2024 Year in Review

How did we progress in 2024?

Good day readers. It has been a small jaunt since we have last talked. This year has been an interesting one for sure with many twists and turns. How did we fair? What happened throughout this tournament season? Am I up or down in the rating scale? Have we met out goals or aspirations? Many ideas and avenues to travel in this one.

Where did we land in the standings or ratings lists for Wisconsin and the US? Well currently as of the writing of this post I am sitting at 79th overall in the state of Wisconsin which puts me squarely in the top 8% of chess players in the nation hitting a peak of 1849 as the graph below shows.

I gained 135 points over the course of 2024 it would appear. This, I must admit, is quite an extraordinary improvement over the course of one year. I am sure many would love to main gains such as that. From my lowest after I returned to tournament chess, taking chess seriously for the first time in my life, having a rating of 1344 and building that up to a peak of 1849 is astounding. Over a 500 points gain in less than two years is rather remarkable. However, what does this mean for my chess and my goals?

In January of 2024 I decided it was time for a new opening repertiore again, only to change it two more times in the year, a hypermodern approach was in order at the time, or so I thought anyways. I was religious with my openings back then until a major turning point at the club championship where I had a poor showing and decided Hypermodern was not for me. How was I losing my games? Tactics at every turn. My so called major epiphany had me change my openings to become ultra aggressive moving over to 1.e4 and 1..c5 or 1..f5 as my rep and playing for the most insano, chaotic and open positions I could get my hands on. In my head I thought “Oh! It is because I am playing slow positional openings my tactical training is not working since I do not see tactics in closed positions.” This was such a poor thinking model. My new mode was I need to contest the center and blow it up at all costs. I fought this for a major portion of the year thinking I “needed” to play like Bobby Fischer or Tal. You know what, some of the time it worked. I saw new results. Winning games against players I had not won against previously. All was smooth sailing for a bit. Aggression and vicious attacking seemed to pay off.

I had a break out tournament in July winning my first tournament ever with a perfect score of 4-0 even beating a former Master in the process. Then something happened. Imposter Syndrome set in. When thinking back to my game with Bill Williams, I was never better in the game. In fact I played rather poorly only having him blunder to a simple tactic later in the game after declining my draw offer immediately thereafter. So did I really play to a master’s level? The anwser for many might seem to be an obvious no but, that had not crossed my mind yet. Truth be told being a floored 2200 Williams can still play at Master and above at his ripe age of 85. And we all know that certainly does not mean some lowly 1700+ is a master just beating one on their worst day.

I was smacked back to reality with my next tournament barely making 2/4 which seemed to be the theme for the remainder of the year. At this time I found Johnathan Rowson’s work - The Seven Deadly Chess Sins and Chess for Zebras which were recommended to me from

Evan Seghers

They focused more on physchology and mindset along with chess which was extremely helpful for such an emotional player as myself. Since this time back in July I have had a steady decline in my chess performance. Barely haging onto 50% showings in most tournaments. It’s inevitable this is to be expected after a large rating jump and peak where players will lose some and level off. I have done this over the last six months to find my level off point just under that 1800 mark. Not bad in all reality but in my mind something was wrong, or so I thought anyways.

This has been a year of extreme exploration for my chess. Hypermodernist. Hyper Aggressive. Gambiteer. All words that could at some point over the course of 2024 could have described my chess. I realized after reading Rowson on how much I simply do not know about chess however he did fix my mindset and how I think about chess and chess improvement overall. A major takeaway for me was how much I have switched openings over the last two years. Uncanny. Time to slow my roll on that.

If we take a look at my stats from year to year one could argue this was my most successful year to date and I would have to agree. Mindset wise I think I needed all this mental growth to work towards the next major milestone of Expert. Some never reach it. Some take years to reach it. For some reason and I do not think I am alone in this thought process, I assumed well I beat a Master so I must be close to being a Master right? We all know this could not be further from the truth. At the end of the day I did gain 130+ points for the year and raised my peak to mid 1800s which any chess player would be estatic with. I found myself WANTING as Rowson puts it. Not so much in the sense of wanting to win a game as he dscribes in his book but, in needing to reach the goal. What I learned from reading his work is to be happy with the process and make your goals process and production based and you should in theory be much happier. I learned taking a more holistic approach to my chess and it’s improvement was a much wiser path.

I also found I was too tied to the idea of playing in a certain style. Or playing the most aggressive openings, though I may not like them, all in an effort to reach the next level. When in all reality there are an undocumented amount of ways to approach chess improvement and really what one must do is to find what works best for them. Also not pigeon-holing oneself into any type of style and just play what the position calls for. So what I found was I should be looking at chess from the greatest opportunity for learning and growth. Stucturing my opening repertiore towards positions I enjoy but also one that will offer opportunities for both closed or open positions. One that offers ripe options for sharp and dymanic play verses slow and maneuvering play.

How did we fair? Well enough but I have learned I need to just enjoy the game and not be so concerned with ratings.

What happened throughout this tournament season? Ups and downs like anyone will have. I learned this season I am quite the emotional player and mindset has more impact on your game than skill at times.

Am I up or down in the rating scale? I am up overall which is great. The graph shows that even which is nice but, learned it means nothing when it comes to the understanding of chess. There is always so much more to learn.

Have we met out goals or aspirations? I reached class A catagory this year so yes. I can say it was not easy by any means. Many trials and tirbulations throughout the year.

So what is in store for 2025. Well in my journey this year I learned a great many things about myself as a chess player and how I like to improve. I enjoy openings and study there of so that will continue even though I ixnayed it a few times this year. This upcoming year will be met with stability. I want to solidify my opening repertoire once and for all. With this new holistic approach I am much more intuned with ideas and options over saying something is as black and white as I once did previously. I do believe everyone should have two ratings goals out there. A big one that seems impossible to chase but, then a small one to reach the next level whatever that might mean for you all. For me my next goal for 2025 is to make the push to Expert (2000 USCF for those who do not know) and still the long term goal of proving anyone can make Master at any age, even if you start late like me. Most of all I learned how I like to learn which I think is the most important aspect of this year’s ruminations and ponderings. I realized I like having options for my learning. This way it does not get stale. I can choose from a set of resources over just sticking to one or two and going from there. I get bored easily so having a big set of stuff to work on will be a welcomed changed.

2025 Study Plan

7 Circles - with Tactics Time 1-2 - Pattern Recognition courses might change too

Forcing Chess Moves, Art of Attack and Van Perlo's Endgame Tactics

Mastering Chess Strategy

Opening Prep - English, King’s Indian Attack and Defense, Caro-Kann

Keep up with Chessable Reviews when possible

Game Analysis and Annotations - Engine use only after Annotations

Rapid and Classical games Reps

Add all blunders and mistakes to chessable course

My goal is to complete ALL of the above before the end of 2025. Rapid Chess Improvement (RCI - 7 Circles) may change from time to time on the daily depending on when I finish courses so on and so forth. I have the ability to work on any of the rest it at any interval daily or weekly I choose. A majority of my plan is accessible on Chessable which makes all of my work mobile as well. I found I have some idle time in places or watching shows with my wife where I can be working on chess and not fully engaged in the other activity. Cranking through opening lines is perfect for that.

In closing I had an extremely successful year gaining 135 points overall and reaching a new peak of 1849 which is astounding coming back to chess and finally taking seriously in June of 2022. I know and fully understand reaching Expert and Master will be major hurdles of goals but I am motivated, no! driven to keep progressing even if that means my rating does not. Keep focused and grinding out there people.