I thought I would start a thread where people who are interested in receiving or offering assistance could introduce themselves; give a little information on their playing style, strengths and weakness, etc.; and get to know one another.

As for me, my chess.com rating is in the low 1600s.  I've only played one OTB tournament and did ok, but fatherhood and three jobs precludes me from doing more in my area.  I like to play more positional games, but I've been working a lot more on my tactics for the past year or two.  My biggest chess weakness is that I often try to force tactical play where none exists, and my biggest strength is that when I play well my formations are very solid and methodical.  I am almost always playing with a plan in mind, though they don't always work out.

I would be interested in being both a mentor and mentoree.  With the white pieces I play d4 or c4, and with the black pieces I play the Nimzo-Indian in response to d4.  Against e4, I'm a bit all over the place, but I've enjoyed the Caro-Kann, the French, and I'm beginning to play the Sicilian Kan.

If you are interested in working with me, please challenge me to an unrated game, and we will begin.  I'm also thinking that it would be helpful for the group as a whole if both players posted annotated versions of their unrated games on this group's forum, but if you're opposed to that, I would not press the issue.

Thanks for reading this lengthy post, and I look forward to having a game with one or two of you soon. 

As for me, I have played chess off and on for many years, but haven't been really serious about it until recently. I like e4 for white and e5 for black on my first move. I don't really know any openings and find it difficult most of the time to know what should be the right move in any given situation. I have had many of my games here on chess.com computer analyzed and find the it to be somewhat hard to swallow what it says the "proper" move should be. I have a hard time letting go of larger pieces because I feel that it puts me at a big disadvantage. I am currently rated around 1275 and at this point don't feel like I could really teach anyone anything considering I really don't know that much myself. I really do want to improve my game and have been spending a lot of time studying tactics. If anyone wants to look at any of my past games and offer me advice that I can comprehend, I am all for it. Unrated games for teaching me more about the game and what I should be doing is more than welcome on my end. I prefer longer time settings due to other people needing to use my computer throughout the day. I look forward to learning more from everyone.