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Having made the decision that I would no longer pursue chess for
a living meant that chess was purely for fun. Many of the chess
players in Utah loved going to the big money tournaments in
Vegas. I had already had my taste of playing 14 hours a day, and
my conclusion was that tournaments with long time controls are
simply no way to live. For the last two decades I have
played mostly online. What I really enjoy about the internet is
that I can play a game whenever I am in the mood to play, I can
play any time control that I like, and with some limitations I
can even choose what level of player I want to play against. Of
course, playing online takes away the social aspect of the game
that you get by going to clubs, although there are some players
who enjoy chatting online after the game. My highest standard
rating on ICC was 2115 in April of 2002 which put me in the top
7% of all the players I was being rated against. That was pretty
impressive since that top 7% included International Masters,
Grandmasters, and people who used computers to assist them.
Currently, however, I am rated about 300 points below that
mark. There are a lot of possible explanations as to why my
rating has gone down. My friend, who used to work closely with
ICC, says at one point they deliberately deflated their ratings.
Also, due to the world wide web, the entire world of chess
players that I am playing against has gotten better, making it
more difficult to obtain rating wins. There was nearly a twenty
year period in which I had no one to play against, but now
little kids who live in the mountains of Indonesia and Equador
have full access to chess. There are people to play, masters to
watch, video lessons to watch, and study material to absorb, all
readily available at your fingertips. Cheaters who use computers
also deflate rating points from good players, and I believe
there are a lot more cheaters online than there used to be. ICC
allows you to use a computer if your account is tagged as a
computer account and your opponent agrees to play you, but in
certain pools and tournaments they are not permitted, and if you
are caught you can lose your membership. Finally, playing at a
high level is getting more difficult for me because I am now in
my mid 60's and my mental stamina has decreased. Nevertheless, I
have a life time goal that I still stubbornly cling onto, that
of achieving "Master", even though for years I didn't seem to be
making any progress. Then last fall I went on vacation to Utah
and spent a lot of time in the mountains and away from chess.
When I came back I was on fire. Through a stretch of about a
month I won 40 games against 4 losses and got my rating back up
as high as 1981. That gave me renewed hope. I know that I still
have it in me, I just need to figure out how to maintain that
level of play for the long run. But I am not the only one who
struggles on ICC. I notice International Masters and
Grandmasters on ICC that sometimes have ratings as low as mine,
and on occasion I do win games against these highly respected
players. For those of you who are avid sports fans, and have
watched really hard fought football games, maybe you can relate
to just how exciting a chess game can be. Add the additional
feeling that you are the one making the moves and the outcome is
completely in your own hands. I was recently involved in a
really tense struggle against a player that was rated higher
than me and he definitely had the superior position. It came
right down to the last few seconds when "I saw an opening down
the middle of the field" and just barely checkmated him with
about two tenths of a second left on my clock. Wow! To me it
felt like watching my favorite team in one of their biggest
games of the year, down by four, and they score the go ahead
touchdown just as the clock expires! These the are moments that bind
my heart to the game of chess.
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