I've reported (bragged?!) here about my chess progress now and again.

"Making progress" gets harder when you're not actively working on your craft"Making progress" gets harder when you're not actively working on your craft

Sure, I'm playing basically every day but do I do my puzzles? Do I practice my opening in the various courses I have (access to)? No.

• Jan 2025: passing 1500, #853488
• April 2025: back to 1500 after collapsing down to insuffrably low ratings #935981
• May 2025: passing 1550, we are so back! #977709
• Nov 2025: passing 1600, hitting 1620 #1271286
• Dec 2025: 1657, "I Am Become Death, Destroyer of Chess"
• ~May 2026: apparently neglecting my duties toward the stackers and forgot to announce my 1687 ATH.

Today I'm out here reporting that I cracked 1700Today I'm out here reporting that I cracked 1700

Feels pretty unbelievable... and definitely terrifying. We all know that from here there's basically only one way... dooooown, and I'm gonna be so mad and disappointed when I play myself off this elevated position.

It's astonishing how you can hit ATH and then dwindle sooo goddamn far -- you Bitcoiners know a thing or two about that. Nothing fundamentally changed, right? The thesis remained intact. Why does the route from 1600 to 1700 pass through 1400? (I kid you not... in the last six months I went real far down... chess.com graph doesn't properly show it).

One interesting observation is that I score way higher with white (52% vs 42% with black)... which must mean I'm becoming elite, right? I still credit the amazingly creative attacking positions I get from my Jobava-London opening with white for a lot of these improvements.

(Since I hit 1700 I haven't played a real game of chess... only Chess960/Fisher random and some puzzle practices. Gotta get back eventually...)

At the rate I'm "improving," you could perhaps expect me hitting 1800 at the end of the year or whatever. PLENTY OF TIME for bitcoin itself to fail and ruin us all, or SN to fall apart.