Defeated a Fide Master in Chess.com 3 minutes plus 2 seconds increment

I have been playing rapid games in chess.com again for the last few months after some break during the entire pandemic time. I used to play mostly 5 minutes chess or 3 days per move games in chess.com.  But then I thought to try out 1 minute bullet chess and 10 minute rapid chess. Then I my son Ahyan told me to give a try to 3 minutes with 2 seconds increment that game he plays. I tried and am liking it very much. My yesterday's game was a win against a FIDE Master in this format on my favorite Sicilian Dragon opening as black.

[Event "rapid 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment"]

[Site "Chess.com iPhone"]

[Date "2023.02.11"]

[Round "?"]

[White "TheMagician"]

[Black "ashikuzzaman"]

[Result "0-1"]

[FEN "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1"]

[White "Elo 2090"]

[Black "Elo 1913"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 a6 7. f3 b5 8. Qd2 Bb7 9. O-O-O Nbd7 10. Kb1 Rc8 11. g4 Nb6 12. b3 b4 13. Nce2 e5 14. Nf5 gxf5 15. gxf5 d5 16. Ng3 d4 17. Bg5 Be7 18. Bxf6 Bxf6 19. Qxb4 Be7 20. Qd2 Qd6 21. Nh5 Qa3 22. f6 Bb4 23. Ng7+ Kd7 24. Bh3+ Kc7 25. c3 Bxc3 26. Rc1 Kb8 27. Qf2 Rc5 28. Rc2 Rb5 29. Rhc1 Na4 30. Bf1 Rxb3+ 31. axb3 Qxb3+ 32. Rb2 Nxb2 33. Rxc3 dxc3 34. Qc2 Qb4 35. Nf5 Rd8 36. Ne3 Rd2 37. Qxd2 cxd2 38. Kc2 Qd4 39. Nd1 Nxd1 40. Kxd1 Qa1+ 41. Kxd2 Qxf1 42. Kc3 Qb5 43. h4 a5 44. Kd2 a4 45. Ke3 a3 46. Kf2 a2 47. Kg3 a1=Q 48. Kg4 Qg1+  {0-1}

XCell Chess Club Runner Up in USAT National 2017 Playoffs

We, XCell Chess Club, became runner up in the United States Amateur Team (USAT) 2017 Championship. We won the semi-final against North by 3-1. I lost in third board with White against Michael Auger rated 2268 (almost 300 more than mine) but all our other boards won. In the other semi-final game, East defeated South by 2.5-1.5 margin. South's first board couldn't play due to a personal emergency and hence they had to play up with 3 boards.

In the final we faced the current champion East. I won my game with Black against Warren Wang rated 2198 (again more than 200 points above mine). Arul and Ashrita lost in fourth and second board respectively. In first board Hayk had better position against Ethan Li but drew in time pressure as the game prolonged. Well, we were very close but couldn't make it. We will have to be happy with the runnner up. But this was a great experience and good team work. Kudos to team manager Tigran and XCell Chess Club owner Eshwaran for arranging everything for us. There is always a next time!




This playoff along with the original west zone team championship is the most significant team competition I have ever played!

Simon Williams on Dragodorf - The New Sicilian Dragon

Along with GM Simon William's Dutch Defence, I have also picked up his Sicilian Dragodorf opening after watching a series of videos by him in chess.com. Before this I was using the Accelerated Dragon variation by GM Roman Dzinzhichashvilli from the book Chess Openings for Black, Explained. In fact almost all my opening repertoire are from this book and its companion book Chess Openings for White, Explained.


The New Sicilian Dragon was published by Simon at 2009 from Everyman Chess and hence is a bit outdated compared to the fascinating developments made by him in recent years that you can learn from his Killer Dragon DVD pairs. Although I have went through the DVDs twice, I have started reading the book to better internalize the rational and the development of the Dragodorf from its root (relatively speaking). Also I have found Simon explains chess very well, if not as good as Roman, mixing humor all along the way. So its fun reading him or watching his videos. I have also picked his Hillybilly attack against Caro-Kann, King's Gambit with 3. Nc3 variation, Sicilian Grand Prix attack to name a few. His playing style is attacking and hence his openings often have a touch of a pawn sacrifice to gain tempo in development and attack. This I assume will help me master open games.

Simon explained different variations and the theories with the help of 62 full games. Here are those games.

Game # 1




Game # 2


Game # 3


Game # 4


Game # 5


Game # 6


Game # 7


Game # 8


Game # 9


Game # 10


Game # 11


Game # 12

Ashik vs Neil Regan, FNM, Round 4

Ashik vs Gabriel Jame Bick, US Amateur Team West Chmp, Round 6

Ashik vs Sos Hakobyan, 7th Round, TNM

Ashik vs Keyven Reise, Friday Night Marathon, Round 1

Daniel Lin vs Ashik Uzzaman, Game 1, Charles Buggby Memorial @MIC

Ashik vs James Cohee, 2nd Round, TNM, MIC

Ashik vs Natalya Tsodikova, 3rd Round of Tuesday Night Marathon Summer 2015

Sicillian Defence - Accelerated Dragon by GM Roman Dzindzichashvili

Ashik vs Jason Cruz, Friday Night Marathon at Norcal, Round 1 in July 2014

Ashik vs Hal Rives, Millionaire Chess Open, Round 7

Ashik vs Michael Mahoney, Millionaire Chess Open, Round 6

Ashik vs John Salisbury, Millionaire Chess Open, Round 5

Ashik vs Andrew Ardito, Millionaire Chess Open, Las Vegas, Round 2

Ashik vs Raymond E Balack, Millionaire Chess Open, Las Vegas, Round 1

Spassky vs Marsalek, Leningrad 1960

Ashik vs Julian Lin, Milpiptas Summer Chmp, Round 4

Ashik vs NM Rayan Tagijadeh, Milpitas Summer Chmp, Round 3

I got a bye in Round 2.