OK, first off, I"m not quite as serious about chess as some of the others around here, but I am interested in it and would like to get better.

What I've been doing lately is reading as much material as possible on the Internet. The two sources that I've found to be clear and that cater to my skill level are:
1) the ebook Predator at the Chess Board found at http://www.chesstactics.org , and
2) the series called "The Novice Nook" at http://www.chesscafe.com

#2 is a great (if a little aimless) source of information on a broad range of topics, while #1 is a very thorough, systematic way of looking at tactics.

Other than that, I should probably play some more games! When I do play, I tend to play against the computer at http://www.pogo.com . At first, I had a lot of trouble even with the beginner level, but over time I learned to be more patient and find better moves and now I can consistently beat it. (*I still have problems with patience, though! *)

So I guess I'd say that my immediate goals are to get through this material and play more games.

Maybe in the long term I'd like to enter a tournament and see how it goes.

That ebook sounds interesting. Chesstactics.org is a very popular site. Let me know how the book is. Also you might want to post some of your games against the computer in this thread, that way you could get people's opinions on the games. Hope this training journal helps you improve

I've discovered something very exciting!

I was intrigued by all these "dual commentaries" that have sprouted up and I thought that it would be cool to discuss my moves as I was making them. I was playing the computer today, and (since I don't have a mic) I typed it out and posted it in the Replays forum under the title "Orfeo's Instant Commentary" here:

http://www.chess-videos.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=617

I found that it allowed me to focus my thought process in a way that I'd never been able to before and it brought out a much stronger player in me. I had pretty little difficulty beating the computer on a level that was killing me before! (And Josh, if you're reading, I'd love for you to analyze this game! Thanks!)

Congratulations on your great result and I'm glad the commentary helped! I'm gonna take a look at the game now.

OK, so you can tell by the lack of posts that I'm not the most diligent chess student .... but I haven't been slacking off completely.

I've been watching a lot of the videos that are around, particularly the live commentaries and dual commentaries. It's very informative to get a feel for what a player is thinking as he plays, and I think I've picked up a lot from that.

But what brings me to post here is the new endgame study feature on the site. I think it's excellent and I've been going through one-by-one and trying to pick up what's going on for each one. The immediate goal is to "memorize" these endgames and internalize the ideas behind them.

Also, I've been considering ways to begin studying openings, considering I know precisely zip! I've gotten a lot of ideas from the comments I got from this post:

http://www.chessvideos.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?t=772

although, admittedly I haven't had time to work on any of it!

I've also started playing with a friend semi-regularly, and that's helping a lot to solidify certain ideas that I'm picking up. Funny how you get better when you actually play sometimes

Anyway, that's what I'm up to with chess these days.

Thanks for the update and I'm glad you enjoy the endgame simulations! Admin put a lot of work in on those and I'm sure he'll be happy to see that people enjoy them.

Well, what can I say? My interests tend to drift around a lot, and I guess they drifted away from chess all this time.

Well, not ALL this time... I've been lurking around the site and working on my chess for about a month now, and I feel like I'm understanding the game better than I ever did. What's fascinating to me is that there's so much to learn. Truly this rabbit hole runs deep!

Specifically, I returned to chesstactics.org to start over and have been working my way through that. It's really helping me get a feel for coordinating pieces and moves tactically. Also, I've been working on endgames with the simulator on this site. It know it seems trivial for veterans (heck it seems trivial even to me now), but I had to work a bit even to get the K & Q vs. K and K & R vs. K endgames. I downloaded Babaschess so I can analyze my games, and that's been really beneficial, too.

When I first "returned" to the game, I was playing against the (extremely terrible) bot at pogo.com. It beat me a lot at first, but now I can easily beat the "master" level there. It makes ridiculously bad moves and I'm not going to play against the computer there anymore.

Here's the thing... I haven't played against any human beings, and that's mostly because I've never played timed games before and I don't want to embarrass myself. Also, it feels like I'm just starting to get a feel for thinking tactically and I don't want to rush into stupid moves because I'm worried about the clock. I got a FICS account, but like I said, I haven't played against anyone yet. I guess the only cure here is to just do it.

Anyway, it's cool coming back to the site after all this time... it was kinda just getting started when I was here before and now it looks like it's a big, thriving community!

Welcome back

I actually played a game against a human being last night... and got stomped. I blundered away my queen early and it went downhill from there. This was on Chess.com, against someone rated in the high 1300s.

I've been playing against the computer there a lot, and I have very little difficulty beating the "Easy" level every time (which they estimate to be at about a 1200 level) but I get crushed every time by the "Medium" (1600) level. I'm going do what I did years ago and put together an instant commentary to see if it helps me beat this thing.

hey, you appear to be interested in getting better with your chess. If I can be of help please feel free: http://chesstrainingschool.com/

my contact info is there, any questions I will answer them.

Charles