Day 420: Playing chess every day until I reach a 2000 rating

Watch out Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen! I'm coming for you!
This is another day in my quest for a 2000 rating on chess.com.
Caro-Kann Defense
Join our discord to chat about my journey and see others chat about theirs: / discord
#chess

[@jamestowler4593]

I can't stop watching! Every morning I sit here with my hands over my eyes! Great content. If only you knew how many of us feel your pain! Keep going!

[@XlogicXX]

It's actually painful to watch cos you want Patrick to improve and get to another peak. But I'm not sure I see the path forward. Fingers crossed.

[@HunterHunter-tr3it]

You are in a a season of life that will leave you short on free/hobby time. Nothing wrong with that at all. It’s a brief season in the long run and you will have plenty of time for your hobbies and passions later. Just keep enjoying the journey and we’ll gladly hang out with you as you do. I’m just glad to see that you have your priorities straight. It’s a breath of fresh air, honestly, in this age.

[@olliemacphee8097]

As a few people have already said, playing 15+10 and setting your elo range -25+50 will really help

[@davidcorcoran1715]

Only god knows why he'd didn't take the knight when he had the chance.

[@pesfreak7310]

Qa6 was the best move because after Bxc3, Bd2 pins the bishop winning back the material.

[@davidcorcoran1715]

@@pesfreak7310 Still his downfall was the knight tactic in that game, I think if the opponent wasn't given the chance to find that knight move he would of won regardless what the engine says and was Qa6 the engine suggestion?

[@XinYell]

Don't feel bad Patrick, you were the highest rated player that your opponent has ever beaten! He played very well and is definitely underrated. He also mainly plays rapid and has a different mindset when making moves than you do. Don't give up and thank you for continuing this series even though you aren't feeling the best 🙂

[@stephenwestland942]

I wouldn't be too stressed about your slow improvement Patrick. There is improvement but it is very slow and your rating could go up and down. But if you like playing (which you seem to) and many of us like watching (which we do) - just enjoy the day. It's part of what makes you special. If you really want to improve quicker, that's a different matter. If so, I agree that you might need to change tack.

[@MrDanielfff777]

Slow improvement or slow delicine? He is back under 1500 and losing to 1300s

[@danielrobertson2132]

Losing doesn't mean he isn't improving his understanding of chess. Chess understanding can go up and elo down. It's about consistency. Elo can drop plus or minus 100 in matter of weeks. What matters is putting in the time to study everyday. Unfortunately Patrick doesn't have much time to study. Just playing and not studying is obviously not going to improve elo much. ​@@MrDanielfff777

[@bentkargaardnielsen3366]

Some observations: Listening to your thought processes, it is clear that you know some principles that should guide your decision making - actually quite a few. But then you DO NOT apply them when your positions calls for using them. Especially you often disregards to play for a decent amount of influence in the center. Another often seen mistake in your games is pre-occupation with pins that are easily dissolved by your opponent. And as a result this often ends up in putting your no longer pinning pieces into awkward positions. There are af few more shining bad habbits - but enough for now. (Not ment to discourage you i like your style, efforts and calm temprement)

[@BigFoxyChess]

Change your play settings. Don't play lower rated players. You have less to gain and more to lose if you do happen to play a bad game. My controls are set to - 25 or + 25 either direction. Keeps me playing against people at my rating and I can expect about the same with any win or loss. Tough game, buddy. Keep your head up. You'll get back. I might recommend taking a small break for a day or two. Also I was excited to hear you're thinking about investing in a coach. My coach helped me immensely. It will be a great investment if you can carve out the time for it. Good luck, Brother. Keep it up! We believe in you!

[@sealcraft4353]

i prefer having it on -25 and infinite, i think it’s a better learning experience to learn from playing higher rated players.

[@XlogicXX]

This.

[@BigFoxyChess]

@@sealcraft4353 ehhh. I already get my ass stuffed on a regular basis playing this game. XD Playing against much higher rated players is a learning experience, sure, but I also like to feel like I have at least a CHANCE to win the game. I'm only at 1427 right now down from my peak of 1600. Highest rated player I beat was a 1700 and that's because I didn't know he was a 1700. Lol But yea, I suppose it all comes down to preference. I don't like playing people I have little to no chance of success against.

[@danielward7008]

​@@BigFoxyChess1400s have more to gain than lose from playing 1600 players. You shouldn't fear anyone under 1800, that's for sure.

[@MrDanielfff777]

Spoiler blocker

[@reinoreent4820]

I still believe this is some kind of performance art channel 😀

[@mrrobinson10]

I'm along for the ride. I'm stuck at 1250 and I want to improve too. Please share your study plan

[@al87221]

One good study plan’s watching naroditzky speedrun

[@colinmcgraw9798]

The absolute fastest way to improve is find a local chess club and play over the board classical chess and blitz and rapid on the side. The human interaction makes a difference.

[@Marcelo-rv7rn]

The Chess Whisperer

[@owendyer6583]

You don’t need to solve the position. It’s not possible in a rapid game, especially at 1500. When you are low on the clock you need to find a move that isn’t a total blunder but isn’t necessarily the best move, just one that you play quickly to save time. At 23:00 it’s a pretty simple calculation to see that you cannot take the knight. If you let their rook take yours then you lose also. That narrows down the options a lot

[@montagdp]

The engine says taking the knight is the best move, actually. If white takes the black knight after the check, black's queen gets in and wins the bishop. Granted, that would be hard to see while low on time.

[@Cookies-ov3kk]

This journey is epic only because it takes so long, so hopefully you keep fighting and searching for new ways to master chess for 10+ years 💪

[@stephenwells1559]

That one was painful to watch. So many blunders and misses. I suggest chess vibes as content you should watch as Nelson is very good at pointing out the basics of how to think during a game of chess.

[@tannerjmewborn7470]

Nelson played against Patrick on his channel a while back, it was a good game!

[@stephenwells1559]

@tannerjmewborn7470 wow. OK missed that one on both of their channels

[@goose_o7]

Patrick, I suggest you go back and analyze this game. There are a lot of lessons here that display the board fog causing you to lose games. You missed several chances. Move 14 taking the knight and winning a pawn. Move 20 when their knight was pinned to their queen you couldve moved to Qa5 removing your pin while adding pressure to their pinned knight which could not be further defended. Move 25 when you could have simply taken their knight for free... Normally when I play like this it is a good sign I need to take a week off and not even think about chess. You'll come back stronger. Thanks for the content. Always rooting for you.

[@MajorLeagueGuitarist]

At 10:51 couldn't he take the knight on H4 with his dark squared bishop and if the queen takes back then he gets in with his queen taking the pawno on b2 and then picking up the pawn on c3 as well when the opponent has to move the knight to defend the rook?

[@Iimnnmii]

Trainingplan for you. 50 Bullet Games a week. :)

[@goose_o7]

He does...

[@giorgiocecchini2550]

just enjoy mate ..

[@jamonh]

When you went Qa6 after 19:05, I don’t understand why you didn’t just take the free knight. It seems you didn’t even notice that the rook would be undefended. I suppose they could go Bd2 to pressure your bishop? Just seems like a free knight though.

[@jamonh]

Also at 24:54 the knight was also free again. If you had taken with your queen, he would have been forced to exchange queens. You’d be up a full piece. Seems you missed that. I’m 1050 and saw it immediately. 😅

[@screally1152]

His move Qa6 was the best engine move, unless you mean his next move (Qa5) which was a miss, and the move exd5 was correct

[@jamonh]

@@screally1152 This is why I’m 1050 and he’s 1500 😂

[@MadM1sha]

You dont need to do castle every time. It depends on concrete situation. In this game you shouldn't do castle. You could take opponent khight by another pawn and open the diagonal for your rook to create some dangerous opportunities on the king side. It doesn't necessary to do castle when you play such type of games. I mean when the center is locked. Then you could take the knight by your Bishop for free...but you didn't do that😢Anyway, wish you all the best.

[@canefan17]

I wouldn’t try and confuse him. He’s a 1500 and should be trying to castle every game.

[@Roberto-bd9fq]

Get a book by James Mason: The Art of Chess. Go to page 87 the start of the combinations chapter page 87. He has 100 pages of combinations taken from actual games. Look at one combination a day, should take around 30 minutes, to try and solve it, and then look at the solution. Set it up on a board and look at it. No attack the queen instead of Rf5?, with Bb4. Also move the queen to a6 instead of c6, as it attacks a pawn and the rook on f1, which removes a defender of the knight as the q rook can't take the knight back as it also defends the rook on f1, which must move. I wanted you to try to get your c rook to c2 and double on the c file. It is a crush so you should win anyway. I hope you see why Rf5 was such a bone head, or should I say cheese head move. Take the rook don't dither, wasting time, again. You lost that one because you gave your opponent the game. Rf5?? In your last game f4 was good even though against principle it was the only attacking move you had, so my mistake.

[@jacobpallesen3558]

Yup rook f5 just a very very strange move. Fun and relaxing to watch. Chesswise im not so sure , but thats ok too of course..😂 Lots of ... Take- take- take -and take. Not so much , how do i position my pieces well. But im sure Patrick will get to around 1600 -1700 or maybe higher , when he gets the time to do so.

[@stephenwestland942]

I have not seen the outcome yet nor watched the analysis. I sometimes like to comment as I watch it. But it seems to me that around 16:30 things are pretty even and you have played ok. But now you have a pin on the knight. You played Qc6 but I think this might be a mistake. Surely Qa5 achieves the same thing (adds an attacker to the knight on c3) without putting your queen in line with their rook. Your Qc6 gives them tactics which will probably stop you winning the piece and may end badly for you. Had you played Qa5 it's almost game over isn't it? It will be interesting to see what the analysis shows. Sometimes it is a a subtle difference (between Qc6 and Qa5 that makes all the difference. [Edit: That's annoying :) you didn't complete the analysis to this key move. If you have time please take a look at 16:30 and consider whether Qa5 wins the knight. I think it does. It's very complicated because if you play Qa5 white still have Nxd5, giving up the queen but with Ne7+ forking king and both rooks. ]

[@steve.k4735]

Qa5 was way better and far more obvious whites problem is a pinned knight so Patrick gives himself a pinned queen which is tactically awful .. after Qa5 .. nxd5 does not work as he drops the queen the knight fork ne7+ only attacks two rooks kf8 and the knight is attacked as well by blacks king white just loses too much he can pick up a little bit but no where near a queen.

[@jonojojojonojojo]

I had same thought in that position

[@XlogicXX]

Again, I couldn't get thru this guy's long thesis paper, I mean, comment...

[@colinmcgraw9798]

So don't read them. Nobody's pointing a gun to your head. I think this guy writes good comments personally.

[@XlogicXX]

@colinmcgraw9798 He does. Just ribbing. Way to stand up for your guy. Lol.

[@willbollman6246]

Why not lift the rook on the open file and stack them there? You lifted a rook that could easily be kicked and was completely blocked

[@canefan17]

Yep. This was the positional miss. C file was his if he wanted it.

[@MrLaeddis1]

Patrick don’t feel the need to improve. It’s very entertaining watching you lose.

[@jacobpallesen3558]

I think its been suggested around 150 times or so. Patrick doesnt adress it neither does he change it . Keeps on This this this this .take take take take No development as is right now . But for sure Patrick to decide not really my problem

[@shazilla4]

ill say youve hit a low point when you scream in frustration after a loss ;)

[@blogattacker]

I tell you why you wont reach 2000 with 10 minutes games. I can see you are not confortable with the time, you need to find what fits you best. You are quite good analyzing the middlegame/endgames, but you don´t let your brain work, you need to get deep into positions. You need at least 15 with increment to improve. PLay 15 minutes to get the basics, until 1600-1700 ELO, and then change it to 10 minutes once you have learnt how to not fall in silly tactics. Since I started watching it is more like "road to 1000"

[@saltemann3581]

420 blaze it patski

[@MrDanielfff777]

Personally I abort the game when I am matched up with someone who is less 50 elo than me

[@TheRompompom]

you could also set the preference regarding desired rating matching

[@AcVinicious]

eee 420 leeets gooo

[@XlogicXX]

This just sucks. Stop F-ing playing players 100+ elo lower than you. I just dont get it. Change your settings to "-25 to infinity" or something like that.

[@TheRealTacGaming]

Lol it’s not that hard

[@aries2764]

whats your elo though boy?

[@TheRealTacGaming]

@@aries2764my highest rating was 2041