A boosted ego is never good for anyone. For someone like myself, it is detrimental.

However, that is exactly what the case is, as I am now 4-0 in Battle of Wits. I took down my mentor, Kohl, again then followed that up by defeating his Birmingham counterpart, Luke, shortly thereafter.

It would be much better for the Chess ego to have been on an 8-match losing streak to Kohl, which I was not too long ago.

The two victories, extending my winning streak to 4 matches, is exactly what I did not need. The worst thing that can happen in Chess is getting too confident. It even happens to the best of the professionals.

If you asked me right now to take on Magnes Carlson, I would say “bring it on.” Maybe that is exactly what I need to bring me back down to Earth, as I would lose in a maximum of five turns.

However, considering my mind was elsewhere on that Saturday morning, as Alabama’s looming loss to the LSU Tigers would take place later that day, I am pleased with winning back-to-back matches versus two opponents either better than me or of equal skill.

The match with Kohl was puzzling, as I did not really do anything fancy to win the match, I just made fewer mistakes. This is interesting, because usually I have to put much brain-power into overcoming my mentor.

Versus Luke, however, it was personal, as he embarrassed me on the Chess.com app the last time we played.

Even though Luke was paying much more attention than I was, as I spent half the match covering Athens volleyball, I am not one to make excuses.

However, playing over the phone is small-time compared to playing over the board, and it would lead to a victory for me by the slimmest of margins against a budding rival in Luke.

Maybe it isn’t an ego boost, and is instead good karma for choosing to play in-person instead of on the phone. Maybe it is the Boomer in me.