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Today, I reached my highest ever ELO rating in rapid on chess.com. After I won the match in this video, my rating was 1298. I have previously reached this exact value last year, but then over a few months dropped to almost 1100! It was during this decline that I decided to start my blog and YouTube channel as a motivator to learn and maintain my enthusiasm! This match started as a Ruy Lopez, and then transposed into the Four Knights game. I consider this game a “lucky win” as I should have lost from a calculation error in the middle game, but a moment’s hesitation on the part of my opponent allowed me to come close to equalising. A further blunder in the rook and pawn endgame gave me the advantage. I’m hoping that I’ll cross the 1300 barrier that has so far eluded me soon!

A potential insight from this game is that when there are many threats and the game gets complicated, it is likely that the opponent will make an error. That was certainly the case for me – the opponent had an opportunity to straight up be a piece up due to my error. The risk with this strategy does mean that you could be the one who makes the error rather than your opponent! The second insight is that in rook and pawn endgames, take care in making sure that when advancing a pawn towards promotion that it can be protected. A loss of a single pawn is often decisive.

I hope you found this video interesting, and thanks for watching!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/38439339281

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.02.12"]
[Round "?"]
[White "wolftagout"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C48"]
[WhiteElo "1336"]
[BlackElo "1298"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "13:33:27 PST"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. Nc3 Bc5 5. d3 O-O 6. O-O a6 7. Bxc6 dxc6 8. Nxe5 Bd4 9. Nf3 Bg4 10. Be3 b5 11. Bxd4 Qxd4 12. h3 Bxf3 13. Qxf3 Rfe8 14. Qe3 c5 15. Qxd4 cxd4 16. Ne2 c5 17. f4 Nd5 18. exd5 Rxe2 19. Rf2 Re3 20. Kf1 Rd8 21. Re1 Rxe1+ 22. Kxe1 Rxd5 23. Re2 Kf8 24. Re5 Rxe5+ 25. fxe5 Ke7 26. Ke2 Ke6 27. Kf3 Kxe5 28. g4 f5 29. g5 h6 30. h4 hxg5 31. hxg5 a5 32. c3 dxc3 33. bxc3 b4 0-1