Skadoosh Limitless journal (chess)

Journals - Major Programs
#121

That’s a really good point, lol. Determination and fighting spirit are definitely important traits to me, but even more important is getting the job done. I find that to be the harsh reality of anything competitive. Results are what the people remember. Victories write the headlines, it’s never the struggles.

If you’re in game 7 NBA finals with a chance to make the game-winning shot, and you gave it your 101% all but miss - the only moment people will remember is the one where the ball goes in. Winning is what makes you legendary. The world doesn’t celebrate effort, it celebrates execution and results.

That’s why similarly on this chess journey of mine, sure I’ll talk about my win streaks, my derps, my losses, my lose streaks (if they happen, lol), my learnings, my plateaus, my processing, etc - but the only thing that matters to me is hitting my desired ratings. All that other stuff doesn’t matter. I’ve cultivated a results-driven mindset, which involves focusing on the things that actually matter. That’s why I get results. Interestingly enough, I’ve looked at some chess.com profiles of past opponents. Some people have been stuck at 1000 rating for years. Their growth curve indicates being stuck at plateau of 1000 rating for the past 3 years, lol. They have hundreds of games. I think some people just play chess as a form of coping mechanism, like they’ll crank out a dozen blitz or bullet games without any analysis or strategy towards becoming better. That’s weird to me, lol… I play an extremely small amount of games, taking them one step at a time, one game at a time, one move at a time, and I soak in everything there is to absorb from within each one to the best of my ability. I try to progress smart, efficiently, and by putting in the least amount of effort. Someone will read this journal, and think that Chess is a major part of my life… I play 0-30 minutes a day maximum (3 games max, and Rapid games average around 10-12 minutes I would say). I spend maybe 30 minutes - 1 hour on actual analysis and that’s if I even feel like it, lol. It doesn’t take much for me to hire a chess teacher, crack open books, watch a ton of informational YouTube videos, and go “scholarly” with the game. I’m currently avoiding that because it’s time-consuming, I don’t want chess to become a chore, and I especially want to avoid burnout. I’m playing quite casually right now, which I find exciting like a “learn as you go, adventure”.

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#122

If I get my ass handed to me in 3 games straight, then I might crack open a book or a take a look at openings. Roflmao. “Why do I keep getting matched with raid bosses?”, rofl… that’s when I’ll be forced to switch up my strategy.

#123

Dm me I can’t private ya.

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#124

I can’t either, lol. It says you’re not accepting private messages at the moment

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#125

Finally, some hot fire :fire:
Thank you, I got my fix.

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#126

K gotta fix on desktop

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#127

I changed my thing so you should be able to pm me now.

#128

Today my plan was to play a game and do a more complete analysis of it than I’m used to. I just finished my game and won. I’m currently at my highest Rapid rating: 1153.

I should do this now while everything is fresh, so I can write down all of my thought processes. I’ll mainly point out the things that stood out to me.

The game begins and the opponent as white goes g3.

2

I’ve never opened with a move like this, and don’t quite fully understand it. From my perspective, I immediately feel the need to push my e pawn or d pawn so as to “control the center”. I went d5, and I should have gone e5 after as well but I went f6 instead which is still a viable move. Nonetheless, everything is going very smoothly, and logical.

3

I instinctively feel like this is a common position as black. I feel like I’ve done these moves before. At this point of the game, I decided to go Bb7. I’m trying to develop, and it seems logical to defend the d5 pawn and also potentially create a diagonal towards his king.

I’m shocked to see that Bb7 isn’t even a top 3 engine move.

4

These are the top 3, with c5 being a strong option. That’s weird because c5 is probably the last thing I’m thinking about. It’s either I’m moving the bishop or the knight. Nd7 is also strong with c5 after. Okay, so what does c5 do if he takes my pawn… it opens up spaces for my queen, while maintaining a strong pawn structure. This led me to a spiral of learning the importance of the d4 square.

AI Overview on d4

In chess, d4 is considered a strong square because it is located in the center of the board, giving a piece occupying it significant influence over a large area, allowing for both offensive and defensive potential, making it a key target for players to control in most chess positions.

This is good to know, and I’ll have to implement this knowledge in future games. This will probably be my biggest takeaway from today. Later on, the opponent blundered by going Nf3. Weird moves happened and then this:

5

This is just nasty, lol. His queen is trapped, and at this point I’m genuinely thinking “holy shit, what the hell just happened?”. The game is just over, he loses his queen. Limitless… lol.

1

Roflmao, I only did that for this journal.

After that, I just walked them down until they resigned… but yeah I definitely wasn’t expecting to win in that manner. The moment I realized that I won their queen, was an amazing feeling. That has to be one of the most satisfying chess feelings, lol… to trap a queen. That’s a great way to bounce back from yesterday, but there are countless things I could have done better.

  • closing out the game more efficiently
  • I did make a blunder and I need to be more conscious of the board in that type of position

I’m pretty satisfied for today. I learned something new and important that I didn’t know before, I reached my highest rating in chess so far, and I won a game by trapping the opponent’s queen.

edit: another thing I badly need to get better at, is being more accurate with the move recording and board layout, however I’m slowly getting better rofl

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#129

Like e6 instead of f6 :wink:

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#130

Bb7 is a one move idea.

The position is screaming for c5 either right away or prepped if you really feel like the knight should take instead.

In plain english, here’s why the position demands c5.

1) the c-pawn is a weakness.

It’s a backwards pawn. A huge weakness. It’s not defended by another pawn, and doesn’t improve your structure. “Sacrificing” it is extremely common when you can exchange the weak c-pawn for the strong central d-pawn. An EXTREME example of this is the advanced caro kann, bottsvinnik-carls variation , which goes 1. e4… c6, 2. d4 …d5, 3. e5… c5(!?)

The d-pawn is strong, the c-pawn is weak, if you can have an open c-file while the opponent has an open e/d file, you have a strategic positional advantage because you can attack from
The flank while controlling the center.

  1. Once you remove the d-pawn, he has a triangle without a tip. Imagine your pp without its tip. Girthy but sad.

  2. The knight capturing back on c5 after d-takes-c is attractive because I’m seeing that both of your knights target d4, so a knight can land there, and it can even be immediately supported by f5, anchoring it in and creating more central control to support a kingside attack.

  3. If he doesn’t take c5, (he often shouldn’t take as white) then you STILL get you knight developed, but now it’s BEHIND the c pawn not in front of it which is incredible in all d-pawn opening variations. In queen’s pawns openings, both white and black almost always push their c pawn 2 squares so that the knight is behind it, not blocking it. That’s because the c pawn contests the d pawn and can’t do that if instructed by a knight, but on the flip side… with the knight behind the c pawn, both the knight and the c pawn are targeting d-4, making the opponent more likely to compromise by taking, opening up your pieces and losing his central control

1 Like
#131

Roflmfao.

#132

This c-pawn explanation is actually insane in terms of efficiency, lol. I read that and went “wow”.

Backwards and undefended pawns, one move ideas, triangle tips, positional advantages, trading pieces when winning, looking for better than mate in one, prioritizing king safety, etc. I’m processing a lot these days, rofl.

One thing that startled me when I was playing today, is that when I look at the chessboard… it doesn’t look the same as it did 4 weeks ago. I’ve noticed a drastic increase in positional awareness.

4 weeks ago, I would just see pieces without much understanding. Now I’m making moves and making a mental note of the opponent’s positions, strengths, weaknesses, etc as well as my own. It’s like a constant flow of assessment - this has become noticeably deeper. I used to only focus on my own moves, but now I’m taking in the board as more of a whole. These are subtle but notable results that I’m impressed with. Limitless is freaky, lol.

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#133

Lololololol there was a huge trade and it all happened so fast that he resigned before he realized I hung my queen.

IMG_5888
IMG_58881179×2556 236 KB

I gotta play some rapid soon. Blitz for me is torture I can’t deal w time. Was trying to dm you to play some time

1 Like
#134

Wow, yeah I’m in rare form today.

I just finished a game today and won. I’m currently at my highest Rapid rating: 1164.

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#135

I’m going to quickly analyze this game while everything is fresh:

1

The game begins, and the opponent as black leaves his pawn on e5 hanging. At first I feel like “is this some kind of trap?”. I just take it because it’s common sense. A free pawn, clearly this guy made a mistake.

Yeah… and then he goes Qh4.

2

Now everything makes sense. His strategy is full on aggression, threatening checkmate in literally 2 moves, roflmao. I’m thinking “okay, relax turbo”. This puts insane defensive pressure on me because if I make any mistakes… then I probably just lose. He is threatening checkmate on f2. My initial gut instinct is to push my pawn on g3, which blocks the queen. However, he would just go Qe4 check, and take my knight for free. This strategy probably works for him with players at a lower ELO because you need to be really paying attention and to not screw things up. Any small derp, and it’s probably over. Luckily, I ate my waffles today. I went Qf3 which prevents checkmate and protects the pawn on e4. Upon review, a better move was d4 to block the bishop, and I can see why. Qe2 is also good.

After that, I play moves very consciously, making sure I didn’t miss anything. I ended up blundering with Nd3. Not good. This guy’s playstyle was extremely aggressive, he was on full attack.

3

After Nd3 I immediately knew that it wasn’t a good move. It’s the first move in the game that my gut instinct was telling me “nope”. The best move is d4 because I threaten both the queen and the bishop at the same time. I missed that. Either way, I was trying my best to stabilize my position by looking for trades, keeping my pieces defended, and reducing their offensive pressure. There was a lot of calculation from me this game, and most of it was smooth and clear. I enjoyed how it was playing out, lol.

5

For around the last 8 moves, I was really trying to dial in on his queen and knight. He goes Nf6 in this position which is a big mistake, since I get a free knight. After that, I castle… and I really like my position.

6

I’m okay with trading queens here because I’m up a piece. Then I walked them down.

In this game, I was really applying a lot of the basic strategy/principles/tactics I’ve learned so far or at least I was trying my best to. I feel like my integration of them definitely played a part. I noticed more comfort and a sense of clarity with what to do and what not to do. A big change from being oblivious like I was 4 weeks ago. Roflmao.

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#136

Okay, I need to crack down on this, lol. From now on, I can’t make any errors with move recording. This is now first priority. If I don’t prioritize it and start drilling it now, then it’s going to keep happening.

#137

You wouldn’t lose your knight.

You would block with your queen,

Then he would recover his pawn, he would trade queens, and you would recapture with the bishop.

That’s actually a decent position. Idk.

1 Like
#138

That’s a good point, but you’re missing that he doesn’t have to trade queens.

2

Roflmfao. This is just all types of nasty. Stockfish 17 really hates g3.

#139

“Limitless speaks for itself”

27 day growth curve:

4

I only started this journal to see and potentially showcase how well Limitless works with chess.

2 birds with 1 stone:

  • I get better at chess and progress in my personal endeavor
  • People get to see how Limitless can potentially be utilized in chess learning with measurable results

Every game I’ve played is recorded, and can be seen on https://www.chess.com/member/skadoosh156

Conclusion: Limitless works really well and no it’s not placebo. I think this journal effectively demonstrates that, at least in my opinion.

10/10 subliminal.

I’m taking this journal offline. It has served its purpose and I’m satisfied. This is a subliminal forum, where people want to hear about subliminals. It’s not a chess forum, and if I keep going… then this journal will be a full-blown chess montage, to where the average person won’t even know what’s being written.

@RVconsultant please close the journal whenever you have the time, thanks champ.

Happy holidays and cheers.

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#140