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.