I've been playing online everyday now for 34 days straight which is certainly a lifetime record. Usually I play two games and today and managed to win both so that my rapid ranking reached 1351 which is the highest it's been for a while. I only play rapid 15 | 10 and Figure 1 shows a summary of my results on chess.com.
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Figure 1: my status as of 6th January 2026 |
Two things have happened recently. The first is that I began not to take my defeats too personally. I committed to playing everyday and reasoned that the more I played the more proficient I would become or at least my play wouldn't get any worse. The second is that I'm rediscovering the style of play that suits me best: safe and positional. By this I mean not opening up the position too much, maintaining a strong defense and patiently maneuvering my pieces into their optimum positions.
When doing this successfully, I can almost sense the frustration in my opponent as he probes for weaknesses but doesn't find any and can't develop a coherent game plan. Figure 2 shows a position from one of my two games today where it is White's turn to move.
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Figure 2: White to move |
The position is relatively equal but none of White's attack on the Kingside failed and my position is pretty much locked down. White has been piling up pressure on the c file and trying to break through. With under three minutes on his clock, he rashly plays 27 Rxd5 to which I replied 27 ... Be6 and he resigned. A lot of players don't like this positional, defensive style of play and eventually lash out inadvisedly.
The second game reveals how I often overreach when I should be defensive. Figure 2 shows the position when it is White's 23rd move. Black has a pressure on the f2 square thanks to his Rook and Queen battery. The King and Queen are defending this square but I played 23. Re7 and this was a mistake. Naturally I wanted to place my Rook on the seventh rank but this was too ambitious. I should have played 23. Re2 and further defend the f2 square and prepare to double up on the e file. However, after Black's 23 ... Rd8, he is threatening to penetrate to d2 with his Rook with drastic consequences. I had to retreat with my Rook to guard the d2 square and was on the backfoot a little after this. Fortunately I won and was lucky that I had the luxury of retreating when I needed to.
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Figure 2 |
