Milestone: 1900 on Lichess Rapid

Today being a Saturday, I would normally have endeavored to set aside time for a Rapid game on Chess.com. However, circumstances were such that I hadn't slept well the last few nights and consequently my confidence level was near zero. On the other hand, on Thursday I had broken through 2500 on Lichess Puzzles for the first time and had a feeling I was understanding positions and finding tactics on the board as though new pathways had formed in my brain.

Where does one go when one wants to play a rated game but can't shake the expectation of losing? In my case, that's Lichess. I was on a four-game win streak there that boosted my rating from 1785 to 1886, but in game three of that streak I won from a position where opponent had mate in two and in game four I blundered a pawn on move 8 but later found a winning tactic and opponent resigned. Fully expecting to lose and see my streak end, I nonetheless clicked "10+0 Rapid" on the Lichess Quick-pairing menu. Lo and behold, the win streak stretched on -- but it was another close one.

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3. logician73 v. physics2112 (8 December 2023)

Move 34

The winning move for White after 34...Bxg1 was to ignore the loss of his rook on g1 and check with 35.Qf5+. That would force 35...Ke8, and 36.Qf7# would be checkmate. Instead, after my bish captured on g1, White, with 2:51 left on the clock, recaptured with 35.Rxg1. I recaptured with 35...Qxg1, and now it was I who had mate in two. White resigned, and my rating increased from 1837 to 1864. At 1882, logician73 is as of this report the highest-rated opponent I have played against.

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4. physics2112 v. MaNas_Deo (18 December 2023)

Move 18

Game 4 of the streak got off to a bad start. After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 (Queen's Gambit Accepted) and 3.e4 a6 4.Bxc4 e6 5.Nf3 Nf6, I incorrectly defended d4 with 6.Qc2 instead of 6.Nc3. Black played 6...Nc6 and I should have continued 7.e5 attacking Black's knight on f6; instead I double-defended d4 with 7.Be3 allowing 7...Nb4, and after 8.Qb3 Black won a pawn with 8...Nxe4.

How we went from there to the position shown above is a classic case of lulling the opponent into a false sense of security. With six of Black's first ten moves being made by knights, by move 13 he was lagging in development as I had centralized rooks on the semiopen d- and e-files and he still had his queen and bish on the back rank. After prompting an exchange of the d- and e-pawns on moves 16 and 17, my rooks enjoyed uncontested command of fully open d- and e-files. 18...Qc8 allowed 19.Nxe6, and Black resigned because if 19...fxe6 20.Bxe6+ would win the queen.

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5. physics2112 v. Ashraf_11 (30 December 2023)

Move 34

When I first learned the French Defense, I hated having to play the Exchange Variation. Whereas in other variations I usually had a clear plan of development and attack, in the Exchange I had to improvise my way through the opening. That has since changed thanks to an Exchange sideline I call the "Guru Variation," but now I face a similar situation with the Nimzo-Indian Defense. To wit, after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 White continues 3.a3; and because 3...Bb4 isn't an option, Black can't play the Nimzo-Indian and needs another plan. Seeing how 3.a3 annoys me as Black, I figured why not play it myself and annoy Black when I'm White? Thus began my game against against Ashraf_11, rated 1869.

Ashraf correctly continued 3...d5 and the game proceeded normally until move 15, when he hung his a-pawn. Then on move 18 he hung his d-pawn, and on move 19 he allowed me to knight-fork his rooks. I had a +5.8 advantage after move 23, but it plunged to -4.7 after 34.Rcc8. Calculating the squares one knight can jump to a few moves ahead is hard enough; calculating the squares two knights can jump to is a recipe for fried brains. 33...Nxe3 was scary -- but I figured, as happened in the game, that if 34...Rh1+ then I had 35.Kg3 and Black couldn't check with 35...Nf5+ because of 36.Kxf2. What opponent and I both missed was 34...Nf1+ forcing 35.Kg2, and after 35...Ne4 my king is trapped.