2 Years on Lichess

"Hello everyone!", does this sound familiar to you? It should, as it is @ agadmator's introductory sentence. And in late 2019 I was having a resurgence in the interest in chess - after a long absence from the game, I thought: Why not play chess online? And so it was. I watched many YouTube channels dedicated to chess, which inspired me: From CoffeeChess, who inspired me to get back into the game with a little more trash talk, TheChessWebsite, which helped me to get back into Openings, Agadmator's Chess Channel, where I watched many, many analyzed games, Eric Rosen, who always entertains through funny challenges, GothamChess, whose recaps of his own tournaments are fantastic, Daniel Naroditsky, who always explains everything crystal clear and to GM Huschenbeth, who has some nice analyzed games as well as he explains Openings. So, I embarked on this journey, got me some chess books and learned my basic mates and memorized Opening moves - badly I might ad, as I was not able to tell the difference between e6 and d6, which meant that the Pirc and the French were always rough Openings to face. Then, on May 27, 2020 (what a bad year it was), I registered this account and started playing rated games - but only in the Rapid and Blitz time control, as Bullet seemed way to fast and Classical is more something I enjoy OTB. I started with a nice rating of 1400 to 1500, and managed to improve it ever so slowly. But it was a lot of fun - well, apart from the blundering. :) Anyways, soon I found myself in the 1600 grounds and after exploring the possibilities of some Openings, I ascended to the 1700 story. My main Openings at that time were the Italian and Ruy Lopez - with both black and white. I climbed the rating ladder even more and switched Openings, as I plateaued on the 1800 level. My Opening of choice? The Mighty London System!
Yeah, this rock solid Opening brought me near the 1900 mark (you wouldn't believe how many people blunder their Knights on h5) and this was the first time I faced an IM. Oh, contrary to my Opening choice with white, I played the Sicilian with black - like a true mad man. Well, the London soon bored me (an advice for London players: Play the Rapport-Jobava System, not the Colle with an extra Bishop) and I moved on: Now I played e4 as well as d4 (never c4!). Soon I realized, that I should look deeper into preparing a good Opening and thus I opted for the Scotch Gambit... With 2000, I played my very first marathon tournament here on Lichess and solely played the King's Gambit - the most fun Opening - and didn't play half bad. Though I wanted to stick to the Scotch, as it was very exciting and - amittedly . easy to prep. But my interest in the Sciilian Najdorf peaked - I thought this was the perfect counterattacking Opening and thus employed it whenever I could - to this day, actually.... Anyways, I was introduced to the White counterpart of my favorite Black Opening against d4 and my problems with the Frechdefense decreased. If you have never tried out the KIA, give it a go. It really can transform the board, if you realize that a position is very dynamic. So, to reach the 2100 grounds I was puzzled.. and solved some puzzles :D Yeah, dunno, probably the time investment into basic endgames and puzzles and my Openings made it work out - as well as the beginner's advice: Pretend that you know what ya're doing'! Indeed: I tried to not resign and play on. You really have no idea how much of rating you can gain, if you are going all out for an attack with not much material: Thus, study promotion walks and attacks and next time you're in a pickle, don't resign! Anyways, I reached the 2200 level for a brief moment and tilted so hard that I lost 100 imaginary rating points in a week. But hey, now the rating represents my ability to concentrate better. In rapid however, I haven't played a game in months and thus still am a 2200+ - which hardly matters, because who asked? I've forgotten if I mentioned Chess960 or not, but this variant gave me a whole lot of confidence and probably is the reason why I could climb the rating ladder in the first place. So, in the last couple o' months I've posted in the forums and stuff, but that ain't as interesting I guess. Oh, have I ever mentioned that I have created one of the most popular studies here in lichess? Well, it's not the most popular or even close, but popular enough - so thanks folks for the 2000+ hearts <3 Hmmm... what else? Ah, yes: I believe that you aren't bound to ratings: A rating doesn't define you, it just tries to compare you to others - and you can't really compare an apple with a pineapple, so do the best you can to imrpove - not to win! Improvement will result in winning while winning won't necessarily result in improving. Thanks for reading and have a nice day.