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I Crossed 2000 ELO on Lichess.org
This journey started a long time ago, at least according to chess.com, it started on my birthday, July 23, 2016, when I created my chess.com account. That would have been around the time I started playing with any regularity. I had known the rules since elementary school, I learned them in my school's version of "gifted and talented". I don't really remember anything else from gifted and talented other than losing a few chess games, learning how to use PowerPoint and playing jeopardy. It wasn't until 2016 that I started to play frequently.
I clearly had watched some sort of video, I seemed to know that taking a rook at the expense of a knight was a good trade. But I ran out of time in a winning position (after we both blundered a million times). I used to exclusively play on chess.com, until 2018 when I discovered Lichess. I liked the not having a million ads, and the not encouraging me to spend money (at the time I didn't have any), so I switched. Then, a few years later I think I just didn't like my username or something so I made a new account, and started playing there. That account is what is (at the date this was written) at 2000 ELO kllinzy.
When it started I was mostly just trying to keep myself from falling asleep in an EE class. The professor, no shade, is something of a hindu nationalist (don't quote me, I don't pretend to know about politics), and he seemed more interested in telling us about either coincidences or conspiracies around sanskrit and the rosary. I couldn't tell you what he was really talking about, I was playing chess.
I had made two or three previous attempts at the 2000 mark, once getting stopped at around 1964, and then twice at around 1980. On both of those runs I really felt I was getting lucky to even win the games that put me in that ballpark, and the idea of continuing to get lucky seemed very unlikely. My average rating is probably still in the 1850 ballpark. In fact, in the game that got me across the line, I played pretty horribly. My opponent could have cashed in on a simple material advantage, that would have put him up a rook. I don't know if he missed it or what, but he instead took like 4 pieces for a queen. Still a serious advantage, he had two rooks and a bishop to my queen. Unfortunately, Queens are tricky, and he almost immediately blundered his bishop and rook, and resigned. Ugly ugly game, but I've put the final position below.
Anyway, I was just very proud, this was a goal of mine for the last couple years, ever since I got close, and it's just very exciting to get it done.
On a completely unrelated note, I also had a baby!
