I submitted the final assignments to complete my Masters of Divinity (M.Div.) earlier this week, so years of university school work has come down to the arduous task of waiting on degree conferral. Finishing up these remaining assignments left me little time to play chess, but that has finally changed and I am beginning to reclaim my free time through online play, reading, and study. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when I returned to playing online chess and won the first two games. The third game did not go so well and my pattern of wins-losses has traveled along an unusual 2:1 ratio of wins to losses.

I played a game the other night against a challenging opponent whom I was convinced had me in a death grip once or twice during the game, but I managed to pull some tactical maneuvers and secure the win. Here it is with my commentary:

Lucky or getting better? Probably a mixture of both.

The next game caught me falling to an old cognitive trap that has devastated my play before: complacency.

Cockiness, sloppy development. Doomed from the start.

I plan to work on some articles about the different cognitive traps that affect chess players, but I need to conquer my procrastination trap first.

-w.s.