Hi, just wanted to say I hit 2000 tonight. I don't have many friends that are into chess so I thought I'd share my achievement with you.

I've been playing online since 2020 and I played a little as a child and in highschool. When I started again as an adult it got me hooked! It's such a nice game and I wish I had more friends to play with.

I've been doing some puzzles and watched some tutorials for openings, but mostly I've been just playing more or less actively. At one point I watched lots of YouTube content such as chesswithpatrick, apexxchess, Gotham and chessbrah.

I play Vienna and Caro-Kahn which I know quite well. Later I learned Grand Prix variation against sicilian since many people played it against me. But outside of those I don't have much opening theory. I tend to play the simplest lines so I don't blunder in the very first moves.

Funny thing about my chess journey is that since my first kid was born, I started to play much better and my ratings skyrocketed. I thought I couldn't play any longer, cause I've been getting little sleep for a long time now. But I think less time to play ment more playing with focus and intention. We all hate to go to bed after losing, so I thought that, if I have time for a game in the evening, better not lose.

If you read this far, thank you for your time! Keep the grind up and you will see improvement! If any of you have any questions, I try to answer them :)

I've been playing chess for 3 months now. You won't happy how happy I am. Also the game I played felt really nice as well and I felt like I performed really good

I still remember how much I was stuck at 400 and kept going back to 350 and coming back to 400 and repeat. Or when I hit 700 then spent a whole month trying to reach it againg from 500 cu that felt like hell

Anyways tho, long story short I'm really happy and I wanted to share it with someone. In case anyone is wondering, Im watching levy's slowrun and mostly followed gm aman (chessbrah's) building habits v2. Building habits helped A LOT since I was London and maneuvering a closed position was so hard for me

Idk how that even worked... i passed up on a free knight for some dopamine sigh.

They sent this message 20 moves earlier when I was down a minor piece and in a worse position. Knew I was going to lose but couldn’t give them the satisfaction of resigning

Never resign

How i can improve my game?

Tbh I don’t really know what clicked over these past few weeks, but I think the most of my improvement has come to hanging free stuff less and spotting when my opponents give me free stuff.

I also don’t know any openings or gambits either and haven’t really had many played against me, but I’m sure I’ll encounter more on my way towards 1000.

I didnt

I think they were blind to my king being able to do literally anything tbh

I rarely play online against other people. Accidentally started a game because I wasn’t paying attention. I decided why not and played it out, thought for sure I was done for on the first slide. Lucked out that my opponent had a few bad moves and ended up getting mate with the rook and king.

Please explain this to me, unfortunately Duolingo doesn't have a detailed analysis feature yet

The brilliant move from one of my recent games.

It only took around 1000 games

2nd photo is when i realize i have it

I have no idea what white was thinking here.

Please use spoilers for any line you see.

Mate in 2

If you're going to talk shit and make fun of me, say this is a lie, or say that I'm a puss. please spare me because I am seriously on the edge right now.

I will likely end up deleting this thread because I know a lot of kids play this game and people are going to make fun of me and kick me while I'm down.

I started playing this game one month ago. I win maybe 40% of my games. The blunders and the losses really cause a rage within me that is legit destroying my life.

The game is an addiction. I'm older middle aged with a multi decade past of addiction to all kinds of hard drugs and I have never seen anything in my life that is not a substance that is more addicting than chess. And in a bad way....where no matter how much of a rock bottom you are at (tilt)...you need just "one more game" to get a win back. If you get the win it is NEVER enough. If you lose you hit a lower rock bottom.

The experience is so similar to a crack addiction it is shocking. The feelings of emptiness and unsatisfaction are uncanny similar to a crack addiction. I have not used crack in 20 years. Crack was not my main drug but I just bring it up because the chess addiction is exactly like it, other drugs like heroin are very different and I would not compare them to the chess addiction.

I have remained addicted to legal drugs like alcohol and weed. I got clean from them 2 years ago.

The fucking game has messed me up so badly that I've relapsed on substances.

I'm staying up all hours of the night wired and adrenaline dumped from losing while in a tired delerium from a long day at work and then i do not sleep because i am so angry and it is affecting my performance at work now (along with the relapse on alcohol and weed).

My wife is mad at me because she sees how angry I get at my blunders.

I don't get angry when I lose to someone good or lose a well played game. It is the blunders that set me off.

Part 2 of this:

This game has destroyed my self esteem. I was never good at sports. I'm small. I'm maybe slightly above average looking. The one thing that I always hung my self esteem on was thinking I was smart.

Yes there are typos and this is a ramble. I'm a scientist not a writer so I do not give a shit how well this is written.

I don't say this to brag or anything, but I have a PhD in one of the physical science from a top 5 school and have worked at very elite companies as a scientist for 15 years. The work is intellectually challenging and I am proud of my ability to do such work and considered myself smart.

This game is making me realize that I am absolutely stupid as dirt. All my academic and career success must have just been brute force, or maybe I peaked when I was younger and I'm now losing my edge intellectually. I don't know.

Conclusion:

This is so unhealthy for me. I know addictions extremely well from living it and being in recovery meetings for 15 years and let me tell you...this is an adddiction full stop. I need to stop. The fact that I'm addicted to the game means I do like it in some sick way. It brings the chaos to a boring life that all addicts miss when they stop and their life quiets down.

Rook sacrifice by my opponent but I don't see any immediate threat. Perhaps a positional enhancement at play.

I live nearby this Cheba Hut and have been looking for some more chess players to hang out with and learn from. The event is every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month from 6-9pm. Tonight 10/14/26 is the second meetup so far!

The event is open to all skill levels and they have a chess coach hosting if you want to improve your game and get some tips. The food is always a major plus as well. Come on by!