Thee Empress | Kamilah Hawa Badiane | Chess Updates: Week One

Hi! It's been a few days since I've updated the blog. I didn't want the week to finish without sharing my progress and sticking to my goals and objectives. In my last blog, I discussed chess notation and how tracking you moves throughout a game could be useful in improving your chess skills. Chess notations is one of my favorite aspects of playing the game. Did you know that the first chess book in English, which was published in 1474, used notation? By incorporating it in our day-to-day games, we're working towards our benefit.

Since I've last published my blog, I've played about six or seven games of chess. None of which I feel really good about. I played on my phone and desktop over the last few days. I usually use Chess.com, but would love to find a local player to play with on an actual board. When I played with the computer on Chess.com, it whooped my behind a few times. In some of the most unanticipated ways might I add. It left me feeling insecure about my skills and abilities as a player. But that didn't refrain me from hitting "rematch".

One of the things I noticed about my approach to chess is that I often focus on reacting impulsively to my opponents to my move rather than thinking strategically. I'm sure it's one of those things that happen to new players, and that I'll get better at moving strategically, over time. It dawned on me when I white checked me while I tried chasing another piece. It only took about five moves for my king to get checked. I felt silly.

I watched a video of Pinkamena, a young female player, kick this guys butt on YouTube! She was such a delight to watch. Watching her made me think about chess psychology. I thought that she wasn't just playing chess, but mind games with her older male opponent. Call me crazy, but it was an observation I made as a spectator. That's sort of how I felt after being checkmated in five moves. It's worth doing further research on my end to see if any author or writer has taken on the subject of chess psychology.

My next blog post is supposed to be on chess openings. I really love this systematic approach to learning how to play chess. From teaching the basics of the game, the rules and objectives, and discussing chess notation, I feel like it's reshaped how I interact with the board online. I started to pay attention to the ranks and files each piece finds itself on. I've been trying to pick up on patterns, especially when I use the hint feature online. This is something that learning chess openings has taught me. 

Speaking of chess openings, that's what has been taking me so long to write. I've been dragging my foot to start researching chess openings, but then I became curious about the Sicilian Defense. Once I learned about what it was, and why it's called that, I learned about the different variations to the opening moves. That's when I realized that learning about chess opening moves would take a little more time that I had initially dedicated to my other blog posts.