1. e4: New Beginnings

   A new game always brings new oppertunities. A fresh board that hasn't be fouled up means you might actually win this one! :) If life is like a game of chess, this is the stage I find myself in at the current time.

   Since I've last posted to Chess.com, many things have changed. I've moved away from my parents and bought a house. No appartment, no leasing, a full fledged house, complete with mortgage and all the various responsibilities attached. I've bought a new car, the first one I've ever owned. I got a new job in the city I moved to, and have already been promoted twice. And I bought a mac. 

   Everything's new. And yet, chess.com is still here, like a rock, waiting patiently for me to return each time. The design has changed, and features have been added, some perhaps have been taken away, but it's still here, and growing fast.

   I joined Chess.com on Nov. 10, 2007, only a few months after it was open to the public. When I joined, the site only had 66,000 members, if I remember correctly. Now, less than five years later, the site already has more than 5,000,000 members, and growing by thousands everyday.

   Go start a new chess game, and feel to possibilities with a blank board, a fresh start, an undisturbed blanket of snow, and tell yourself, "I'm going to play like a grandmaster from now on!"