CHAPTER TWO: EXPANDING THE COMFORT ZONE

Dear Readers: 60 days have passed since Chapter One; The Awakening.

Now we move on to How to Train the Chess Monster to move towards competency while having the most fun? All this energy and positive momentum has got to be channeled into genuine progress. 

Learning theory and context, getting a computer

Played thousands of puzzles on Chess.com and elsewhere, learned to focus on certain themes to improve my efforts. OK, these backrank mates in 1, 2, and 3 are printed into my memory. Onto removal of the guard, gimmicky opening traps I'll never encounter but need to know, opening theory, and pins/skewers, etc. Building beyond everything in Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, and Garry Kasparov's Master Class. What have we learned so far?

1) I can't absorb all of these concepts in one pass

2) Need a plan. Can't just wander aimlessly from one shiny object to another thru endless available material

3) Book study takes TIME. Found ways to automate certain books online

4) Play online...Blitz & Bullet are fun but they're not teaching me to think differently beyond my basic instincts. Rapid 10/15 and Daily are making me use my brain, laying down some pattern recognition in random spots but there's still vast blank spots in my chess brain

5) Find the right computer for me! LOTS OF RESEARCH here. Need to find a board I can use to replicate the OTB feel, so I can play OTB again for 1st time in 40 years. Ordered one, waited for it, it arrived! So excited! DGT Pegasus.

6) Started a User Group style Club on Chess.com for the Pegasus Board, expanded it across all DGT boards, it grew to 150 members in <90 days. Feels good, but am I better prepared for OTB?

Initial OTB Tournaments

1) Goal: play 26 games to exit Provisional stage and have a real USCF Rating.

2) Researched local chess club options, found four. Which ones have rated games? Two.

3) 1st OTB club night: humbling, intimidating at 1st, but really fun. Three 25/5 games. But I lost to a 9 year old girl wearing a cute Unicorn shirt who could have been my granddaughter. Walked away having lost 3 in a row, licking my wounds. Blundered away pieces like an idiot. I'm not really this bad, am I?

4) 14 rated games in, so I'm halfway out of the Provisional Woods. Played 4 60/10 games in larger all day Regional Tournament, in the back of the room of 50 boards. Still, fun. Really?  In some perverted way it IS fun. It's exhilarating...does that count? My rating is so low I'm embarrassed to be there but I'm beating some players whose ratings are 600 pts higher. Lost to a 7th grade freckled boy whose father had driven him 3 hours to the tournament, but I didn't mind so much 15 mins after the game ended.

5) Rating jumps almost100 points every time I play 3-4 rated games and win only 1 so perhaps it's worth it.

6) OTB People Types: I've seen some of the same people at each OTB tourny. Some are teenagers who are incredibly focused, some younger kids have their parents drive them there and wait in the car. Wow. Then there's the father/son or father/daughter combos. Kids are playing me, Dads higher up. There's some older guys (55+) like me with whom I can connect. People are friendly, supportive, and helpful (for the most part).

What have we learned in 60 days?  

1) Chess is a vast world. Endless, especially for someone like me who has a long way to go. Do I like it this way? So far, yes.

2) Online and OTB are very different. Duh, but you have to experience it and adjust accordingly

3) Slowly but surely, some patterns are becoming familiar. Why don't learned embedded patterns appear more in real games? I must be studying the wrong ones.

4) Learn how to Learn: Picked Dan Heisman books and videos as my most reliable source. I can understand them, they challenge me.

5) Play longer games

What do to in next 60 days?

1) Play more OTB to get to 26 games without an embarrassing USCF rating

2) Identify my weaknesses. Removal of the Guard is top of my list, so I'll play focused puzzles until I finally get it.

3) Get a 2nd electronic board. It's on order, should get here in another month.

4) Keep building the online DGT board community on Chess.com. It seems to be paying dividends to the members. Got some good contacts in HW & SW companies now so I'm actively helping others.

Sixty days from now I should have moved another few steps up from the Cellar and into the Light. Stay tuned for more Fascinating Adventures in Mediocrity! Does any of this sound familiar? I hope so.