Greetings, Fellow Chess Grinders!

So, I returned to playing chess as a hobby after a long, long pause that lasted almost half my life.

Some of you may know that I am into board games, Magic:The Gathering and other strategies but the foundation was always chess and the reason I have been neglecting it is perhaps the diversity and novelty of other games. Some of which are quite well designed, genius-made even.

But so is chess of course. It never gets old if you are willing to go in the deep.

And I know I am quite far from it yet. But I played a few games at a mass gathering of board game lovers and after I returned to my slightly isolated habitat, my only option to move forward was the online version. It turns out it's massively developed. Of course it is.

So, I played a few games versus bots, I passed the 1400 ELO level one after 4 or 5 losses and 1 win, I got stuck at the 1700 ELO bot who keeps crushing me...

And I decided it was time to play some humans at my own level and improve from there.

I was placed at about 800 ELO after some terribly wrong-gone matches. Grinding my way above the 1000 mark after that.

Today, I am sharing with you a fun situation in which I played as black, I traded aggressively after achieving some pretty messed up position so I felt my hope lied in devoiding the opponent of as many attackers as possible.

And at some point I lost my queen to a not that subtle free rook trap that I decided to jump into anyway. My opponent lost bot rooks and I moved my pawn to the #2 line.

I managed to pin a bishop as well, losing my own in the process of capturing it but here's how it ended when my own rooks helped my pawn trap the enemy queen and threaten imminent promotion.

Have fun deciphering it.

I've been mostly away as of late, meaning... lots of offline work to be done. Tons more remain. It's about massive home repairs while not taking a leave from work since that one is reserved for a family vacation.

But... I was trying my best to at least curate my favorite content, and... here's me finding this community and showing up for the first time.

Thanks for reading!

Peace and Prosperity!

Yours,

Manol