Road to NM

I'm not a strong chess player. I'm currently rated under 1000. The title says "Road to NM" but let's be honest, that's a bit like saying "Road to Everest" when you're still at home googling pictures of base camp and can't find Nepal on a map. The summit exists. I can see it. I just happen to be very, very far away from it and slightly out of breath walking up the stairs.

The goal, the real, slightly delusional, say-it-out-loud-so-you-can't-take-it-back goal, is to one day play in Titled Tuesday. Yes, that Titled Tuesday. The one with grandmasters. I'm aware of how that sounds. But you don't get to pick sensible dreams, so here we are.

I've recently switched from Chess.com to Lichess and started playing on a Chessnut Move e-board, because I found the jump from clicking pieces on a screen to moving them on a real board genuinely difficult. Turns out my brain had learned "chess, but only with a mouse." So I'm retraining now, while I'm still bad enough that the adjustment costs me nothing I wasn't already losing. I'll go back to Chess.com rapid once the board feels natural. For now, it's Lichess, a wooden board, and a lot of pieces placed on the wrong squares.

This blog documents the journey, not the destination. I'm sharing my real thought process during games, my training diary, my mistakes, my breakthroughs, and the long plateaus in between. Every game review pulls from comments I write directly into the game afterwards, working through what I was actually thinking at each moment, held up against what I should have been thinking. It's uncomfortable, but it's real, and it's where the learning happens.

I might never make National Master. I might get stuck at 1200 for three years and develop a lasting resentment towards knights. But if I do fail, at least you'll be able to learn from it. And if I somehow don't — well, I'll see you at Titled Tuesday.