I fell in love with the classic board game 9 months ago, and after a couple thousand games, finally hit the big milestone.
I reached 1000 ELO after about 9 months and 2,200 games of chess.
For those who don’t follow chess, I’m in the top 20% of those in human existence who have ever picked up a chess piece. More or less. I’d say it’s probably the equivalent level of difficulty as running a half-marathon or posting a video on YouTube that gets 50k views.
How it started:
Back in November, I visited a friend in Utah. He had a lovely chessboard and some time to kill. I played like an absolute noob and he still found the heart to play me half a dozen times even though I provided the mental stimulation of a first-grader. On the flight home, I played computer chess. I hated playing the computer, so I set up an account on chess.com.
The ups and the downs
I was rated 948 back in April. It took me nearly 5 months after that to get to 1000. I hit a real big skid in May, and stayed afloat in the 800 range for the rest of the summer.
If I could do it all over again…
Realistically, I could’ve achieved this in 1/2 the number of games it took me. But there’s something about the constant heartbreak and grind that made me fall in love with it. Something so sticky. If I got there efficiently, I wouldn’t love it as much as I do right now.
People to thank:
A big thank you to Ricky, the one who initially played me in chess multiple times, although I was terrible.
A big thank you to Ryan, a friend who picked up chess right around the same time I did, and created a tradition of sending each other videos narrating our best games.
A big thank you to those I’ve gotten to play in person – Danny, Michael, James.
And the biggest thank you to SadisticTushi on YouTube, whose hilarious narrations of his chess games were just as entertaining as educational. Since watching his videos, my rating has gone up 200 points in a month.
Now what?
I don’t think anyone wanders into a 1200, 1500, or 1800 ELO rating like I did to 1000. It would probably take a while, with more emphasis on studying and not just playing sloppy games over and over again.