Get better at chess

I think Chess trains the mind and makes a person better at concentration, planning, and helps improve attention span. So becoming a better chess player is my stated goal, but I like the side benefits of it, too.

I’m not that bad right now. I’m not tournament level, but if I play a random person in a social game I’ll win most of the time. Chessmaster rates me at 1045.

It’s my goal to get my rating over 1200 by September. I think 1200 is the line between average and good. I intend to do it by playing a bunch of games and maybe learning one opening from a book really well, so it’ll help me when I’m playing as White.

can’t remember the title, but finished up a chapter on the middle game. I feel like i’m getting better and can play better online. However, i’m too lazy to write down my moves…

Started playing around with the ChessMaster program. I’m re-learning the basics, and hopefully will get some basic understanding of the strategy.

... a real one this time (ie: not software)! It has wizards for the bishops, dragons (each with dragon eggs) for the knights. The rooks are thin, tall model castles. The pawns are trolls on one side, and crouching gargoyles with clubs on the other. The two kings and queens are beautiful too.

I bought it about a year ago although I never played chess at the time. I actually decided against buying it when I first saw it in the shop window. Then I spent the night regretting that & woke up still thinking about it. I phoned the shop to check that there were still some available, went straight out & bought it.

At the time I ached to use it. I bought 3 books about chess intending to study the game but found that lack of time prevented me from following the interest then. After a few weeks without any follow up the urge faded. I felt saddened by that as I believe in following strong passions toward things – I find I learn a lot when I’m driven.

That chess set has been on display in my home ever since, though sadly never used for an actual game. With my newly re-awoken interest in the game I’m hoping that my chess set will at last be used! :)

... though until very recently it was in the “one day I will” category. I’ve known the basic rules of chess since I was a child & I played some games then but never really got into it. As an adult that seems to surprise a lot of people as, so they say, “but you are just that sort of person…”

About a week ago, inspired by a chess-loving friend of mine, I decided that now was the time. I searched online and found Chessmaster Challenge, though it was only a 60 minute demo. Never the less it was exactly what I was after & I loved it. I wanted more. I found that by downloading that software from different places I could have more 60 minute demos!

I was on my fourth time through the Chessmaster Challenge demo when I happened, for other reasons, to visit PC World & found a chess program, apparently different, and bought it (Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition). It turned out to be the same software but with a lot of extra stuff than the online edition contained.

I am totally hooked. I’m working through the tutorials and doing the chess puzzles in the software. I love the puzzles more than the full games at the moment. The puzzles involve a chessboard with a game at some point during play. You are instructed to, for example, get checkmate in 2 moves, or recognise & avoid the imminent checkmate, and so on. There are also lots of exercises in the tutorials to practice attacking, defending, seeing ahead, starting the game, and so on.

Is this the start of a new, lifelong hobby? Maybe. Right now it feels that way. :)

I don’t have the time and dedication it would take to significantly improve, making chess merely an entertaining addiction…

I am playing tournaments in San Francisco and Berkeley…I get beat alot…in fact I haven’t won a game except on time control…argh…keep studying!

Beat my husband AND my daughter this past week. Time will tell if it’s a fluke or not.

But I got a long way to go…

I love playing against my husband, my father, or my daughter. My husband and father can always beat me. My daughter and I are about evenly matched. It’s such good exercise to have to think moves ahead. For some reason it only works for me with a three-dimensional chess board; playing online isn’t the same for me with the two-dimensional representation. Plus you can’t feel the pieces in your hand. It’s very tactile for me.