Put On Your Tournament Armor: Introduction

What's up, guys and gals?

It's been a while since I've written to you. Why have I not been writing? As is the case for many people, "life" got in the way. School, friends, family, prom, chess coaching, etc have been eating up my energy... and they still are! Sometimes, when you're sooo busy with life, you lose motivation to do regular fun activities that require work and effort, like blogging. However, I'm feeling a spark of motivation, and look forward to presenting you a new series on Putting On Your Tournament Armor!

What's this series about and who is this for? This series is intended for people who discover chess (somehow), have fun whipping their friends, play on the internet, but are afraid (or maybe it's not fear... maybe it's lack of knowledge) of entering the chess tournament circuit. They ask questions like, "Will I lose all of my games?", "Is it very expensive", "Do I need books and a coach?", "How do I qualify?", and "Will I become a Grandmaster out of this?". My hope is to answer almost any question a newcomer to a tournament/chess club has so that the tournament can maybe be less intimidating.

Tournaments are not for everyone. However, for all of the "random anonymous" users out there on Chess.com or any other chess outlet playing exclusively online, there have got to be a few who aspire to jump into a pool of both fish and sharks to become tournament players. Any user with the fancy red "NM", or "GM" next to their red handles did not get that recognition for nothing. There's a reason why Hikaru Nakamura is the superstar he is today.

I'm really looking forward to this series as well as blogging again, and I hope this goes well alongside maybe aspiring some new regular competitors! Even if not all the posts are out yet, feel free to ask any questions about the competitive arena that are swimming in your brain.

Otherwise, I'll see you around next post. In the meantime, feel free to share how you got to chess, and if you play tournaments, how you braved the pressure to take it on competitively!

Take care, and goodbye!