What is this about?
Who am I?
Hi my name is Gregor and I am a self employed lawyer, copyright and trademark scientist from Germany.
I have learned chess at the late age of 30. Now I am 32 and I have been playing chess whenever I could spare some time.
When I say learned chess this is not completely true. I have learned the basic rules at the age of 9 even so I am not sure if I knew the rules of castling back then.
A late start to chess
Two years ago I was on a aprenticeship far away from my friends and family. Since I knew nobody I had not much to do in the evenings. So I sat in a small apartement without much entertainement but a TV-Set and my Laptop. Since I never liked TV I spend my time with Youtube videos.
I stumbled upon the Videos of Chessnetwork and was fascinated. So I started to play. First on another site and the here on Chess.com. First I only played 1 oder 2|1 minute games (obviously inspired by the warzone tournaments). It was just pure hammering away without any knowledge of the game.
Then I got to another city were my internet connection was so bad that there was not much sense in playing with those short time controls. So I started to play rapid games. And I liked it. But after a few of those I noticed that I lack a basic understanding of what is going on on the board. That has to end!
What do I want with this blog?
I am not reaching for the stars here. I do not wish to be a NM or a league player. I just want to stop throwing games away by learning to play.
In this blog I will try to show you things that I learn on my way from Patzer to not-being-that-bad-of-a-Patzer anymore.
Comments are welcome. But please keep two things in mind.
1. English is not my native language. I will try to write in a way that it is understandable. If it is not, please be kind and helpful.
2. I am still a Patzer. There is no need to remind me in a harsh tone. If you want to give advice, again, be kind and helpful.
Am I that bad of a Patzer?
Yes I am. A little example? Here we go:
"Wow!" you might say. "How are you winning any games at all?" The answer: I learned some dirty tricks by now. Want an example:
So you see. Sometimes I get lucky. But luck tends to change. It is not good to rely on it.
So let's try to be a better player.