i started out strong in real-world tournaments. school champion, county champion, district, regional, kept climbing. earned my spot at state level.
then...nothing. the tournament never happened. bureaucratic nonsense. my entire over-the-board career ended not in defeat, but in administrative bullshit.
so i went online. if i can't play in person, i'll play thousands of games online and get really good that way.
here's my data from 2 years of online chess from main account
1,779 games. 419 hours. that's like 10 full work weeks just playing chess. and what do i have to show for it? a 51.8% win rate and a peak rating that's...decent. not great. decent.
how i actually play
I only focus on Queen's pawn opening
how my games actually end:
Games Won By
Games Lost By
36% of my losses are to timeout. not checkmate. not brilliant tactics. the clock.
i'm losing winning positions because i can't calculate fast enough under pressure. i understand the position, i know what to do, but i run out of time doing it.
why i failed
the goal was simple: get a FIDE title. candidate master, national master, something official. requires consistent tournament play, higher ratings.
i failed. completely. no title, no tournament success, just a bunch of online games that prove i can't manage time properly.
the competitive focus moved elsewhere. at least with coding, there's no clock ticking while i think... or is it?