The Path Of The Beginner

Hello everyone,

My name is Jim and on Christmas day 2008 my life changed forever. I am 39 years old and you guessed it, one of my Christmas presents was a box entitled "No Stress Chess". I had hinted off and on to several people throughout the years that I would like to learn how to play Chess as I have never played the game. This gift was just what I needed and it could not have come at a better time. The next two weeks were spent reading the instructions, setting up the pieces, and finding someone, anyone to play chess with me. I found a few people that would play me but I soon realized that I needed a constant Chess fix. With this realization I turned to the internet and googled for any web sites that would allow me to play chess and that is when I found chess.com. After paying the fee and signing up for a year I played my first game and promptly lost. Considering this a fluke I played my second game and lost. After declaring it a bad day I retired to bed and awoke to a fresh and alert mind the next morning. As I settled down in front of the computer for a nice two or three hours of winning chess games and boosting my rating,  a popup message told me that a player would like to challenge me to a game of Chess and I gladly accepted his challenge. Soon after that I still sat in front of the computer but this time I was licking my wounds. I had now lost three games in a row. I was devastated! The first lesson that I ever learned about Chess was humility. I have now been a member of chess.com for approximately two months now with over a hundred games played. I have only won about a third of those games and have lost more than I care to count. The idea of studying chess, the openings, middlegames, endgames, tactics, strategy, chess theory are all very fascinating to me. I am constantly learning new ideas from books and especially chess.com. My ratingd, as you can see is only 816 but with hard work and constant study I would like to see my rating get above the 2000 mark. I hope everyone remembers to have a great day and keep it fun!

Jim

Miramarma