harpae

Greetings to everyone on Redhotpawn!

I'm Harpae, and I learned chess by myself, playing casually and reading chess books. I've been playing for about 3 years now. I was lucky that my high school's chess club had quite a few strong players who introduced me to the game, and who I've had the opportunity to play against and learn from. I've never played in official tournaments before, but currently some people estimate I'm about 2100-2200 FIDE, for classical/slow chess, based on my results in casual games. My score against weaker titled players (NMs, weaker FMs) seems to be about even.

My favorite chess teachers are Igor Smirnov and Dan Heisman - they teach you how to get practical results, and tell you exactly how to get better. At the very least, they teach you how to avoid blunders in simple positions, which instantly makes you better than the large majority of players!

Right now, I like to play all openings, so I experience a variety of different structures and positions, but the systems I'm best at include the Grand Prix Attack, Scotch Gambit, 2 Knights, Italian Game as white, and the Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo/Bogo-Indian, Reversed Grand Prix, and Hedgehog as black. I've played these systems a lot, but it's always fun to try something new!

My favorite positions are those that are pretty messy, tactical, "weird", and not "natural". I enjoy complications. "If you want to win a battle, you have to be willing to go to battle!"
Still, it's important to be able to play all positions somewhat well.

So playing new openings, and getting different positions is also so I can improve. I want to become a universal player, instead of mainly a tactical player. I want to get better at slow, strategic positions rather than just chaotic positions.

I love and admire chess not only because it's fun, but also because it's such a good metaphor for life!