From the ashes...

Hello all,

So Im new to the site and i guess i should give a small back story as to why im here.

 Recently Ive had a few to many dreams about an event in my past. When I was very young I was put in a chess tournament. I cant really rememebr when maybe 4th grade? Regardless the reason was because my dad new this lady who ran a local park chess tournament and well some how he thought i should be in it. Now ive played chess a few times up until then but only for fun. I had to learn the hard way of some of the more important rules. Like checkmate. Until the day of the tournament i didnt know the only way you could end a game was with a checkmate. My first opponent put an end to my ignorance. I never thought of chess the same way again.

 Since then i havent played except for the odd game against my dad, still cant beat him. But for some reason ive recently had dreams abouot that day way back when. So i thought what the hell...lets go study the game a bit. With luck I could find a site that could help easy the process and maybe even make a few friends.

 So there it is in a nut shell. Bottome line is that Ive heard a few chess phrases and am familiar with what they mean but in an actual game all i really know is how the pieces move and that there is an opening, middle, and endgame. Perhaps someone coould suggest a part of the game to begin with?

Rod