Finally, my Blitz rating on chess.com is back to where it was 6 or so years ago. The highest I ever got to was 1746. Today, I’m happy to be reading 1701 in the chart I have before me. January 2023 has been a good month. My next goal is to get both my Blitz and Bullet ratings to 1800.
Meanwhile, I’m going to start learning new openings and add them to my repertoire. I cannot keep playing the Latvian Gambit and the Englund Gambit with the black pieces forever.
Back in August 2022, after participating in a couple of over-the-board tournaments, my rating on chess.com started to drop. In September, I hit rock-bottom even though I was studying openings and endgames. I was suddenly rated 1425, which didn’t make sense at all. That was a big drop from 1646, and it drove me crazy. I tried to get back up but couldn’t. And so, I struggled for a couple of months.
Today, however, I’m back in the 1600s. Finally! And it’s all thanks to crazy openings like the Englund Gambit, the Latvian Gambit, and the King’s Gambit. It’s unbelievable, I know, but I’m getting very decent results with them.
I wonder what happens if I play them in actual over-the-board tournaments. Will my opponents have answers to my strange openings? I don’t know…
At my level, it’s worth a shot, I think. Besides, I’m enjoying playing the more chaotic openings more than the safe and sound ones. So why take chess too seriously? It’s just a hobby, after all. And maybe it’s better for me to master the crazy openings…
** Here’s the game that put me in the 1600s again. Funny enough, it was an easy win.
One of my favorite traps of all time in chess comes from the Englund Gambit, which is one of the craziest, if not stupidest, openings out there. It doesn’t work with higher rated players, of course, but I did checkmate someone rated 1519 in only eight moves today.
The GIF of the game I just played is below. I am playing with the black pieces.
And as you can clearly see in the screenshot below, I checkmated my opponent in 21 seconds. (It was a 3|0 format Blitz game.)
Basically, free rating points. Thank you, Englund Gambit.
Edit: Here is another easy game I won playing the Englund Gambit with black today. In this one, I win in 5 moves! My opponent simply blunders their bishop.
1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 Nc6 3. Bf4 Qe7 4. Nf3 Qb4+ 5. Nc3 Qxf4 0-1
Bored Absurdist 