Avid chess enthusiast, trying to reinvent and improve his game in the hopes of getting back in to active tournament play after some years (one too many!) in unfortunate OTB retirement.

Have played chess for a pretty long time; learned the basics when I was eight and the rest is history. Played scholastically - first board on my high school varsity team for three years (second board freshman year) with a couple "All-League Selection" accolades. Would eventually like to be active with the USCF, and see about getting an official rating, and go from there. Who knows what all is possible, right? My goal is to get somewhere inbetween the 1900-2200 USCF mark.

Have always played pretty frequently online and spend a lot of my free time outside of school, my job(s), or the gym studying the game pretty intensely; be it with my face buried in one of several books (see photos), watching instructive videos, or browsing the numerous online databases analyzing master games. Don't let the blitz/bullet ratings fool you; I'm just absolutely terrible at quick chess so any advice for improvement in that area would be helpful. =D

Chess would have to be THE favorite hobby of mine, and will always be, just ahead of making music with my guitar.

I'm a Criminal Justice student at the University of Cincinnati, and a Fwd. Reconnaissance Scout/Infantryman in the Army [National Guard, currently], C-Trp 2/107th Cav Regiment.

"The beauty of a move lies not in its' appearance but in the thought behind it."

-Aron Nimzowitsch

xDarkHorsex