Turning Point Towards 1800

It was no April Fools joke about my 1800 rating.  I left with one of my typical time pressure train wreck positions.  I'm wondering to myself, will people think I do nothing on this blog except show butt ass ugly losses?  Are there any wins out there that are worth sharing?  The answer is yes.

As I mentioned in the previous post, losing that 2nd round game was pretty disheartening.  I have been continually frustrated with my inability to put such games behind me and move on.  Somehow on that particular Monday I moved on.  On any given Monday I go to the Bob Peretz Chess Club to run our Monday action tournament(3 rounds, game/25; 5 second delay), not knowing whether or not I'll need to play.  If an even number of players show up, I'll sit it out so no one gets a bye.  If an odd number of players show up, I'll play.  There are some Mondays where I'm hoping like crazy that we have an even number so I don't have to play.  I think it was one of those Mondays where I would have been just as happy playing Scrabble on my iPad or reading Facebook posts then playing chess. 

Sometimes it's best to be pushed into something that one would rather not do.  So here I am on a night where I'd rather not be playing, and I've just lost my 28th game to Guy.  Now I have to play another kid who is currently ranked #5 amongst 8 year olds in the United States.  Long time readers know my stories about playing little kids.  However this post is not one of my "kid encounters of the third kind".  No annoying quirks or other silly nonsense.  In fact my young opponent score 10 out of 10 on the politeness scale.  Here's a kid before the game who looks me in the eye, confidently says "good luck" and gives a good firm handshake.  No "dead fish" handshake that I often get from kids.  At the end of the game another firm handshake and "good game."

Here's the game.

My even score for that Monday night would bump my rating from 1700 to 1706. A very modest gain, but it was the start of something more to come.