Less than a week after hitting 1100, I reached 1200. Honestly, I don’t think I played significantly better, and my opponents didn’t feel that different from those in the 1000–1100 range either. My record was 33W/21L/3D, and Muse helped me identify a few improvements I made compared with the previous rating range, while other metrics remain mostly flat:
- Blunder rate in time trouble: 17.5% → 12.0%
- Comeback wins (from an evaluation of −3 or worse): 7 of 48 wins (15%) → 13 of 33 wins (39%)
Time Trouble
My biggest takeaway from this rating range is that time management is still my biggest problem. During my climb to 1200, there were at least five games where I was running so low on time that I couldn’t convert a winning position into a win.
The best example is this game, where I entered the endgame with a major advantage (+5) but lost on time. Worst of all, I spent up to two minutes thinking through each of four moves when I was already ahead but running short on time.
The lesson I learned is to simplify when I’m in this situation again. With fewer pieces on the board, choosing the next move generally takes less time and calculation and the chance of blunder is also lower. An extra piece in the endgame is a real win, but in the middle game it can still be overturned. So just trade the pieces in a smart way!
With AI’s help, I also came up with the following checkpoints for how much time I should have left every 10 moves in a 10+0 game. These help me pay attention to the move number (I had completely ignored which move I was at until now) and recognize when I’m heading into time trouble and should prioritize safe simplification.
| Move 10th | 8:30 |
| Move 20th | 5:30 |
| Move 30th | 3:00 |
| Move 40th | 1:30 |
Next 100
At the time of writing, I’ve already hit a plateau around 1220—my opponents started playing quite well. There have been games where I made no blunders and received a game rating 1800, but still lost to an opponent who played a 2000 rating game. At this point, simply playing more won’t be enough. I need to study the games I’ve lost and identify the gaps in my play. More on this in the next post—if there’s ever a “From 1200 to 1300” post. 🙂