My road to top 10

1. Trivia
2. How I found anti
3. My way to 1600
4. How I have gotten 1800 and 1900 and my first ever anti tournaments
5. My boost to 2050 (there will be the juiciest part start)
6. Titles and my "end" Goal of 2200
7. Current time

Trivia

Today is an exceptional day for me - today I achieved the top 10 Antichess rating rank for the first time ever in my life. Looking back at my past self I am shocked that I accomplished something, that I would Never Imagine getting.

16.08.2023

So with this in mind, I want to share my story with you, because someday I may climb even higher, though, it wouldn't be as soon.

How I found anti

One day, 2020.05.05 to be exact, I found out about this variant while searching for fun in other chess variants except for the bullet. I was frustrated by losing and searched for an easier way to win in other variants and tried to play anti for the first time.

As you may see, I was not as good at it, which is normal, yet it really captivated me because of its simplicity. I had a pretty good understanding of what to do for the player who played for the first time: I blocked the development of my pieces and tried to play on the edge of the board; I tried not to develop anything and would sacrifice anything if possible. Even tho it is not the right approach to the anti at my level, it was good enough for me at 1500? level. (I have got 0 inaccuracies in my first game!)

My first game against a human

I never searched for theory nor analyzed my games, thus playing consistently badly, yet really excited when winning. And then I wanted to play for real, for rating.

My way to 1600

Spoiler: I reached 1600 on 2022.02.05 (almost 20 months later!)

When I started playing Anti, I played at 1300 ELO level according to Lichess, so you may say it was easy to improve, but you will be wrong! I spent nearly 2 years just to achieve this milestone. Tbh I didn't pay attention to learning as much that day and the progress was in the form of the experience, but still 2 years of gradual improvement!

Those days I didn't know anything about studies, blogs, Lichess antithesis, Tournaments and other important stuff which significantly reduced my development speed. So, you may ask "But Rassul, how did you play for rating then?" and the answer is:

Oh, yearly days of mine...

I sat there for 5-10 minutes waiting for someone to create the game, because if I would to do so, 1800+ players would always accept the game and bully me (why?). In the moments when tournaments were happening, the online would decrease drastically and I never knew why.

How I have gotten 1800 and 1900 and my first ever anti tournaments

Then, searching for opportunities to play I found out about many new things, but primarily: lichess tournaments page and the fact, that I can analyze non-standard variants of chess with the built-in engine.

For some people, It may seem as obvious but not for me. Being a solo player as I am now, I never had any outside help in Anti until the last few months. I felt stupid for not knowing that and started my real grind.

That Is why I am willing to help for newer players if they need it. It is even written in my Bio and is completely free.

After several months I completed my that time goal of 1800 and felt like a ruler of the world. I felt good at achieving even this small goal of mine, which is another lesson:

Set smaller goals and achieve them. Slow and steady wins the race, so no need to start fast with 2400 goal if you are 1800.

Going back to the tournaments, I created my white colour repertoire at that time which I follow till the current day: 1. g3 followed by either 2.b3 or 2.Nh3 (my favourite). Those days you would only see players playing the Swedish or 1.e3 to which I always answered with symmetry and with the Su!cide defence respectively. Yeah, I know, it is bad and I knew it back then too, yet I was lazy to learn something new and believed that Nd7 would be more than enough for me right then.

Tournaments also showed me 2000+ players and I believed them to be the Gods of this game (XD) as it truly was like that for me. I happened to find about such players like @ChangeOpening, @Antichess_Valentino, @Sharking_State (Tet), @Allegro_Moon (Later I hated him because he was always paired against me and unsurprisingly he would whoop always my ath), @ak1969, @asnp, @asvy, @TheUnknownGuyReborn, @mental_suicide and the most important one of them, whom I forgot...
These players were My Icons back then and I tried to become one of them.

Then, one of the most important turns has happened.

My boost to 2050

I searched for more power, as those above were already 2100+ rated and had numerous advantages before me. 1 of them: theory.

So to improve it I searched videos on youtube (as I am lazy ath to read texts and do studies) and found out about @yourself101010 and his guides. Finishing them all, 2 of his phrases stuck in my mind:

I prepared this pretty interesting line <1.e3 b5 2. Bh6 > ...

This is my game against Kotov_Syndrome or "Queen Racing God" as we call him (paraphrased)

And it was the main reason behind my future fast-paced skill increase. I studied the Bishop defence (line above) until no more and created my study regarding it, finding my indescribable passion for this type of straightforward grind of theory.

The part of my all-covering study. All of the lines were discovered by me independently from anyone other.

That time I read all of the papers, studies, videos and everything in between and grinded as a madman. I learned about basics, covered my endgames and sky-rocketed to 2050.

Also, I believe I need to say that every 50 that I achieved was another holiday for me. 08.08.2023 was my 18th birthday, yet I was more happy for an AGM title... Like 2050 and 2000 were big achievements that I could never stop smiling back then.

Titles and my "end" Goal of 2200

After achieving that milestone I found out about the titles in anti, which was another huge boost to my rating and skill. That time I thought to myself:

Now, I need to get 2200+ in this summer and try to get AIM title untill I go to the uni.

Later, unknowingly how, I started playing my first ever important tournament - April's Anti Shield.

https://lichess.org/tournament/3rnAbJSA

There was the biggest emotional boom of mine because I played so well, that I started stressing about any loss that could occur, yet I was so happy, but couldn't allow myself to be like that, because it was 1 AM on the clock. That time unexpected thing happened: @Agburanar (if I recall correctly) helped me to not stress out and calculated for me, that even if I would to lose the last 13th game I would have my AIM norm still. However, if I win I will get my 1st norm which will be an AGM norm...
Through sweaty palms, weak knees and heavy arms I achieved my 1st norm and later acquired my ACM title by rating.

Then, my skill clamped. It wasn't enough to play at my rating and I did the most reasonable and another best thing I did in my lifetime:

Seek help from the stronger. Be not shy to do so.

I have written the same message to Flo, @bwmtone, @Kotov_Syndrome and @cFlour. They all answered me as best they could. All of them said different concepts to me which I use 'till this day:

*I lost the chat with bwmtone*

Thus, I started ringing my titles and creating more studies with deeper theory. Nothing too interesting has happened that time that you, readers, don't know.

I would fulfil my 4th AM norm -> get the title -> push my rating on 2000 elo players till 2200
I would fulfil my 4th AIM norm -> get the title -> push my rating on 2100 elo players till 2300
I would fulfil my 6th AGM norm (don't ask me why and how) -> get the title -> push my rating on 2100 elo players till 2300 again...

Then I changed my bio and now you may see, that I have no future goal there....

Current time

Now, I am primarily going to concentrate on Uni and that's why I am not planning on any future progress.
I plan on becoming a Blog writer as well as a Newer players' coach, study creator and just a not-as-much active AGM.
I plan on creating such works, to make anyone 2100 if they read them fully to increase the skill cap and become someone important in today's my dear Anti community.
I plan on becoming ASGM or at least fulfilling 3 norms in each 2024 summer's Anti Shield Arena as it is my way of becoming an AGM and ASGM in the future.
I plan on using my acquired Uni Data Science knowledge to uncover the Drawing nature of the Swedish and prove that it is not losing if played correctly in any circumstance.
I plan on entering 1.e3 with astounding performance (I practise it in my secret 1900 account and was accused of cheating 3 times already :P Spoiler: I wasn't, I just memorised the Sjeng Race)

It may sound too ambitious and It indeed is, but what is life without a challenge?

P.s. Thank ya'll for your support and see you in my next blog!