Unfortunately, I didn't get into chess back in 2020 when it was extremely popular (combination of the pandemic + Queen's Gambit). Part of the reason was because I wrongly assumed that chess was a "solved" game, and that it wasn't worth learning since computers could easily beat the best human players. That all changed around June 2024 however when one of my hospitalist colleagues challenged me to an over the board match in the office and my competitive edge immediately kicked in. I binged a lot in the first couple of months, starting at around 500 ELO and getting up to about 1000 before I decided to take a break (I'm sure you all know how addictive it can be haha). The tactics and little tricks really scratched that itch that I think I liked about Starcraft, and since it's essentially always human competing against human it feels like the fact that AI is better than humans is moot. There is always room for improvement which is the fun part. I made my first chess video in March 2025 as I was passing 1000 ELO again, and after that video I quickly reached 1200 ELO before taking another break. Starting to get back into it again as of July 2025 however and interested to see how much more progress I can continue to make!

If you're interested to see how my progress is going now, here's a link to my chess.com profile!