Though, I have to admit not a huge fan of G/30 or less.
I showed up last night, and was just setting up to go through a game from Formation Attacks when a former state champ and Fide Master asks me if I'm up for a game. (The guy doesn't know me from Adam.)
Well, yeah. Like I'm going to turn down a game from a FM.
We don't use a clock, just casual, and I'm actually hearing a grunt of surprise from him every now and then. Of course, he wins both games, but I make him work for it.
We're in the third game, and a friend of his shows up, and he starts pulling out the bag of tricks. He swindles a piece off me, and we call things as the TD is getting things started.
As we're cleaning up, he asks me what my rating is. "In the 1200s" I reply. He says "You play way better than that. 1700s or so." I thanked him for the kind words.
If I can only get the results when the clocks are running... I know it's in me, but it's just not coming out when I need it. Naturally, I lost both tourney games after that, with a massive blunder in each game.
Still, it's compliments like that, from players like that, that keep me going. If I was basing my desire off results, I'd probably be back playing wargames by now.
I can do this, but I've just got to fix the way I think during timed games. What I currently do doesn't work. I've been going through the Igor Smirnov course "The Grandmaster's Secrets." It's good. It teaches you how to find moves, how to approach the game, and how and what to calculate. You just have to get used to his voice.
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