Hello everyone,

I think this would be a great way to personalize this group as we improve together. Feel free to share as little or as much as you'd like to with the group (particularly about your chess background, and personal chess goals if you have any). I'll go ahead and start.

Inspiration and Love of the Game Begins
My dad taught me chess when I was a child, and is ultimately the inspiration behind my love of the game. I have many fond memories of playing intense chess games with him all the way up through my middle school years, when I joined my school's very small and informal chess club that met after school each week. I was one of the lowest level players in the club. During this time, I also started a tradition where I would play a bunch of blitz chess games on a small website called gamecolony.com every Friday after school. It was always a fun way to start my weekend! Also, my good friend Ross from my church at the time (he's also in this club) was one of the most fun people to play against at the time. Every time he and I would play against each other at our church's family fun nights, it was always super close and dynamic! There was a seasoned chess player at our church who taught both of us a little bit at the time too, which helped us start to improve. I estimate I was probably about a Class D player (i.e. rating around 1200-1399) at this time when I was at my best.

Starting a High School Chess Club
It wasn't until my junior year of high school that I started finally being able to beat my dad at chess - albeit not every game. It was also that same year when Tom and I became good friends and established an informal chess club at our high school, kicking it off with an epic school-wide tournament. Our club typically played on lunches in the chemistry lab where our school had a bunch of chess boards. More than anyone else in the club, Tom and I found our biggest challenge in playing each other. I estimate I was probably about a Class C player (i.e. rating around 1400-1599) at this time when I was at my best.

Chess During College Breaks
My love of chess continued through college, mostly when I came back home on breaks and would invite my good friend Darrin over for dinner and to play a handful of super close chess games on Sunday afternoons after church (if we weren't jamming on the drums or playing Super Smash Brothers). [I lived in Michigan up until this time.] As with Ross and Tom, Darrin and I were very evenly matched!

Getting Back Into the Game
After college (and after moving out to Washington), I never really got back into chess until about 5 years ago, when Tom and I reconnected and started playing recreationally together over this website. He gets the credit for getting me back into chess. Slowly but surely, my desire to get better at chess grew again, and I joined a small local chess club a couple years ago (I think in 2018), which met on Tuesday evenings. I was roughly in the middle of that club in my skill level. After about 6 months of going to that club, I eventually stopped going (just because the times didn't work great with my schedule and I chose to try something different and join a table tennis club instead).

Getting More Serious
But leaving the chess club didn't mean my interest in improving my chess ability went away. On the contrary, I got a handful of reputable chess books for my birthday that year (from my wife per my request ). And though I still haven't read through them all the way yet, I've gone through various bits and pieces of each of them at times. I also really upped the amount of games I was playing on this website. My favorite recreational time control has historically always been 10|0 Blitz, and I do enjoy a good correspondence game too. Another fun surprise was when I became good friends with a guy at my work named Olivier (also in this club). After playing against each other over the board at work on lunches, it was obvious that we both really enjoyed it and wanted to improve. I quickly realized that he was a really strong player, and to this day our games are always neck and neck (as exemplified by our last correspondence game in which we drew an insanely sharp game ). I've played various chess.com live tournaments and have typically over the last few years remained somewhere around a Class B player range (i.e. rating around 1600-1799) when I’m at my very best . My peak Blitz rating - which was short lived - was 1778 (and my peak correspondence rating was 1874), and I've bounced up close to it at times off and on.

123 Chess is Born
This brings me to the here and now. Around the time the COVID-19 pandemic began, Tom and I had already begun to get more serious in our gameplay. Our correspondence games against each other were getting more and more intense, and it was obvious that both of us were improving and becoming better players than we ever were before. With that in mind, we decided to start a chess improvement project on youtube (which became 123 Chess). It's incredible how much more of a solid player we've each become since starting this project. From expanding our knowledge of Openings, to improving in our Midgame abilities, to learning and implementing Endgame principles, we have truly begun to walk the path of improvement. It's been a great accountability factor too, to encourage each of us to keep improving and not grow static or discouraged.

New Personal Aspirations
I also just became a member of the US Chess Federation, and was just accepted into the "Members Only" US Chess Federation chess.com club. My reason for joining was so that I can compete against serious chess players online and see how my true US Chess rating would match up in the overall chess universe.

Personal Short-Term Goal: To become a Class A player (i.e. break 1800 in my rating)
Personal Long-Term Goal: To become an Expert (i.e. break 2000 in my rating)

What about you? Tell us about yourself, your chess background and love of the game, and your personal goals? Regardless what level you're at, we want to encourage each other in our goals so we can all improve together!

Sincerely,
Luke

123 Chess

Super Admins