Welcome, Chuck! Thanks for the background and we look forward to hearing more from you. One thing for sure...chess.com is the best place to be for chess players!
Brian
New to Chess.com and relearning the game
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Nov 23, 2010
0
#3
Hey Chuck. I just signed up for the diamond membership today. Brand new to chess.com. I just turned 30 and I've been playing off and on since I was in my mid teens. I consider myself to be terrible but I still love playing! I'm here to win some/lose some and hopefully learn a lot. Maybe we can get a game or two in some time.
John
Welcome to Chess.com and back to the game, Chuck. Always pleasant to realize we simply -can't- forget about this particular vice.
Maybe one of the best ways to quickly get reacquainted with basic/intermediate notions of the game is playing through games as well-annotated as this one. Granted, it's not master-level, but the author writes absolutely everything he thought at the time regarding each of his moves and those of his oponent's and, also, makes use of a solid defence if you want to try different openings. A good suggestion is to try and write down your thought process just like he did, if you have the time/energy.
Enjoy.
Welcome.
Study your past games, see if you blocked in pieces, left them vulnerable to forks, etc. Try to spend some time doing tactics training every day. You'll get better in no time.
Nov 24, 2010
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#7
Thank you all for the warm welcome!
Someone said to write down the thought process, that is what this auther Jeremy Silman recommended.
Thank you for the annotated game, I will get to that today! I am on vacation from work so I have lots of time, but when I get back to work I hope I do not slip into another absence! I do computer programming at work so that sometimes has to occupy my mind (and is a form of chess in itself lol).
I also just accepted a game challenge here..what a cool site!
What can you folks tell me about the USCF? I was thinking about joining that for the magazine and the forum, but this forum looks even better! :)
I have been playing off and on since I was about 10. I am now 51. Long ago I remember reading Chess Life Magazine but I dont remember being a member of USCF, maybe it was available at the news stands? I seem to remember watching also chess on TV during a big tournement in the 80's (Spasky?). I always remember hearing about Bobby Fischer as well.
I used to play chess on the CB Radio back around 1980 or so and enjoyed learning new openings from a few friends that played me. Then I only played off and on with the Chess Master program. I have several books on chess (MCO, FCO, Polgar's chess problems, Reinfelds Winning Chess Openings, and recently Silmans's Amateur Mind to name a few).
About the only opening I know fairly well is the Ruy Lopez. The rest are a mystery.. I am trying to learn the Sicilian but it seems it has been so long since I have played regularly. I would say about 25- 30 years.
What sparked me up again was looking at USCF's site and seeing that Chess is still alive and well and also I bought the Fritz 12 software.
Fritz has shown me that I pretty much SUCK lol. So I found this site and thought maybe I could learn a bit...and see if you can tell me what my best course of action should be to get better.
I know playing lots of games, but I am wondering...should I try to memorize openings, or do as Silman says and learn about imbalances. It just seems like im starting from scratch even though I have a history of playing...
I know all about controlling the center, keeping the initiative, develop as soon as you can, castle early, watch for passed pawns, blocked pawns, poison bishops etc.. but it seems that even with these basics, I get my ass kicked. Perhaps I am just way way out of practice. Im only on week 1 of starting up again after all this time off.
So hello to all of you, my name is Chuck and I hope to get to know you and your advice and mentoring.