Great feedback as usual.
Good point, lol.
First game today, started off really strong… then I made a huge blunder and got smoked. I was doing too much, lol. I had a slight instinct to bring my queen back but I ignored it. I’m also in light recon - a lot of things happening. In the future, I need to be way more calculated about that specific position because it seems to occur a lot. I’m naturally figuring out the flow of it, and mistakes/blunders are invaluable. On Limitless, they’re only going to make me stronger.
Job 1 protect the c2 pawn with Qd1. That’s a dangerous fork he’s threatening. Job 2 push that knight from its powerful post with c3. The knight is forced to retreat to not very good squares, perhaps e6 threatening your bishop. But at least you weaken his position and live to fight on.
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Here’s how I see this from general principles. I don’t like talking about specific tactics…
Principle: enemy position is completely undefendable. Yours is fine. Even if you spend a move defending your c2 pawn with your queen, no matter what he does, he can’t defend against your threat of taking his knight and ruining his kingside pawn structure, which is a huge strategic win for you. His king is less safe, and his pawns are now split
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I think you’re splitting hairs. The idea is remove his immediate threat and dislodge the knight. Once that happens, you have plenty of attacking options like b4 followed by a4, which is a nice queen-side thrust and threat to trap the bishop. You get rid of his center domination, turn the tables, and put black on the defensive. You could also go with your idea to capture the knight on f6, doubling up his pawns on the f file and opening up the g file, which exposes his king. The basic idea here is loosen his grip on the center and go on the offensive.
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My initial instinct in this position was to bring my queen to d1, but I ignored it because I was overly ambitious. I miscalculated that his knight taking my queen would be a check.
My calculation at this exact position was this:
- I go knight f6 check
- He goes pawn f6, which ruins his pawn structure and opens up his king
- I go bishop f6
- He goes knight f3, taking my queen
- I go bishop d8, taking his queen
- He likely takes my bishop on d8 with either rook
- I go pawn f3 taking his knight
Then I would castle queenside and start attacking his king with both rooks or something, lol. That’s the main idea I had in mind. It would look something like this:
But the mistake I made was that his knight on f3 is a check, so it all goes out the window and I just lose… rofl. I just blundered my queen. This was an ambition fueled derp of the highest order.
That being said, a week ago I would never think this far ahead into calculation. I especially have been paying a lot more attention to pawn structures, and assessing the position after trades. Limitless working strongly, I just have to make sure I don’t overlook things in my calculation. When I realized that knight f3 was a check… I had a nice “wtf” moment.
I went through the same thing 
Really complicated which is why I jus thought “ah f it just save my queen and my threat to open the king remains while his threat is completely neutralized.”
Normally u would solve by taking his pawn on f6 with ur queen to save it but then u get knight forked.
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I played 3 games today. 3-0
First game, 96% accuracy. 100% opening accuracy, and the opponent blundered his queen. I love when it’s not me, rofl.
Second game, 83% accuracy. The opponent was on the offensive after I made a big blunder. Completely defensive game for me. I managed to hang in there as the opponent ran out of time.
Third game, 88% accuracy. I feel like I controlled the entire game.
Notes to self:
- Don’t make blunders
- Don’t relax and ease off when you’re ahead
- Winning isn’t enough, you need to close out games more efficiently
A higher rated player would have probably destroyed me in that second game, lol.
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if you like the fried liver you should just play the fried liver immediately after 3. Nf6. it’s a great opening. Look at Chessbrah’s fried liver not the original fried liver, where you strike with an immediate d4 instead of the usual stuff. nobody knows it (at your level) and if you actually memorize it it’s usually an insta win.
Then you just play normal italian 4.d3 stuff for your response to 3. Bc5
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Today I had a really weird game with positions I’ve never seen before. I completely threw the game in this position, lol.
There’s a lot going on.
- I took with the bishop instead of the pawn, which is a mistake because he wins the trade up a knight.
I need to get better at calculating exchanges. I feel like I created a position that was too complicated for what I can handle, by doing that knight/bishop castle pin shenanigan. It’s good though. I need exposure to these kinds of things if I plan to learn more and increase my rating. I need to take risks and accumulate data.
- After taking with the bishop, I quickly realized that I just lose the exchange. My thought process at that exact moment was “I have to get out of this somehow”, so I moved my queen to e7… rofl. I completely missed the nasty knight fork.
There’s a lot for me to chew on and process for today.
You’re lucky the solution to this is very very simple. You actually don’t need to get better at anything; this mistake was purely a result of
A) not knowing the counting rule
Or
B) not using the counting rule
What’s the counting rule?
if you have 2 attackers, and they have 2 defenders, you lose. If you have 3 attackers, and they have 2 defenders, you win.
You didn’t need to “calculate” this exchange… you just needed to count. “I have a bishop and a pawn attacking e5. He has a rook and a knight defending e5. that’s the same number. I would lose that exchange.”
“So I’ll take with my pawn so I don’t lose my bishop. Oh! I could also move the bishop! Wait, no, if I move my bishop then my knight gets taken by his pawn and I don’t have the bishop on that diagonal to attack the rook with… if I keep my bishop on this diagonal, take his pawn with my pawn, I keep the option to attack his corner rook with my bishop if my newly-placed e5 pawn gets thrust forward (pawn e4 would be a double attack, your pawn would attack his knight, and your bishop would attack his corner rook.)”
The knight hanging from the pawn complicates things but ultimately it turns out to only be an application of the counting rule because that threat to take his rook if you take his knight still looms. One step at a time though.
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I tried these today. Never played this before but had a lot more fun than usual. Chess960 - 3 wins 3 games
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Quick 15 day summary
Current ratings:
1030 - Rapid
787 - Blitz
698 - Bullet
My goal is to get 2000 rating in all 3 formats within 11.5 months.
Step 1: Get to 1500 Rapid
Step 2: Get to 1000 Blitz
Step 3: Get to 1000 Bullet
Current growth curve in Rapid:
Right now, I would say that I’m at the highest I’ve ever reached in every area. I learned the Rook Mate. I’ve also developed improvements in my awareness of pawn structures, exchanges, blunders, and openings, simply by listening to Limitless and playing 1-3 games a day.
I get the sense that growth after today, is about to get extremely interesting.
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I played 3 games today. 2-1
First game was clean, and borderline brutal. 96% accuracy. PancakesAndWaffles22 (the opponent’s username) did not eat his pancakes and waffles this morning, rofl.
Second game was even cleaner. 98% accuracy (I’m pretty sure this is my highest yet). 0 inaccuracies, 0 mistakes, 0 blunders.
These 2 games were pretty simple and easy.
Third game… 83% accuracy. I don’t know what happened during this game, my brain just turned off when he went queen b2. I just gave him a free knight for no reason, I just decided to enter Super Saiyan derp mode. After that, the game was over. Oh well, I’ll just do better next time.
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I just discovered that Chess.com gave me 89.1% accuracy for the first game, whereas Lichess.org analysis gave me 96% accuracy. They use different definitions and calculations of accuracy. Lichess tends to be more lenient and therefore higher. So basically, all the accuracies in my journal are compromised unless they all come from the same website.
From now on, I’m not going to pay attention to accuracy. The only thing that matters is my rating increasing, and that’s the only worthwhile measurement for actual progression and getting better at chess.
I’m attributing this insight to Limitless.
Anyways, I feel good today because I hit 1078 which is my highest rating.
Just a reminder I mentioned this earlier. Don’t play the bishop out if it can be blocked by the pawn like this.
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Lmfaorofl.
I swear to god, when I was reviewing this game I thought to myself “why did I go b4, this is completely useless”. Then I remembered you telling me about this exact thing in my journal. I’m pissed at my play in this game, I won’t lie. Limitless is having me work through some things, lol.
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From now on, I’m using Stockfish 17 (https://encroissant.org/) to analyze and study my games.
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Oui, tres bien mon ami. 
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