• Member Since: Sep 10, 2010
• Last Login: Apr 19, 2013
• Profile Views: 2787
• Points: 154
• Birthday: May 22, 1980
• Occupation: Drummer, Composer, Instructor
• USCF Rating 1300

Hello. I don't remember when I first got here, but it was at least May of 2008. I had a different account back then. I had played on yahoo chess for many years... I always felt yahoo chess sucked. It's really funny that THEY HAVEN'T CHANGED almost anything since like 1995. I remember one day they revamped the whole thing and it looked A LITTLE better. Anyways, one day I thought: "there's gotta be a better site." Of course I had heard of other PAYING sites. I decided to try the obvious and type in the address bar: "chess.com." THAT'S how I got here. My online chess playing activity came and went. I would play for a month, and then not play for several. But now, life's circumstances have allowed me to focus more time on chess. So, I come here almost everyday, at least for a game or two. I had an interest in chess since I was a kid. My great grandfather from my father's side was a national master in my home country (Panama). My dad taught me the moves when I was 8. We had a wooden board with big wooden pieces. Through the years, the knights lost their heads. We had to use much smaller knights that didn't match with the other pieces. Anyways, my dad would play me, and he told me the story of how my Great Grandfather, Luis, played a game against Capablanca. The story was that Luis COULD'VE gotten a draw. I recently found the game. Apparently, the game was a simul Capa gave when he went to my country. My dad also told me how my Great Grandpa gave simuls in his backyard, and how he was always told NOT to bother him when he was busy with his chess playing friends. So when I was a kid, I was intrigued by this, and by the game, but did not really get deep into it. I didn't play against anybody outside of my immediate family. Later on, when I was 20ish, me and my friends started playing against eachother. We drank beer and played for fun. But me and a friend of mine decided to start studying some. My first book was "Bobby Fischer" teaches chess. I think it is a great book for beginners. It taught me about "the pin" and "back rank mate," and I don't remember what else. But I felt that after reading that book, I could already play better. I had a "second wave" of chess interest when I was 23-26. I bought some books. But I didn't really know how to study. I tried reading some of the books, but felt I wasn't learning anything. Still, I bought more books. Some years passed. I taught chess to my niece and nephew. So the time came when I found myself everyday in here. I felt it was time to learn more. I met some really cool people on the site. Some of which I have actually met in person. Of course, I've met some jerks in here. Some people have pointed me in the right direction when it comes to studying chess. One of the things that helped me was to grab a tactics book, set up the puzzle on a real board, and time myself. A chess master I met in my city told me that, and also, someone here on the site. It really did help me a lot. Lots of people say that the difference in playing strength lies (mostly) on tactics. At least close to my level I guess. Another thing i've done, is to check out master games, and try to UNDERSTAND the moves. Guess-the-next-move, so to speak. But, set up the board, and try to understand the game. This is similar to listening to music in an analytical way, something I had to do in my music studies. It takes a lot of patience to do this with a master game. I've only really done it with Morphy games and some Steinitz games because I feel that I have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE of what's going on when I see a Kasparov game or a Bobby Fischer game. Well... thanks for reading. I'll keep getting this profile pimped up with time. c ya! -abort A funny exchange between Frosty and me: abort: "You're a very sweet girl Frosty." Frosty: "Girl? I'm a Woman!"