Man, it's been a long time coming.
Every time I hit all-time highs, I drop in on the otherwise muted sports territory.
HERE WE ARE AGAIN
1620 is a pretty terrifying number. It's so high, competition is fierce, and my heart beats crazy every game. imposter syndrome, can't believe I'm at this rating.
Like I've remarked many times (#1017497, #1046853), the rating graph fluctuates like a bitcoin chart: up and down around an upward trendline.
Makes sense: it's a similar sort of relentless small efforts, day in and day out grind: Throughout my 11,500 games, I only have a slight 2%-point edge... (Though, in the last 30 days, an overheated 50:43 ratio, and in the last year 47:46). You repeat that microscopic advantage for 15-20 games a day, and eventually incredible results present themselves.
Subjectively, it doesn't feel that different playing against 1600s than 1300s — which is pretty inspirational for anyone trying to climb the rating latter.
I definitely got better at playing my preferred openings (Jobava London; King's Indian and Petrov — avoiding Sicilians like the plague... Yes, I confess I'm afraid of them), better at handling the ensuing positions. But the major change is that people don't make as many critical mistakes up here, and people are more nifty in getting out of trouble... and opponents pounce on my errors much more readily than at lower ratings.
It's not that my top or average performance got much better, but that I make fewer insta-losing mistakes
Anyway, nice to be here. Long way to fall from here. Here's a screenshot of one of the nicest and most satisfying tactics in recent games:
I saw the pattern here a move or two before, and when he tried to defend with a bishop I instantly had the feeling that I could sac... spent all of ten seconds double-checking.