JimEBau
James Baumann
Deltona, FL, United States 
Member Since: Feb 20, 2009
Last Login: Nov 19, 2009
Profile Views: 1886
Points: 3150
Status: My rating is still grossly overstated... (8 days ago)
Homepage: FaithHopeTravel.com
Birthday: Jul 9, 1961
Occupation: Travel Agent
About Me:
I began playing chess as a little kid. As a young teen, my dad used to take me to a chess club in San Fran, near where I grew up. I learned a lot playing timed games against the older, better players. However, they offered no formal instruction. I had two chess books; Lasker’s “How to Play Chess”, and "How to See Three Moves Ahead” by Chernev & Reinfeld (I actually still have that book somewhere. Perhaps I should find it…).
Anyway, I started playing music at thirteen, and chess became a thing of the past. I've played maybe once in the last 30 years, until February of this year; 2009. I saw the new chess game in Microsoft Vista on a friend’s PC, and I thought, “I’d like to play some chess”. So, I looked for an online resource, and www.chess.com came up first on the list. I joined that night, and have been having much fun.
Most of the folks here are really great, and are more than willing to help, make suggestions, and offer insight. I’ve learned so much here; it’s exciting! My goal is to; offer my opponent a challenging game, improve my tactics (and hopefully by doing so, minimize blunders), and learn more about openings.