My First Lichess Game: Sicilian Defense Madness

Continuing the story from when I decided to shift online chess platforms from ChessCube to Lichess, here's the first game I ever played. I was playing Black and at the time (it was 2014), I had already taken a liking to the Sicilian Defense and so I played it. For those who already know, your first 10 to 15 games on Lichess will determine where your rating lies. So you will notice that when you win during this period, you will gain hundreds of rating points even though you are only playing with 1600 to 1900 rated players. Once your rating finally settles then the rating changes will stabilize and you will only receive big points to your rating when you beat someone several hundred rating points higher than yours.

For this game, I won't really go into too much detail. Besides it's also just a bullet game which won't really test the full extent of your chess knowledge or ability. That's because the main point of the game would boil down to how fast you can click and how fast you can think on your toes. It doesn't matter if you didn't make the best move in the position, what matters is that you get a stable position and have better time management than your opponent. Of course, that would mean that the primary way for one to win (or lose) in a bullet game is by quickly reacting to blunders and not making ones of your own. Then again, in order to do this, you would need to understand basic positional concepts.

We both made mistakes but my opponent made the first one. The move 4. Bc4 was a bit inaccurate because it allowed me to gain tempo as well as a take control of the center. On the other hand, my opponent was forced to retreat and lose time which could have been used developing his pieces. If you've read some of my previous articles, or if you have a pretty good foundation of chess principles then you would know that development is important during the early stages of the game. There are only a few exceptions when this rule could be broken but only if you understand other concepts and know how to prioritize given the position.

Moving on, we continued developing pieces and for the most part, Black was ahead. Most of my pieces were active and I was better developed than my opponent. I also had more space on the queenside. Then came the move 21. Nxd5 which was a big blunder on White's part. I sacrificed the exchange (rook for a knight) in order to launch an attack. It followed 21... Rxd5 22. Qxd5 Be4. At this point, I had the clear advantage. So far in the game, Black had a slight advantage over White but with this blunder, White basically gave his position away.

However, despite that, I missed a win. It was a rather easy win. After 23. Qe5, I could have played Qxg2# and won the game but I didn't see that. Instead I played Bd3 which suddenly turned the tables and gave White a big advantage. Considering I was down the exchange, White could have easily solidified his position and inched his way to victory but during the last phases of the game, we both made mistakes until at last, I won on time.

Again, a bullet chess win is not necessarily a reflection of one's chess skill but it's fun to play and it's more fun to win. It gets people riled up and blood boiling because it's so exciting. But if ever you've just gained some interest in chess, I don't recommend playing bullet games. Actually, I don't even recommend playing online as it instills bad habits. Unless you're serious in climbing up the ladder and becoming master in chess though, casual over the board and online games will be fun and you might learn a thing or two. For serious study, longer time controls and over the board games with post-game analysis would be best.