This blog is just my story of how i started out in chess and how i got to the point in my chess im at......

It was late 1996 and i was just turning 19yrs old im not sure why i decided egsacly to start playing because i had no interest what so ever before this point i just decided i wanted to learn so i did. I asked someone and no one would so one day my big brother david who was the best in my family at that time said u want to learn chess here u go he gave me a magnetic travel set and an old book his dad gave him called chess by:- L.Hoffer its about 1946 book i think all i know is it was english descriptive people dont use that anymore.So anyway there i started to learn about chess mostly abit about openings it went into Giuoco piano, then it went into the evans gambit and then 2 knights i think u get the idea how it showed me the way one opening n pranspose into another. about 5mths later i found out about a chess club in taree where i lived. At that time i managed to beat all but david, because david wouldnt play me. So here i was thinking how good i am and that i would be at least mid level there then i played against a mid player of about 1300+ and he crushed me Oh crap! how did he do that ? came to mind worst of all it was the kings gambit anyway from that day on decided i was going to beat that bugger and the others too. So i studied books in the library and the book i mentioned about.I made a friend called richard and greatest rival he made me want to be better then him and of course he felt the same we were both about the same age he introduced me to a book called play winning chess By:- yasser seirawan it turned out to be a book that tought me alot about fundementals like pawn structure,controling space, development,what tempi was and how u could control it i improved alot through that one good book.  I started to improve during that time i played in my club champoinship and game 1st for Div 3 in 97 and 1st in the mid north coast champ unrated div in 97 so i was on the improve i studied that book for months and played my friend and played in the club every week and got some hints on chess like "pawns must be pushed especialy when passed" and "knights on the rim are dim" and in 98 i got my first pc and my first chess program called chessmaster 3000 then i played it at the toughest level got beaten badly for months without a win my friend brought another program called kasparovs gambit i played it at the top level too hahaha and guess what happen to me in that game, haha thats right it beat me again. My friend indroduced me to more of yassers work this time on tactics my friend was getting the better of me in alot untill i read that book and for some reason i found i had a talent for it and started to win. Half way through 98 i beat the man who beat me in the chess club finaly and i started to grow in skill my rating in 98 went over 148 points that year alone i won some devisional prizes and so on and started to over take my friend in the ratings too, i kept playing against the pc games and played in the club and studied the yasser books this time strategy and i bought a posisional book too. with all this prac and knwledge i finaly beat chessmaster 3000 in 28moves too amazing and then i beat kasparovs gambit next in 25 a month later i was winning much more instead of winning 2 out of 7 games in tournaments i was winning 3 and 3.5 games anyway i kept studying those books and some masters games books and my rating kept going up i studied for hours on end and played alot so no suprise i went up so well by end of 1999 i was equal to the top players in the club and was winning against them but missed out on winning the 99 club champ, but i did win my very first small local tournament 3 rivers it was called i was 1219 by then and i played at a 1600+ level which was good 5/6 games without loss. By 2000 i won the club championship and achieved a 1600 level was the best in my club and was beating chessmaster 3000 like it was a beginner even beat it once in 14moves sad thing so i bought better programs my endgame was still letting me down abit so i had sudied bruce panofini's endgame course a book i can recommend by the way and by that stage i was winning about 4.5/7 games in tournaments. anyway i got to a point in 2001 where i was bored with beating my local players (yes u do get bored winning all the time)and bigger tournaments cost to much so i stopped playing regularly after that only played on and off. My friend played for abit then got serious later. Then in about late 2006 he told me about this web site called chessos.com which is like this site but not nearly as good to be honest with you. So i started playing on it and wouldnt u believe it! it got me hooked again! finaly playing better players without cost and anytime i wanted it was great i sucked at it abit for about 6mths then i got alittle better.then i found out through one of the friends from that site about this one and i loved it from the get go had more players, better players, blogs the lot i was in heaven and now i have proggresed better then when i left i feel and im studying alittle on endgames by guess who hahaha yasser again if your a beginner he is without a doubt one of the best reads on learning about chess he is simple and easy to understand so worth alook. anyway thats my story i have got decent because of alot of study a few hints and alot of games good and bad and no matter what i always tried to win no matter how good or bad they were so all u beginner work at it too and u can be a better player if u can afford coaching im sure that would be better but i couldnt so i did it this way hope u like my long winded story tc all......