Bullet Chess #9: First Bullet Game on Lichess

This was my first bullet game on Lichess which as you may have guessed wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst either. I was playing against someone who was rated a little over 1600 on Lichess at the time and I already had some experience on chess. I had watched people who were much stronger than me play chess online and I have picked up things from them. So I'm trying to use those things that I've learned in the games that I played. However, in this game, I made some really stupid moves and mistakes which could have actually cost me the game.

As you will see in the annotated game above, I was cruising for most of the game until the latter part in which I made big blunders. In fact, I missed a couple of checkmates which could have ended the game right there and then, in moves 23 and 24. I was young and naive, and still inexperienced when it came to chess so I made a lot of these glaring tactical blunders. Nowadays though I make mostly positional blunders which would later on lead to tactical blunders.

For the most part, I was dominating the game and I could have won by checkmate. However, in the latter stages, since I did an exchange sacrifice without capitalizing on the advantages it gave me, I would have been at a much worse position. Thankfully, my opponent had run out of time by then which was my only saving grace. I just didn't make the most of what I had in front of me and he was able to find a stable footing and defend against my attacks. If this were a longer time control, I would have lost.

It was a good first bullet game on Lichess though it could have been better. I got better though throughout the years so it wasn't in vain. This game was played five years ago and so many things have already happened to me, in terms of chess, since then and I just think that all it takes really is baby steps. To progress little by little is still progress. I'm not a chess genius like Carlsen, Kasparov, or Fischer. Even those guys had to put in a lot of effort even though they had a natural talent at the game, so I shouldn't expect too much out of myself. And you shouldn't too.