Finding A Direction

I broke my rule of posting a comment every two months.  My occupation in retail makes it hard to keep a steady format - especially around this time of the year.  Since my last posting, I was involved in the 4th Chess.com Tournament.  I was nervous because it was my first tourney ever and I wanted to have a good showing.  After doubting myself several times, I finally put aside my fear and try to play the best moves.

I was eliminated in the opening round, but it was still a good experience.  I finished 3rd in my pairing - posting a 3-3-2 record.  The curious thing about that performance is that out of those eight games, I had better positioning when I was playing with the dark pieces.  I think that has happened because of the way I studied chess.  What I did was basically adopt the method of Josh Waitzkin by studying the endgame first.  By doing so, I probably put myself in several material disadvantages after the opening and had to concentrate really hard in order to get back to even standing.  In addition, I had to figure out what kind of player I was going to be - an attacking player or a positional player.

In order to improve my play, I bought my first chess book.  It's called "The Complete Book Of Chess Strategy" by IM Jeremy Silman.  I just cracked the first couple of pages, but I am looking forward to reading some more and applying something new to my game.  Haven't played any games since my exit from the tourney, but that will change pretty soon.

If you have any comments, please post them below.  Thanks for reading this entry - and as always --- Best Wishes !!