Road to 2000 (Getting back on track)

Going to keep this one short, a lot of things have been happening lately. Firstly I had to take a bit away from chess studies for interview prep. My previous job (a smaller startup) underwent an acquisition late last year, and after a few months, I felt it was time to make a switch. So I spent a bit of time prepping my portfolio, interview practicing, job hunting, and researching. Chess took a back seat for a bit there and frankly my progress was little. I knew I wasn't going to have time to dedicate to it, and just wound up spamming a lot of blitz as a distraction. (Frankly, I should have used that time for tactics...) However, I'm happy to report that I have a new job, which I'm super excited about and will be starting in early June! It's also fully remote, so I can save some time commuting and find some time to squeak in some more chess study!

In other news, I still made sure to say in Lonewolf, except for my two weeks that were filled with interviews. Overall I had a pretty good season, went +3/-5/=1 with a performance rating of 1882 (slightly above my rating). I had a win against a 2000+ rated player, which I'm pretty proud of! Additionally, I only faced one player lower rated than me and won, albeit it was a tricky English variation (something I need to develop a better repertoire against)

My win against a 2000+:

Lastly, I recently got Covid, which was a bit disappointing. I had a bit of time between jobs and was hoping to get some housework, do a bit of traveling and catch up on some chess. Unfortunately, I caught covid, not even sure where and how, as I mask almost everywhere. Thankfully my family and I are okay, still in isolation for a few more days, but our symptoms are relaxing. We had to cancel our travel plans, but we'll have more time to travel later on. So I guess that means I'll get a bit more focus on chess again, while stuck indoors now that I'm feeling better.

Lonewolf 26 starts next week! I'm going to try to do some more frequent game recaps this season and get back onto the blogging!