I'm fairly new to chess, but have spent an unhealthy amount of time playing and studying the game over the last year or two.  I'd like to get involved in USCF, but am a bit intimidated by the prospect of playing my first rated game at the Mechanics Institute Chess Club in SF.  No, it scares the crap out of me.  Am I the only one?

The folks at the Mechanic's Institute are supposedly very friendly. I know a fellow blogger who decided to play their first rated game there, and he didn't regret his decision. Just have fun with it, and don't worry too much about the ratings! The ratings just help you to find a good opponent, focus your studies, and measure your progress. There's nothing wrong with starting out at 1200 or whatever.  :)

we should do a chess.com meetup at the Mechanic's Institute! thoughts?

Can I have a free flight? Or we could meet in the UK at the same time and have like a net-conference over the water.

" have like a net-conference over the water."

 

over a couple beers would be much better.

That too.

erik wrote: we should do a chess.com meetup at the Mechanic's Institute! thoughts?

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 Great idea!

I know how you feel about being nervous about jumping into USCF rated tournaments. I was playing for about a year, and there were very few tournaments in my area, but I found out about a club that met every Friday evening for one tournament game per week at slow time control.

 

Back then, I played real time chess at chess.net, back when it was still free. I switched to FICS when chess.net became a pay site. But I had heard that internet ratings tend to be inflated by 300-400 points, so I figured I should wait until I had an internet rating of 1600 or higher before playing in a USCF tournament, because at least that way, I'd probably be good enough to win at least one game in my first tournament. And that's exactly what happened - 1 win, 3 losses.

 

But don't be nervous about playing in tournaments, especially at a club that has such a good reputation for being friendly. You can probably show up and just look around without playing some time, to see what's going on and maybe playing a couple of "skittles" games (non-tournament, unrated games). I just wanted to wait until I thought I could win at least one game because I thought losing every game might be too discouraging for me.  

 

--Fromper 

I was also quite nervous when I played in my first (and sadly, only) tounament. Even though barely a beginner, and being blasted in 3 of the 4 games it was totally thrilling. And the fact that I did actually win one game was a total rush. Go ahead and dive right in. You won't regret it.

Thanks for the encouragement, guys.