Hi, SFChessers. Just wanted to introduce myself. Technically I live in Fort Myers, but in reality I'm just a couple of miles from Sanibel, so identify much more with Sanibel & Captiva. I relocated here from the Dallas area 2 years ago and am so happy I made the decision!  I belong to two chess clubs and am, so far, the only female player in both clubs.  At first I felt intimidated, but all the guys have made me feel welcome and have provided excellent and patient coaching, as well as playing uncoached games with me.  I consider every game a practice game at my level, but a few weeks ago I checkmated the 2nd best player in one of the clubs.  The guys all stood up and applauded me, which really boosted my confidence.  However, I don't expect to recapture that moment for some time and enjoy every game, win, lose, or draw.  Nancy

Welcome Nancy,

Glad to have you aboard our SFC online group, I want to say that chess is intimidating for anyone at first, but when one gets comfortable with a particular line of play your confidence soars. Congrats on defeating the 2nd best player at your club. Again welcome and we look forward to your contributions in games, opinions, photos, etc.

regards,

Izjar.

hi nancy and welcome to sfc! =)

 Thanks for the welcome, Hank, and everyone else who said hi.  I appeciate the encouragement to hang in there and keep on learning!  Two years ago when I showed up at one of the chess clubs (creating quite a lot of surprised looks from the guys :-) ) I knew how to move the pieces, but nothing about strategy and tactics, so I was a totally "green" player.  I've come a long way, but in a lifetime one can never learn all there is about chess, so I just keep plugging away at my studies using Chess Mentor (here) and the Grandmaster Chess software from UbiSoft that offers valuable commentary and interaction while I'm going through the exercises and studying games that have been won and lost.  My online rating at chess.com is currently 1203 with my next goal to reach 1300.  I like to play above my rating, but within reasonable limits, because it's always good to play "up".  

Many of our island snowbirds are flying north now and the chess club where I live is going to be way down in players, so if any of you feel like taking a day trip here (just before the Sanibel causeway driving from Fort Myers), we meet every Wednesday and Saturday afternoons from 1 - 5.  And we have a couple of really good places to eat right around the corner from where our chess club meets.  Just give me a holler beforehand to let me know you're coming.  Hope to meet some of you over the summer.   Nancy