Blitz Chess #13: Toe-to-Toe Casual Blitz Against Very Strong Player

It is as it looks. I was in a pinch situation but time was on my side this time around and I won against a very strong player who had several hundred more rating points than me. Based on the computer evaluation, I was actually in a bad position for most of the game except for a few moments in the game which I could have taken advantage of to turn the tables around however, I wasn't having any of that. To be honest, I was a bit surprised at the computer's evaluation of the game because I didn't feel, when I was playing at the moment, that I was that much worse than I actually was. Although, there were a few moves which I thought were clearly mistakes as well.

Throughout the game, there was one thing I had wondered and that was why my opponent had taken too long to make his moves. I checked the latency between the networks and servers, and it seemed that there was no problem on my end, so I concluded that he had some internet problems. Of course, I took advantage of that and just played moves as I normally would. It wasn't too big of a disadvantage on his part though as he was able to compensate with a stronger position despite being down on time.

Things weren't too bad during the opening and early middle game phases but it was after a certain sequence of moves when I was completely at a disadvantage. However, the computer's evaluation showed that we were tugging at each other. I would make a mistake and he would make an inaccurate move and then I will follow up with a bigger mistake which just kept bringing me to an even worse position than I had previously. But the point which gave my opponent a definitive advantage was after we exchanged queens in move 27. Everything that followed had been to my disadvantage.

I didn't think that it was so bad though. However, after making a few calculations, I felt very suffocated and insecure about my position so I knew it was bad. To add to that, I didn't really make the best moves to stabilize my position. There was one point in the latter part of the game which gave me hope of turning things in my favor but I made a misstep and it just sealed my fate. Nonetheless, I wasn't panicking because I still had a time advantage which I made sure to use to full effect. And I did so I won.

But one thing I learned from this match was that you shouldn't be scared to go up against much higher rated opponents than you because if you play solidly and don't make too many mistakes unlike me, then there's a good chance that you might draw or even beat them, even if they're elite players.