Check, check, is this thing on?
So I just started going to therapy to work out some cognitive issues and one of the practices was writing out your thoughts. Don't worry I'm not about to do that here. What it did do though was reignite my love for writing. When Instagram first became a thing and Twitter wasn't a collective nightmare yet, I posted pictures of articles and then gave my opinion on them. It was fun for awhile and most of the discussions were civil, to a point. Life got busier, politics became blasphemy and slowly the writing stopped. I do not know why I enjoy the clicks and clacks of typing out words. Some say its therapeutic, I don't know if that's the case for me but I do know I enjoy it. I am not one to browse blog sites nor do I feel like paying 8 dollars a month for some Twitter dweeb to call me a "libtard" so I'm going to try this out here where I spend most of my time anyway.
What follows will be a brief story of how and why I started playing chess and how it became an addiction for me. If this picks up any sort of following great, if not one reads it, great.
The year was 2021 and I was an "essential worker" doing overnights for a hotel. The pandemic was in full swing and I maybe saw three to five guests a night and they were usually pilots. Now getting paid to sit around for 9 hours in itself was a pleasure but I was getting bored. I bought a Nintendo Switch, lost interest. I bought numerous cell phones games, they couldn't hold my attention. I downloaded a chess app, I don't remember which one but you I do remember you could only play against the computer. I played some games, lost them all, deleted the app.
Bored again.
The one game I DID play consistently was Carcassonne. It is to this day still one of my favorite games. The strategy and "defensive" play was fun to me. Blocking someones city or trapping their abbies delighted me in ways you could not imagine. The app was then sold to another dev and they completely ruined the game. The UI was trash, the board layout was clunky, it was no longer fun to play. So, I reluctantly deleted that app.
Bored again.
As I am prone to do in life and elsewhere, I gave chess another chance. This time I downloaded an app called Social Chess and having little to know idea how to play, I jumped into some online games and again, lost them all. Losing to a computer is one thing, losing to a human, one that sends a wink face before checkmating you, is another. I HATED this unknown person and vowed to learn how to play and then return to the arena where I would demolish this winking f***. I read some books, watched some Youtube videos, studied a few opening courses and practiced some tactics until I believed in my newly built game. I returned to Social Chess and lost, every, f****** game, except for one but that one win changed everything. The feeling of losing again and again was vindicated by winning that one game, on time. It would be some tens of games later before I finally checkmated someone and I haven't stopped playing since.
A few months later I discovered Chess.com and that bring us up to the present day. I love this site. I love chess. I still suck but I suck a lot less than I used to and watching my progress, or lack there of, is something I truly enjoy. I have a goal of 1500 ELO and despite many setbacks, I really think I can achieve it.
So that's that. That's my story. I may be the only to read this but I had a nice time writing it. If you by chance read this, add me as a friend, like & share this blog (can you do that I don't even know) and maybe we play a match or two. But if you ever wink at me I swear to f****** god I will report you for cheating.
