New year in chess

Well, I ended my 2 month hiatus from chess last week, starting 2012 with a 1064 rating. First started a new monthly tournament with the San Antonio club, and lost to a 2019, as expected. I then entered the Austin Chess Club championship last weekend and had my best result ever. Drew a 1385 in round 1, then lost to the #4 seed in my section, a 1467 in round 2, then beat an unrated player who ended up around 950 after his first 5 games - that was day 1. Had a heart-breaking loss to a 1317 in round 4, had him a few moves from checkmate and hurried through a few moves when I had plenty of time left and miscalculated my move sequence and he escaped and turned the game around on me. Oh well, if I beat him, I would've had a higher rated opponent for round 5, so the final result may have been the same. Made some similar mistakes in round 5 against a 788, but was far enough ahead to complete the victory. I didn't find out the results until the next day but it turned out 2.5 out of 5 points was good enuf for a 4 way tie for the Under 1100 prize - my first prize money ever, and I raise my rating 37 pts! An extra .5 pt would've given me sole possession of the U1100 prize. I guess that makes me a professional chess player now. :) Playing in a small tournament this weekend in an Under 1400 section so I should be competitive.

Learning to Learn

One challenge I had 20 yrs ago was in learning to play chess was finding appropriate resources.  This was pre-internet days, so no webservers for playing, no forums for helpful hints, and no amazon for finding cheap books. I did get a Comprehensive Chess Course (vol 1 & 2) from the USCF that was helpful with basic tactics.  I see that this series has progressed after 20 yrs with a few more books.  Fast forward, I stumbled through getting some books and further research told me they were too advanced for where I was skill wise.  Then I found a great portal site, www.chesscafe.com and specifically, Dan Heisman's monthly Novice Nook column.  Dan is a master level player (2200+) and a full time instructor.  He coined the term "Real Chess" which I used in my blog name, so credit goes to him.  I started reading his (100+) columns and following his guidelines and within one month I experienced a significant improvement in my level of play.  His article introducing "Real Chess" can be found at www.chesscafe.com/text/real.txt.  The first thing I did was using most of my time for the game - not moving too quickly.  I still struggle a little with this when playing kids who play a lot of "blitz" chess (games in 5 minutes), but generally feel I'm pretty consistent in this area.  I've started working on studying tactics in order to recognize them better and quicker, and will soon start some board visualizing exercises to help me see move possibilities quicker.  I think I have a much better plan of study now then I ever had 20 yrs ago.  I just need the time to implement it more than I have these past 7 months.

San Antonio Chess

I located the San Antonio Chess Club (oldest in Texas) and found they hold a monthly tournament on Wednesday nights, 1 game a week and was able to jump right in after the St. Louis tournament.  They had 16 people in the April 2011 tournament so had 4 games against opponents rated 1775-1254.  I lost all 4 games, as expected with still lots of rust to get through and remembering what I had forgotten 20 yrs ago.  As the summer and fall wore on, the tournament grew with as many as 24 one month while we had some youth jon us with school out.  I started playing better, and at times finding my way winning against higher rated opponents, but not able to play a complete error free game to get the win. While frustrating at times, it was encouraging that I was playing better, often being one of the last games to finish.   I finally won my first game in S.A. during the August tournament, and another in the Oct 2011 tournament.  After 7 months of playing (50+ games) I feel I'm getting much closer to getting an upset against one of my fellow club members.  I'm planning on taking Nov & Dec off to recharge, relax, and study some of my games that I've only had time to look at briefly with computer analysis right after the games.  My next tournament will be the Austin Chess Club Championship in Jan 2012.

First steps

My business trip to Scott AFB, IL worked out that I could enter a chess tournament near the St. Louis airport, in the day I was returning home.  I renewed my USCF membership, and armed with my 20-yr old 1279 rating, headed to a 4 round tournament with each player having 30 minutes for their entire game. My first game was against a teenager rated 1966, so he dispatched me pretty quickly.  For those that are unfamiliar with the rating system, it is very statistically based and meant to be somewhat predictable on your chances.  Being 700 pts lower than my opponent, I had a 1% chance of beating him.  My second game was against a guy a little older than me, still working on his provisional rating (503) at the time, and I played well for the first 15-20 moves until I basically handed my Queen to him in a blunder.  I was able to battle on for a while but not enough to take back any advantage.  My last game was against a 7 yr old boy (480 provisional) which I also stayed even with for a while then the game slipped away from me.  I had to miss the 4th round due to having to catch my flight, so at least I got my feet wet and enjoyed competing again despite the mistakes I made (many more to come in future games).  My philosophy was, I felt my rating, pre-retirement, never settled down to my real playing level, so losing to lower rated players, kids, etc. was something I was going to have to get used to.  Scholastic chess has become huge since I last played so getting over the psychological issues of losing to a 7 yr old was something I was going to have to work through.  Eventually, I knew the nerves would settle down, and hopefully learn how to study properly and understand how to play better.

Un-retiring from chess

I've seen a few blogs about people trying to reach a certain rating level and will chronicle my journeys in playing chess somewhat along those lines.  I first learned to play chess at about 30 yrs old, just as I was starting my family in 1988.  I got a few books, learned the basic moves, and some tactics and strategy and started playing in some USCF tournaments.  I scored a huge upset over a 2159 rated player in my first tournament (really a fluke as I was losing badly), but generally saw my rating settle into the 1400 range after getting an established rating (your rating is provisional during your first 25 games, based primarily on the ratings of your opponents, then a different rating system kicks in.)

I was in the Air Force at the time and moved to Germany just a year after starting to play.  I found there were no active clubs, so I got a basic tournament directors certification and started a chess club (Kaiserslautern Military Community Chess Club), in order to have a way to play in tournaments while I was there (3 years).  I organized about 20 tournaments over 2 years and as the tournament director, I often didn't get to play if there was an odd number of players as I didn't want people who traveled any distance from having to sit out with a bye.  I also rarely got to play someone near my rating level so didn't have a lot of success and got frustrated in my lack of progress.  So when I moved back to the states in 1992, and kid #3 was born, I felt is was time to retire.  As computers came into prominence, I'd periodically get a chess program to play against, planning one day to return to active playing.

As my youngest was getting ready to graduate from high school, a business trip to the St. Louis area gave me the opportunity and start playing again after 20 years.  So this journey starts with a 52 yr old (re)learning to play chess the right way and seeing how far I can progress.