Here's What's Up.

I decided it's time to write a bit about what's going on in my chess world.  After my 5 month hiatus, I feel the game has a new freshness.  I'm enjoying it a lot more and I guess I pushed way too hard before and probably in the wrong areas...but the good news is I still remember a lot of those rote openings.  Now I'm trying to add the dimension of "why". 

For the first time, I've started trying to learn this bit about Opposition.  It's pretty funny thinking about how many endgames I've played with absolutely no idea of what to calculate.  Learning Square of the Pawn was like being given magical power.  Opposition feels a bit of the same.  More control, less panic and distress. 

Thanks to Chess Mentor I've discovered the Grunfeld.  I don't like games that open with 1.d4 but thanks to girolamo I was at least equipped with 6 - 9 ply KID with a small understanding of the usual goals so I didn't have to abort games starting with 1. d4 anymore.  This in turn made the Grunfeld easy to pick up...and it's the first defense that I genuinely like from the heart.  It doesn't seem to require the tight contortions of the KID.

I think I'm giving my games a little more time and importance than I did before.  Could be a phase.  I try not to make swift blitzlike moves only to watch in terror as the board begins to refresh.  Oh the number of times I've hit the X to stop the move from going through...impulsivity will be the death of me...and I'm not talking chess.