Nova Daily - 6 April 2025: Recap Week 14
Hi!
Yesterday I indicated that I was glad that in terms of having to perform my games, the week was over. I came home exhausted, and I was happy to be able to lie down after yesterday's game. Not having to do anything today except to summarise my chess week in the recap blog that you're reading right now, I woke up this morning feeling relieved. Not exactly refreshed: I could do with another week's sleep in terms of refreshment.
Interested to see what I'd have missed, the results of the BlogChamps contest came in. Because the level of blogging was as high as it was, there were definitely a few surprises for me. In the good way: using the quality of the blogs that I thought would make it but didn't as the standard, the winning blog was deemed even better. As for the ones that did qualify: best of luck in the Q's!
Why are you blogging?
With any pursuit that you undertake, it pays to wonder why it is that you're doing it. With chess, it's sometimes a self-loathing question, as many people only ask the "Why?" question after a painful defeat or moronic blunder: "Why am I torturing myself over this game?" The "Why?" question is rather much easier to answer when you've won a great game or unlocked a new achievement: "Because HELL YEAH it feels like I'm on top of the world THAT'S WHY!!"
As for blogging, people tend to have different reasons why they're doing it. Some use it as a try-out for a larger project that they are working on. There are bloggers who use it for educational purposes. Other writers it to explore interesting and unexplored topics. Some like to investigate a subject and use the blog to present their findings. There are historical accounts of the titans upon whose shoulders we stand, and there are contemporary reports of what is happening today. I've seen some very fun and engaging games in a few blogs (check out this one and this one). And there are some who use their blogs to chronicle their own journeys as a chess-player.
With so many different topics and great blogs to choose from (to be fair, not all of the above are works by contestants), the task of judge for the event certainly isn't one I envy. And they're doing a fantastic job at it.
There are a few things that I really don't like to read, though. A short list of these:
- AI-generated content
I can usually tell when a blog was written by AI, and I'll stop reading immediately when it becomes blatantly obvious that the text was produced this way. Writers spend years of elbow grease to become good at this craft, and changing a few commas or words here and there to bypass ZeroGPT's detection mechanism isn't remotely enough to pass on your generated work as genuine. - Rip-offs
Getting inspiration to write something is great, and it often happens that I get inspired by someone else's work. It wouldn't be the first time that I'd dropped a topic because a fellow blogger uploaded something very similar. And should I choose to continue writing, I'd always let them know, either through DM or through mentioning them explicitly in my blog. And sometimes I can rework my own ideas by taking into account what others have done. It's a sign of respect for my colleagues. - Random advertisement
I love reading, I love discovering new ideas, and I love reading your work. If you and I are in the same chesscom groups, there's a high chance that I'll read your blogs if you paste them in the link dump topics. If you've written a blog about a topic that's relevant to something I did, I'd be happy to have a look. But there's no need to send random flyers to my DMs, and they make me less inclined to read your entry altogether. That'd be a pity. - Open warfare
Just don't use your blog to pick on people. Chesscom reads "Please be kind and respectful in your messages," and there's no reason why you shouldn't uphold that sentiment. I know that people can get under your skin, but there's no reason to devolve to that level as well. - Arrant nonsense
When I read texts that are intended as informative, I usually prefer to read something that's factually correct. It can happen that your information is incorrect, and that's no big deal. We're human, and humans make mistakes. Those mistakes can provide a great opportunity to learn and improve. They don't, however, guarantee it.
Why am I blogging?
As for me, I've said it several times before, but with any blog there might be a first-time reader of my work, so I'll repeat it once more here.
When I started writing, I already had a very clear plan what I wanted to do. I'd decided to build from scratch an entirely new repertoire consisting of openings that I've never played before in my life. I'd use my blog in two ways to accomplish this goal: first, as a way to solidify and keep track of my progress, and second, as a form of invisible peer pressure because the "daily" form would force me to work on my chess every day.
From the start I chose to focus on just the games I play, keep track of the thoughts that I have during the game, and analyse my thoughts and the moves with the assistance of my opening resources, game databases, and the engine. I'm here to study. I'm here to learn. And I play my chess games accordingly.
The week in chess
Let's start with the most important news of all: the World Championship between Ju Wenjun and Tan Zhongyi has started. After three rounds the score is 1½-1½. For next week I might be following their games more intensely. Maybe I'll write a report of some of their games instead of playing my own. We'll see.
Today the news came in that Niemann isn't going to play in the Freestyle Chess tournament. I'll call it what it is: fantastic news for those who love speculation, and bad news for the world of chess.
On personal front, my chess week has been objectively great. I don't know how, but I won against an IM twice in two correspondence games with some of the most obvious tactics:
But the best news is that I got a new bullet peak. And it's not the one I talked about in this previous blog. No, today I fought through the choking, through the mouse-slips and the bad chess, and I did something that I never thought I would've been able to do:
Other than this, I won 5 of my 6 rapid games.
My current scores:
- Rapid rating: 2165 2132 (+33)
- Blitz rating: 2301 (=)
- Bullet rating: 2604 (+101)
- Survival: 62 (=)
- Puzzle Battle: 1805 (+23)
- Puzzles: 3611 (-19)
- Repertoire: 4131 moves (=)
Blogs:
https://www.chess.com/blog/nova-stone/nova-daily-30-march-2025-recap-week-12
https://www.chess.com/blog/nova-stone/nova-daily-31-march-2025
https://www.chess.com/de/blog/nova-stone/nova-daily-1-april-2025
https://www.chess.com/blog/nova-stone/nova-daily-2-april-2025
https://www.chess.com/blog/nova-stone/nova-daily-3-april-2025
https://www.chess.com/blog/nova-stone/nova-daily-4-april-2025
https://www.chess.com/blog/nova-stone/nova-daily-5-april-2025
