My Game Is An Embarrassment

I have been considering myself a solid 1550 chess player. I slide down to 1500 sometimes, and I hit 1600 occasionally, but most of the time I'm within twenty points of 1550. 1550 is not an extraordinary rating, but it isn't just average either. Yesterday I decided I am going to get above 1600 and stay there.

I decided this after winning two games against 1600 plus players. Those games illuminated something so brightly that even I can't ignore it. In one of them I actually slipped with the mouse and made the wrong first move. In the other I didn't. It made no difference, my opening was abysmal. After ten moves I was in such an inferior position that I'm sure both my opponents wondered how I held my rating. They found out. In the midgame I fight like a cornered wolverine, and if I can reach the endgame somewhere close to even I am like a death machine.

I have a database with a thousand quick lessons in opening strategy. I did three or four, acknowledged its usefulness, and haven't opened it since. What a knothead.