First USCF-rated blitz tourney win for Vas!

This was exciting! I rushed home from work to login into my chess.com account with minutes to spare. Then I made some coffee and got ready. The cat would eat later.

​This was a 7-round 3 2 US Chess Federation rated online blitz event. I usually score 4-5/7 but today EVERYTHING went my way. I either played really well or the others made serious mistakes. I rolled to 6/6 before conceding a draw in the last round. And it was fine because I won the event by 1.5 points.
​It feels great to finally do it after trying since January. 

​My plan is to play these USCF-rated blitz and rapid events all year and see what my ratings look like. And I can do it from home. No need to jump Trump's walls.

​So what did I learn today? I learned about overloaded rooks.
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​White to play!!
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​Black's rook on d8 is extremely overloaded because it's guarding the bishop on d5 and it's connecting its partner on c8. So White wins with 22. Ba5!

​No what can Black play?  22. ....Rf8 loses the bishop on d5; 22. .....Rd7 runs into 23. Bg4 so the only move is 22. .... Rd6 and then comes 23. b4 and White wins a piece and the game because the rook on c8 is pinned.

Lesson: don't overload your rooks!!