pawn by way of Be3. As my rating has increased, incidents of Be3 have become increasingly rare. This was one of those rare occasions, and I capitalized on it by taking the free pawn with 6...Qxb2. The engine evaluates the position after move 6 as -1.2.

7. Nbd2 Qxc3

Move 7 is instructive for two reasons. After capturing the pawn on b2, my queen was attacking White's rook on a1 and the pawn on c3. By playing 7.Nbd2, orhun20 defended the rook, but the engine analysis labels this a blunder. What orhun20 should have played was 7.Qb3, allowing 7...Qxa1 but making it difficult for my queen to ever extricate herself from the corner. After 8.dxc5, presumably to preempt either ...cxd4 and ...Ba3 or ...c4 and White's queen has to move, I would have to play 8...Nh6. Then after 9.Bb5, preparing to castle and trap my queen, I would have to play 9...Nf5 attacking White's bish. White would continue 10.0-0 and I would capture the bish with 10...Nxe3. White would recapture with 11.fxe3, leaving him with two sets of doubled iso pawns on dark sqares, and my dark-squared bish on would then feast on these pawns, beginning with 11...Bxc5.

The second reason move 7 is instructive is that my 7...Qxc3 also turns out to have been a blunder. What looked like a natural continuation for Black -- capturing another pawn, pinning White's knight to the king, and triple-attacking d4 -- reduced my advantage from -3.6 to -1.4. When there is pawn tension in the center, as typically happens in the French Defense between the c3 and d4 pawns and in the Queen's Gambit between the c4 and d5 pawns, one of the challenges is knowing when to maintain the tension, when to capture, and when to advance. What the engine wanted in this instance was the latter -- 7...c4, locking the center, restricting the scope of White's light-squared bish, and controlling d3 and b3. 8.Qb3 no longer being playable because of the pawn on c4, White would have a decision to make of which of his two hanging pawns to defend. Per Stockfish, White would continue 8.Rc1, defending c3 and allowing 8...Qxa2.

8. Bb5 Bd7
9. 0-0 c4
10. Bxb6 cxd4
11. Nxd4 Nxe5

White took advantage of the b5 square's availability for his bish and developed it with 8.Bb5, pinning my knight. Here the engine again wanted 8...c4, but I unpinned with 8...Bd7 -- an inaccuracy. White castled, 9.0-0, and still the engine wanted 9...c4, but I played 9...Qa5 attacking White's bish. The eval bar slashed my advantage from -1.8 to -0.4.

Averse to the idea of relinquishing the bishop pair, White retreated his bish with 10.Bd3, which the engine says was another blunder; better was capturing my knight with 10.Bxc6. Yet again I should have advanced my c-pawn, but I figured I might as well eliminate one of White's center pawns and in so doing weaken his pawn on e5, which is thematic in the French Defense. 10...cxd4 was a blunder, however, as it allowed a fork with 11.Nb3. Lucky for me, White played 11.Nxd4, hanging his e-pawn, and I capitalized with 11...Nxe5. Advantage: -2.7.

12. Bc2 Nf6
13. N2b3 Qc7
14. Rc1 Qb8
15. Nf3 Nxf3+
16. Qxf3 h5
17. Bg5 Ng4
18. g3 Ne5
19. Qe3 Ba3
20. Rb1 b6

White had a bish under attack from my knight on e5, so he continued 12.Bc2; and I had an as-yet undeveloped kingside, so I played 12...Nf6. White attacked my queen with 13.N2b3, and I replied 13...Qc7. White's best continuation was to attack my knight with 14.Bg5, but he went for a sneakier 14.Rc1, an inaccuracy that boosted my advantage to -4.7. What Stockfish saw was 14...Neg4, threatening either mate with 15...Qxh2# or captures with 15...Nxe3. I was concerned with White's threat of a discovered attack on my queen and failed to consider a kingside attack; instead I played 14...Qb8, an inaccuracy.

White, perhaps recognizing the threat to his king that I overlooked, continued 15.Nf3; and I, seeing as I was up three pawns, initiated an exchange of knights with 15...Nxf3+. White recaptured with 16.Qxf3; and I, finally seeing the potential for an attack on White's king, played 16...h5 to prepare g4 for the arrival of my knight. White attacked my knight with 17. Bg5, and I threatened mate with 17...Ng4. White caught on to my plan and sabotaged it with 18.g3, so I attacked White's queen with 18...Ne5. White slid out of danger with 19.Qe3, and I switched to an attack on White's rook with 19...Ba3. White slid the rook over, 20.Rb1, and I replied 21...b6. Advantage: -2.8.

22. Qb3 f6
23. Bc1 h4

White continued 22.Qb3, perhaps eyeing the b5 square in the event he could coax my bish off the a4-e8 diagonal. I replied 22...f6 to force White's bish off the g-file. Reviewing the game now, I would think my plan was to follow up with 23...g5, but evidently that wasn't the case.

White played 23.Bc1, retreating his bishop to the back rank and double-attacking my bish on a3. My advantage swelled to -3.4, but I had to find 23...Bc5, attacking White's knight. Instead, I replied 23.h4 and hung my bish. White had a winning advantage of +1.8, but he also had just twelve seconds remaining on the clock while I had in excess of two minutes.

24. Bxa3 Nxa3
25. Rbe1 Nc4
26. Bg6+ Kf8
27. Nxe6+ Bxe6
28. Rxe6 Nd6
29. Qb4 Kg8
30. Rxd6 Qxd6

Capitalizing on my blunder, White captured my hanging bishop with 24.Bxa3. Having advanced my f-pawn on move 22, White's bish had access to my king from the g6 square. My best move, therefore, was 24...Kf7, preventing 25.Bg6+. Instead, I recaptured with 24...Nxa3, and White's advantage soared to +5.0. Rather than check with his bishop, however, White double-attacked my e-pawn with 25.Rbe1. The advantage swung back in my favor (-3.7), and White was down to 7.8 seconds.

I had to capture White's bish with 25...Nxc2, after which White would recapture with 26.Qxc2 and I would defend g6 with 26...Kf7. Instead, I played 25...Nc4 and White was able to continue 26.Bg6+. After 26...Kf8, White checked again with 27.Nxe6; and after 27...Bxe6 and 28.Rxe6, I blundered again with 28...Nd6 and White's advantage was +5.5. Now, however, he was down to 3.4 seconds; and after 29.Qb4, double-attacking and pinning my knight, he was down to 1.3 seconds. I played 29...Kg8 to get my king off the White queen's diagonal, White captured with 30.Rxd6, I recaptured with 30...Qxd6, and White had mate in six -- but he timed out.

What the graph above illustrates is that the quality of my chess improved steeply between April and September 2022 but then trended lower for roughly the next nine months. On 14 August 2022 I celebrated hitting 1400 on Lichess Blitz, but by year's end I had dropped back to the 1300s. Considering that my rating surge from 1393 to 1505 occurred over a span of only nine games, it's not clear if my 1500+ rating means I am a hundred rating points better than the player I was a year ago or if I caught a break and another pullback is coming.

On the one hand, I am familiar with more middlegame positions arising from the Queen's Gambit and French Defense than I was a year ago; on the other hand, at the 1500 level I am facing openings and variations I don't have a plan for playing against and opponents whose theoretical knowledge and calculation prowess rival or exceed my own. Whereas I used to play rated Blitz games mostly for the fun of it, what I now play for fun is unrated Blitz. I save the rated games for when I feel rested, alert and confident -- three mental states that are rarely in alignment.