Happy New Chess Year

Happy New Chess Year!!

It is 2018 and the FIDE ratings are out. Magnus Carlsen still tops the Classical list with Caruana second, just 23 points behind. Mamedyarov is third after his amazing year. With it being a World Championship and Olympiad year, I think chess will be great to follow in 2018.

Is your rating where you want it to be? I'm very happy to have risen over 50 points last year to 2183, the highest I've been in over 10 years, and getting close to the highest I've ever been which is about 2230. I had an epiphany about my chess in 2017. I played a game early in the year which I lost and it was almost as if I hadn't really been too bothered about the game, before, during, or after. I asked myself why I'd even bothered turning up to play, and whether it was worth the effort to keep playing if there were games that I couldn't really care about. From this I took the most valuable lesson, and since then I have tried to put 100% of effort into every game that I've played, with some preparation, full focus at the board, and analysis after.

I am now 51 years old, but even a player my age can work hard at the game, strengthen small details in play, gain knowledge, and improve general calculation skills to become a better player. Setting goals help, so set a long term goal (make it a realistic goal) with some stepping stones along the way.

Most of all, enjoy your chess in 2018 (if you're playing in Sydney at the Australian Championships, I wish you all best and have some enjoyable chess)

In 2017 I visited England, and was there at the time of the Isle of Man International. Here's a photo I took :) (I'll add some more stuff in the coming months)

Number 1 on Jan 1 FIDE ratings list, World Champion, Magnus Carlsen