Hmm, will have to play less tournament chess.

So this is an entry to log the fact that I plan to play less tournament chess. I entered the Bristol Summer Congress 2017, but I had to withdraw for the last day. It's simply humanely impossible to raise a kid, grow a start up and make time for monthly tournament chess.

Due to my last awesome performance, I really wanted to play. However, each of my games took four hours, and after the second game (4 hours and 30 minutes) I was absolutely knackered. Not to mention I only had 3 hours of sleep that night (driving to the tournaments is quite the extra energy sink, especially due to bloody diversions!). I messed up a won endgame and gave my 2,100 rated opponent the draw. Shame. I think having a won position got to my head; I got over-excited. Good for my opponent though as to be honest, I miscalculated in the early middle game and only got an advantage due to a cheap-shot tactic (due to a mistake by my opponent!). Would have been nice to bring home the win. I also drew with black vs. an opponent rated 1630, again I felt like I messed up the endgame. I had a good knight vs. bad bishop which quickly due to my mistakes turned into a good bishop vs. bad knight. How ironic. Held the draw.

Finally, for my third game, I think I must have had a mating combination somewhere, but honestly, all I wanted is for the game to be over quickly and messed it up along the way. Ironically it still took 3 hours.

So this entry logs my intention of abandoning my 2,000 rating goal this year, seeing as that would take at the very least three more five game tournaments for which I currently do not have the energy. Instead, I will change my goal and aim to improve my online rating and play some online games again. Maybe one serious game once a week recorded and straight away analysed on youtube. Analysis is important, and after playing for 4 hours, I admit I have not analysed any of my last 10-12 tournament games... shame on me. I think it's a good goal and definitely possible. I'll do that instead! Then, if my online rating increases I'll go for some OTB tournaments next year and hopefully finally hit 2,000. The problem with that is I need 10 wins vs 2,100 opposition which is tough; then I'd hit 2,000. The time commitment is just pretty big, 4 hours per game x 10 games (at least...), more like 15-20 games... and you can start to see why I am hanging up the gloves for this year!

Its not like me to withdraw or give up. Hence I will start posting videos on my Youtube channel, and of course, I will continue to study on Chessable where my streak is looking pretty impressive. Fortunately, pretty soon we'll offer some serious endgame study on Chessable so as to broaden our offering, I can really use studying some endgames. :)

Sorry if this post doesn't read well, I'm too knackered to refine it :D Just wanted to log what's happening and my plans so that I can refer to it in the future when I look at my path to chess improvement.