Hey, the tournament just ended... and here (vesus link, if you want) the results: I arrived 3° out of the 30 partecipants! I scored 4.5 /6 I gained 39 ELO and with this tournament and the last one i gained 108 points... and i'm close to 1N! (For those who don't know, it's a title you get once you reach 1800) I'm really satisfied and the games were pretty nice, and i think i played well in all of them I also won a sort of box with a lot of food, which is always nice😂 So today i made the last three games and i won the fourth round, drew the fifth and won the sixth The fourth game was interesting, i played against an NC 1399, so i didn't win ELO, but it was a nice game He played an Alapin and i played an interesting line where i sacraficed a pawn to get a middlegame/endgame of pieces without queen where he has the king in the center and i have an edge in development and activity He played inaccurately and he gave me back the pawn almost immediately and then, with all the activity and threaths i was able to go to an endgame of rooks and bishop against rooks and knight up a pawn, i traded a pair of rooks and then i won the b2 pawn, he could have defended but this would have required passivity, so he went for couterplay, but it hadn't worked and i forced a rook trade, winning then the b2 pawn and the game In the fifth game i played against a 1754, he played a sort of sidelines against the sicilian, which i used to call "italian setup" which beginners sometimes play, but he's not surely a beginner So that is considered not that great for white because black can get the center but of course it's playable After some trades, i went for a queenside expansion, i was struggling a little bit then, when my queeside pawns became suddendly a bit weak, but nothing worrying We traded then to a rook endgame, he offered a rook trade, and i decided to keep the rook, thinking that my rook was a little bit more active... but my d4 pawn was a bit overextended, and i lost it, i should have gone Ke6 with the king and not Kf6, but by trading another pair of pawns, the endgame should be a draw, but with low time it could be difficult to defende

Have you ever liked reading a blog? Yes? I'm really glad you have! Hey, this weekend, the 14th and 15th september i partecipated in an OTB tournament, i'm making the post only now, but i have just begun school and now is the moment i've found time. So, it was a Round Robin tournament, we were in 6 players groups and we played each other once. In my group we all were around 1800, and i was the lowest rated player, with 1778; the highest rated was 1828 so it was a challenging tournament for me So... i can announce the results, and then i'm gonna speak a bit about the games, there was a lot of content😂 I arrived 2°/6 with 3.5/5 points, i gained 46 Elo and guess what? i'm now a 1N with a rating of 1824 that will became ufficial the end of the month That was a really exciting, exhausting and funny tournament, i really enjoyed and of course it let me reach my 1800 goal! So, the first game was against a 1807, i played my recently-studied line against the Sicilian, and i got a really nice position in the middlegame, with very strong minor pieces, but then... i played Rd6 thinking he had to move the bishop abandoning the g6 pawn, just before realizing Kg7 was possible, and then probably caused by the "minifrustration" of thinking inaccurately i sacraficed the bishop, which clearly doesn't work because he can simply attack my rook before taking my bishop So at the end that wasn't that tragic and i kept playing of course, since i had bishop and pawn for rook and plently of play on the queenside. We proceded and in a stable position, not knowing what to do my opponent opted for a king and pawn endgame, which he considered winning, or at least his best chance; but actually that wasn't more than a draw The second game i faced a 1798, i also played as white my new line vs the Sicilian, and we got a classical opposite-castled position and i tried to push for an attack, and then it was his turn, with a lot of pressure. with low time and probably the feeling he was taking over the game he sacraficed the knight for 2 pawns, but then he didn't avoid the queen trade, which i found strange, and i ultimately was able to convert that endgame

Hey guys, outstanding performance today!!!! @Jennifer Strandqvist 12.0 vs @Leonardo Ghionzoli Soloviev 0.0 (Her previous opponent has abandoned the tournament) LINK FIRST MATCH: https://www.chess.com/game/live/118598297705?username=gothgirlgames

Super intense tournament.. There was a FIVE-WAY TIE for 1st place, with 5 people on 4/5 points. So it had to be decided by chesscom's tiebreak system. Congrats to the winners 🔥 Hope everyone had fun!

There will be 5 Rounds of 10 min rapid. And yes, the games are rated. You will need to be a member of our chess.com club to participate. Join here: https://www.chess.com/club/chess-master-school/join Then you will be able to join the tournament here: https://www.chess.com/play/tournament/5029977 Check the Calendar to see when it is in your time zone. Don't be late or you'll miss the first round! Will you be there?