Here is where my ability lies now!

Hello to all Chess.com members! My name is sean893, A.K.A Jerry Khoo! I'm 24 years old from Malaysia. Today I wish to share to everyone: where my chess ability lies now...

I started chess at May 2015 as per the chess.com. Actually, I started it on 2014 which was at 18 years old! At first, I kept on losing and plunged down to 900 rating in blitz.

So I decided to continue devoting some of my time to chess. I began to learn openings, the middlegame and endgame. I even had some great chess friends (at that time). They were extremely caring and willing to share chess books with me. A friend of mine named season00 even shared a ChessBase reader software for me to store all my games with effective analysis there.

I began to improve a little bit, but then studies began to continously get in the way of my life. Not to say I didn't enjoy them, but they are part of everyone's life! So I went for a 3 year hiatus after that until 2019.

One more year of playing chess, eventually i was able to improve up to 1300 rating to where I was now. I didn't play any more blitz games for a while since then (only daily puzzles and knight invasions). My best record of solving puzzle rushes was 39, which I found myself very smart for once in a blue moon.... Other than that I average completion of 20 puzzles before I get 3 strikes and gone out!

Today, my rating is 1.3k in almost all variants of chess. Here's the important part: I know how to apply forks, double attacks, absolute pins, relative pins, skewers, decoy/deflection but Still, I've found my limit on where I could possibly comprehend the chess boards. Here is an example:

1) Puzzle #981142

It was White to move, after Black played Ne4. The e6 pawn was two moves away from promoting into a new queen. Meanwhile Both kings are unsafe and can be checked every time. 

I began to think: How could I possibly promote this e-pawn and get a second queen? I first look at White's b1 king, and it appears unsafe.

Next, I thought of Qg8+. It's just a check, right? Black plays Kc7, and there doesn't seem to be any logical move I could think about. Check again Qg7+, Kb6 and the king is safe from checks again. So no point.

At last, I decided to play the pawn to e7. I thought if black plays Nd6, I can catch the black queen by playing Qf8+, Qxf8, exf8=Q+. Or, if Qf8+, Kc7, Qxf5, Nxf5 and e8=Q, it's still a winning endgame. Or if after e7, Nf6, Qf8+, Kc7 leading to Qd8#. 

Then after e7, if Black plays Qc8, I can play Qe5+, essentially grabbing a knight for free. The black queen couldn't possibly catch the e7 pawn. 

On the defensive side, I also thought White's king can survive the flurry of checks delivered by black's knight and king. 

So what could possibly go wrong with this move? I played e7 and....

WRONG!

This was exactly where my limit was in regards to comprehending the chess board. It appeared the correct move was Qg8+, Kc7, Qf7+, Qxf7,exf7. Force capture the queen. I never once think about queen sacrifice for this one - I thought the white queen has to stay alive.

So there you have it guys, the limit of my chess ability. I really do wish I can be way smarter and be a better chess player! That's to say however, I appreciate and and every single second I spent myself on chess. My brain's still young, and I always believe I can improve more! I will say this: it will be extremely difficult to do it alone without the guidance of a grandmaster.

I actually still had some chess materials to learn at home as much as I want to, it's just I didn't utilize it because I am busy with my studies and soon looking for a job!

I like to play chess of all variants! I never got to play bughouse because I don't have a partner!

Thanks to everyone, and I hope to make friends with you all!

#IwanttoimproveAgain