Welcome!
My 2 cents:
You should absolutely go to that club, and you should be playing rated games on here too.
So what if you lose a few, it's the quickest way to learn.
And it immediately gives you a sense of you your current strength, so that ypu can neasure your improvement.
Hello All, I have been eyeing your community for a couple weeks and finally decided to join. Actually what made me cave was seeking a specific type of software. I made a post about it in the general section, check it out here http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/chess-analysis-software2
I figured I would post a greeting and say a little about myself and my chess background. I have always regarded chess as the best boardgame of all times (mousetrap is pretty high up there though). I use to carry a little portable fold in half chess board to school with me and play with my classmates. I've always been pretty good at chess, at least in my circle of friends. I would pretty much beat all my friends almost everytime. My one friend who even went to chess camp once or twice I would say I am slightly better than as well.
My high school had chess tables set up and people would play during lunch, etc; I would have to say I was also one of the better players in my high school, which was rather large. And yet I have never been tutored, mentored, gone to chess camp, read a book about chess, played in a tournament, or even begun to guess what sort of rating I would have. I have never played at an online site; I don't even know any openings/defenses. My dad taught me how the pieces move, and I kinda taught myself from there and watched other peoples games. I just learned how to read chess notation about a week ago, and I'm still a little slow with that.
About two weeks ago, a gentleman at the local renaissance festival coerced me into playing him in chess while I waited for my girlfriend to finish shopping. I held him off for a while but ultimately made a rather large error in making a somewhat random move after thinking too long (I'm hyperactive and it becomes hard to focus in mid game scenarios; may be a reason that I never got really into chess), and succumbed to a checkmate. Despite losing one of the 2-3 games of chess I've played in the past 6 years, it really made me realize what I knew as a child: Chess is the greatest board game . . . ever. The man complimented me on my chess play (which is either impressive due to my lack of play or just him being nice for beating me), and informed me that he's part of the city's free chess club that meets once a week and invited me out.
I thank that man for rekindling my interest in chess. I truly regret not getting more into chess when I was young, as I think I had a lot of potential, and I just hope it's not too late to teach an old dog new tricks. While I don't think I'll be going out to visit that chess club or play against anyone on this website anytime soon, I just hope that being around people that perhaps share a similar mentality (that chess is the greatest board game . . . ever) is enough for me to slowly immerse myself in what I've been missing and become what I can confidently call a good chess player.