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https://lichess.org/@/BlargandBlah/perf/bullet
So have always kept my chess life separate from my bw life, mostly because over the years I have represented myself incredibly poorly at times in this community.
To which I owe more then a few apologies. That said, I hit a personal goal today.
I have never had higher then 1975 bullet rating (bullet is any chess less then 3 minutes, I play 1/0 which is 1 minute per person no increment) until I quit smoking weed/hash 3 months ago for the first time in 16 years (5x to 10x times a day). Part of my personal rehab program has been using bullet chess to measure the cognitive gains.
Unfortunately the account I played my first 1k games on it was named Deadtrump2020 and eventually got banned (go figure) so I lost the data showing the arc of improvement as I detoxed.
In the last year in classical chess, I have gained 900 elo points (I had a very low rating from playing as a child) and I'm currently a little over a hundred points from expert. I am currently playing in my clubs championship which I tied for second or third last year ( can't remember, drugs).
It has been really exciting to see the positive impacts in my life from stepping away from weed/hash. Working, Working out, reading more, more sexual stamina but ... as a nerd, this is the coolest. I have been collecting the scalps of many National Masters, Fide Masters and a few IM's.
Luckily, this account is only for bullet and unattached to me in rl so I can post it.
I am terrible at bullet chess, from an objective point of view, but I argued that coming from bw/sc2/csgo would eventually propel me to reach my goal through mousespeed and the mental toughness that comes from spending 10,000+ hours getting kicked in the head by more talented gamers.
I am avoiding nearly all study except of my own classical games. No tactics training, no training videos. I have got to page 20 in Jacob AaGaards "Calculation" in his grandmaster prep series but that has been mostly to kill time on breaks at work.
For the record, I am not magically anti-weed. I just needed to end my relationship with it for a while and I certainly needed to break the cycle of daily massive consumption.
If you are having trouble reaching your goals, whatever they are, and you are using drugs to the point of abuse (like me) then maybe taking a break could help you as well.
Pretty soon (around Jan.) I plan to resume study on a schedule and see how high of a rating I can achieve in otb. So far, I have drawn a few life masters, beat a handful of experts and choked out the vast majority of everyone else (70% winrate 2018, 64% winrate 2019).
Good luck and be safe.
(Thanks for tolerating my nerd brag. Other then my chess group, not many people I can share this with.)
P.S the odds are that I will not be able to maintain the rating I have hit, this is a peak rating, not a representative rating of my mean elo. Until I am safely in the 2270's~ I will almost certainly bottom out significantly below my current rating. Although I don't believe I have been below 2025~ since I became sober.
 
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Norway28665 Posts
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Well done dude!
Do you play irl tournaments? I used to play seriously as a kid (I played in the u11 British Championships a few times) but I totally lost all my chess ability with adolescence. With the kind of rating you have I would suggest giving it a go. I don't know what the scene's like in the US but there are plenty of tournaments over here where you can make 100 bucks or whatever for winning.
And congrats on giving up the herb. I gave it up a few weeks ago and I feel the veil lifting already 
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On October 19 2019 20:38 Jockmcplop wrote:Well done dude! Do you play irl tournaments? I used to play seriously as a kid (I played in the u11 British Championships a few times) but I totally lost all my chess ability with adolescence. With the kind of rating you have I would suggest giving it a go. I don't know what the scene's like in the US but there are plenty of tournaments over here where you can make 100 bucks or whatever for winning. And congrats on giving up the herb. I gave it up a few weeks ago and I feel the veil lifting already
Yes, I won player of the year in my city last year. Currently trying to get to 2000 uscf (expert status).
I can't be more specific without painting a giant arrow to myself.
Week 2 was the week that started to feel good. I still wake up every time I go to sleep after 1 hour covered in sweat but ... change is always ackward.
Thanks Eri!
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gj with all of this but I still have no idea where your strength stands in "real" rating. My classical FIDE Elo is around 2100. Is yours better? Worse? Similar? Can't figure it out
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Congratz. How much time do you spend on chess to get to this level?
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On October 20 2019 00:14 Naib wrote:
gj with all of this but I still have no idea where your strength stands in "real" rating. My classical FIDE Elo is around 2100. Is yours better? Worse? Similar? Can't figure it out
I am over 200 points weaker then you.
8)
In the year or so I have played rated events my top performance rating was 4 points below your real one 8)
Edit: also congratulations to you!
In my country's federation (fide -100) you would be a master. You are a very strong player!
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On October 20 2019 01:01 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
Congratz. How much time do you spend on chess to get to this level?
I have played for years and years and often.
I have only played tournament chess for a year and a half or so. Before that I hadn't played in tournaments since I was around 12-13.
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Exciting to hear that man!
Yesterday, I signed up for a local OTB tournament in November after not playing OTB chess for close to 1.5 year (more because of circumstances than desire, but still).
Gotta climb that rating ladder!
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On October 20 2019 06:15 don_kyuhote wrote:Exciting to hear that man! Yesterday, I signed up for a local OTB tournament in November after not playing OTB chess for close to 1.5 year (more because of circumstances than desire, but still). Gotta climb that rating ladder!
Thank you. Good Luck in your upcoming event. Remember to avoid getting hungry at the board and a good nights sleep is more important then a over prep repotoire-!
Get em!
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That is an amazing accomplishment . Gratz ^^
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Dude, everything in this post is really, really impressive. Good job!
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Northern Ireland25270 Posts
Great stuff man. How much of this do you attribute to dropping a particular habit, in this case weed and how much to feeling motivated to pursue this goal in other ways?
I’m not opposed to those who smoke it at all, although I have friends who smoke ungodly amounts that instinctually I don’t think can be benefitting them.
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GG, this is no small feat!
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On October 21 2019 04:10 Wombat_NI wrote:
Great stuff man. How much of this do you attribute to dropping a particular habit, in this case weed and how much to feeling motivated to pursue this goal in other ways?
I’m not opposed to those who smoke it at all, although I have friends who smoke ungodly amounts that instinctually I don’t think can be benefitting them.
I have to attribute it to dropping my habit of daily weed consumption which was motivated by a desire to improve all aspects of my life.
I really wish they hadn't deleted my account deadtrump2020 which I started the day I quit. There was no improvement and some rating deflation and then on day 14 there is a sudden spike of a 120 elo points and then that stabilized from early September to early October when I made the account linked above, I had one peak day that hit 2196 right before my other account was closed. When I remade this account I stayed between 2030-2106 until I hit a sudden spike the day after my most recent tournament game.
I also started to play cs for the first time since 2004. It really helped refine my hand eye coordination and focus, especially, when I was too emotionally fragile (from atrophied emotional fortitude from years of self sedation) to play bw.
It didn't matter what happened in game, I have no pride about fps, so it helped me keep focused and pass uncomfortable times when I couldn't focus on a game of chess, or a book, or even sit in my own skin comfortably.
So far after 20ish games, I've maintained my rating and gained another 13 points or so.
I have no more motivation in chess than before. I am arguably doing less chess related things than I was before.
My theory so far, is that I have trained for so long impaired that removing the impairment, things are just easier.
I am purposely not doing any opening work or clear cut memory based endgame studies. I am relying on things I am learned during the haze. This is to see if, it is overall better cognition and processing speed (I think it is) or if it is just the obvious short term memory improvement that have been known about for decades.
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not bad.
i reduce myself to watch professional chess with engines, your agadmator and kingcrusher videos, tcec engine chess competition etc.
Didn't get myself to play yet, think i could improve rapidly if i invested into it, but i just can't half ass things, so i better not even begin
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On October 22 2019 06:57 KalWarkov wrote:
not bad.
i reduce myself to watch professional chess with engines, your agadmator and kingcrusher videos, tcec engine chess competition etc.
Didn't get myself to play yet, think i could improve rapidly if i invested into it, but i just can't half ass things, so i better not even begin
That is a fantastic foundation you are building for if you do ever play.
Pattern recognition is the cpu that powers all forms of chess moves. You are building up a wonderful database for if or when you do pick up the game.
I avoid engines when watching. I like the drama of being wrong too much.
On my main account, I have scalped kingcrusher on stream with bs openings. He tilts sooo hard.
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Northern Ireland25270 Posts
On October 21 2019 18:13 AttackZerg wrote:Show nested quote +On October 21 2019 04:10 Wombat_NI wrote:
Great stuff man. How much of this do you attribute to dropping a particular habit, in this case weed and how much to feeling motivated to pursue this goal in other ways?
I’m not opposed to those who smoke it at all, although I have friends who smoke ungodly amounts that instinctually I don’t think can be benefitting them. I have to attribute it to dropping my habit of daily weed consumption which was motivated by a desire to improve all aspects of my life. I really wish they hadn't deleted my account deadtrump2020 which I started the day I quit. There was no improvement and some rating deflation and then on day 14 there is a sudden spike of a 120 elo points and then that stabilized from early September to early October when I made the account linked above, I had one peak day that hit 2196 right before my other account was closed. When I remade this account I stayed between 2030-2106 until I hit a sudden spike the day after my most recent tournament game. I also started to play cs for the first time since 2004. It really helped refine my hand eye coordination and focus, especially, when I was too emotionally fragile (from atrophied emotional fortitude from years of self sedation) to play bw. It didn't matter what happened in game, I have no pride about fps, so it helped me keep focused and pass uncomfortable times when I couldn't focus on a game of chess, or a book, or even sit in my own skin comfortably. So far after 20ish games, I've maintained my rating and gained another 13 points or so. I have no more motivation in chess than before. I am arguably doing less chess related things than I was before. My theory so far, is that I have trained for so long impaired that removing the impairment, things are just easier. I am purposely not doing any opening work or clear cut memory based endgame studies. I am relying on things I am learned during the haze. This is to see if, it is overall better cognition and processing speed (I think it is) or if it is just the obvious short term memory improvement that have been known about for decades.
Yeah that makes a lot of sense. Plus you have a real quantifiable element to your attempts to improve things with this specific domain.
Interesting blog for sure, cheers for putting it out there. I definitely drink too much but I’m not really in denial it’s bad for me, friends who smoke (to me) ungodly amounts of weed seem to deny it’s having a certain impact.
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What did you do to replace the weed habit? What sort of things did you turn to when you felt the desire for weed to kick in?
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EPT
