Problem to Solve

Black to move and win the Rook on a2. Can you spot it?

So I am currently going through Paul Littlewood's Chess Tactics for my training. I go through one chapter a day, along with the problems at the end of the chapter. The next day I go back over the previous chapter's problems, read the next chapter and do the new set of problems. In this way I am trying to cement in the tactics learned from the previous chapter along with introducing a new set of tactics each day.

When I've gone through the book once I will go through it again with the only difference being that with each new chapter I will go through all of the previous problems in the book. Call it my own personal Circles. Solo Circles. ;-p

ANYWAY, the above problem is from the "Skewers" chapter from the aforementioned book. I was laying in bed going through the problems in that chapter, had just solved this particular one, when my wife came in and started loving on me. For some reason, when I looked at the problem afterward, I had completely forgotten the solution. I've studied it a few times since then and have not been able to remember the solution.

Drafting Chess Armies

A quick thought I wanted to get every one's input on:

My brother-in-law, as I think I've mentioned before, is into this board game right now that's called "Heroscape". This game involves setting up a big 3-d map however you want, then drafting army units (each worth a certain amount of points depending on their strengths/weaknesses), until you reach your point limit, say 500 or 1000.

Anyway, he tries to get me to play Heroscape, I try to get him to play Chess...we end up making a deal of 2 Chess games per Heroscape game, etc. etc. So the other day we're on the phone and he says "It would be cool if the chess pieces had some kind of point value so we could draft armies like in Heroscape."

SWEET! I jump right in and tell him that they do just so happen to have point values! So I went over a quick breakdown of the points. Well, if you've never added it up, you end up with 39 points worth of pieces (not including the King, because you need to have a King).

So here's the idea I'm kicking around:

We get a few chess sets together and draft our Chess Armies until we reach 39 points, then we set them all up however we want on our own back 2 ranks, and the game begins.

At first I dismissed the idea rather quickly, thinking "I want to practice real chess!"...but now I'm thinking this would be a really cool way for me to at least get in some pure tactics/mating practice! What do you think?

How Old is Old Enough?

It occurs to me that lately I've been posting a lot of games (chess) and not a lot of other content (stuff). In order to be true to the name of my blog (Chess and Stuff), here's some stuff:

So I've been wondering what age to start teaching my son to play chess. Right now he is a little over 2 and loves it when I let him move the chess pieces. When I have a chess set out he always starts saying "pawn pawn pawn" while making a hopping motion with his hand as if he's moving a piece.

Do you have any thoughts? Any parents out there that have taught their children chess? I know that some GMs learn to play at an early age like 5-7, but most don't start to really get into it until 8-9. I'd love it if he could learn to play at 4-5...not to really play, but at least learn the rules and how to move the pieces. My niece is 4 1/2 and I think she's capable enough to learn the rules if she really wanted to.

On a side note, I got my first ever Jury Summons today. Blah! Oh well, we must do our civic duty. I was thinking that practicing law is like playing chess for some one's future...or even for their very life!

Dr. DropQueen is my name!

ToddVSalbnot20080722.pgn


So, there I was, playing my daily game on FICS and having a good time. I really enjoyed the position that was developing between my opponent and myself; I had some good ideas involving an open file, space advantage, having my opponent's position in lockdown. Basically, I was having the type of game that made me feel like I finally had some idea how to play chess.

Then what happened? Yeah, you read the title, you know! I dropped my Queen! AGAIN! I have gotten a lot better at taking my time and looking for threats...what pieces I am attacking and what pieces are attacking me. I don't seem to leave my pieces hanging as much anymore. BUT this is the second time in the last few games where I have moved my Queen to a square controlled by my opponent and lost her (and the game).

The problem seems to be one of patience (or lackthereof). I looked at where one of his knights could move as a response, I looked at where his Queen could move as a response. Yet, I didn't see that his other Knight was attacking the square I planned on moving to. I didn't see that his Bishop could move to foil my attack. I saw a tactic, a mating pattern, I looked at a few responses my opponent had, and then I made my move. If only I would simply slow down, sit on my hands, relax. I can see that's going to be one of my main problems.

Happy with a Stalemate. FICS W-2, D-2, L-2

ToddvsKBurns20080721.pgn


I was going for 3-0 for the day, but ended with a draw. This was a good game, I played my usual Queen's pawn opening, which he turned into a Queen's Gambit Declined, then we went a little off the beaten path I think. He ended up taking my c-pawn after all, but then defended it with a ferociousness I'd never seen! He eventually went up material with some nice tactics, and a particularly nice skewer that won him a rook. Bummer. He deserved the win but I found a way to lure him into a stalemate, and he took the bait. This game will make for good post-mortem fodder...which I'll do a little later. It is too bad I missed 14.Bh6 winning the Exchange, which may have turned the tide. Oh well, another position for my puzzle library. :-)

Another FICS Win!

ToddvsTemugin20080721.pgn


Now this was a really cool game for me. I'm not sure everything I did was completely sound, but it was FUN! I just went crazy with my attacking! I was relentless, like a pitbull! He made what I think was a mistake playing 4...Nbd7, instead of 4...c6. After that I saw my chance...and I took it! I guess looking at one problem from Practical Chess Exercises, and glancing at the first couple checkmate patterns from How to Beat Your Dad at Chess really paid off! ;-p
Anyway, now I'm W-2, D-1, L-2 on FICS. Here's a question, how many rated games do you have to play before your FICS rating is pretty close to where you actually are? It has me rated really high right now since I have played so few games, I'm wondering how long before it levels out?

Finally...a FICS win!

ToddvsMaximovBorno20080721.pgn


So I finally have my first FICS win! He resigned after dropping his Knight on the 8th move, but my play was solid anyway. I am happy with my 8-move piece of chess heaven!

Another FICS Loss

ToddvsDntltek20080721.pgn


So far on FICS I'm W-0, D-1, L-2. I'd have a win instead of a draw except that I forgot how to checkmate with Queen and King vs. King, so purposely stalemated with a couple seconds left on the clock to avoid a loss due to time controls. Don't worry, though, I have since re-learned how to checkmate with a Queen and King (essentially a backrank mate) and no longer play quick 10-minute games.

I can't believe I missed 13.Bxb5+, winning a Queen for a Bishop! I saw it RIGHT after I moved (naturally), and then hoped to at least win my pawn back with the same discovered attack on his Queen after 14.Rd1. But, alas, it was not to be so. On the plus side, I very intentionally tried to stay away from a defeated attitude and continued to battle until the bitter end, although I did continue to make a number of blunders...such as dropping my Queen.

Smashed on FICS

Toddvsgrandmasterqq20080720.pgn


I just played a game on FICS, where I was logged in as a guest due to forgetting my password, and got CRUSHED within the first 10-15 moves playing some guy called grandmasterqq with a rating of 1600+. I didn't keep the annotations because it was so ugly, but I'm pretty sure it went like this: 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.e4 d5 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Nf3 Be7 6.Be2 O-O 7.O-O Nc6 8.Bf4 f6 9.Re1 fxe5 10.Nxe5?? Rxf4 (at which point I fall apart completely) 11.Bh5 g6 12.Ne2 Rf8 13.Qd3 Ndxe5 14.Nf4?? Nxd3 0-1

After 8...f6 (and 13...Ndxe5), I should have stopped and had a good think about all the different tactics involved in this position, and the consequences to each of my possible moves. Instead, I impulsively made my next move without a thoughtful evaluation...and reaped the reward of my carelessness.

I wish I could say that it was lack of sleep, but no, I had just slept for 12 hours because I was up for the past two days with only 2 hours sleep. I do feel a little out of it still, but there is simply no excuse for missing such obvious threats. It was just laziness. Even as I was recalling the moves just now to write down on this post I could see right away the error of 10.Nxe5, hanging my Bishop. And even after that blunder I might have been able to find a tactic to win back a piece. After 12...Rf8 I could have tried 13.Bg4 moving my Bishop to safety and threatening to win a pawn with 14.Bxg4+. At some point I could have tried Qd2, then Nf4 followed by Nxe6 forking his Queen and Rook.

But, after going a piece down in the first ten moves, a mental shift took place and I was no longer playing to win, but rather trying to "get it over with quickly".
I think, besides not being stupid, it would help me to put together a small opening repertoire to better my chances of reaching a playable middlegame or, at least, an opening without dropping pieces.

This was a necessary ass-kicking, though. I have decided that, in addition to daily puzzle solving, I will play at least one chess game per day. I have been lazy about that, even since starting this blog. This is only the 2nd game I've played since my first blog a little over a week ago. I intend to change that. If anyone would like to play an email game with me, let me know. :-)

A note on accountability: As embarrassing as posting this game is, I will go ahead and lay it bare before the world, to keep me motivated to improve, resolved to persevere.

My Chess Library

Books I currently own (in alphabetical order):

.

The Amateur's Mind, by Jeremy Silman

Chessmaster 10th Edition, by Ubisoft (Software)

Chess Tactics, by Paul Littlewood

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess, by Patrick Wolff

Encyclopedia of Chess Wisdom, by Eric Schiller

Fritz 10, by Viva Media (Software)

Garry Kasparov Teaches Chess: The Queen's Gambit, by Viva Media (DVD)

How to Beat Your Dad at Chess, by Murray Chandler

Practical Chess Exercises, by Ray Cheng

Silman's Complete Endgame Course, by Jeremy Silman

Winning Chess Openings, by Yasser Seirawan

.

Books I want to get (in no particular order):

.

Chess Openings, by Michael Basman

My 60 Memorable Games, by Bobby Fischer

Chess Tactics for Champions, by Susan Polgar

5,334 Problems, Combinations and Games, by Laszlo Polgar

.

The Brain and Chess

I read a post a couple days ago on another blog about a study called "Learning 10,000 Pictures" in which participants were shown 10,000 images for 5 seconds each and two days later were able to recall over 6,500 of them. So the question posed was this: Why do we have such a hard time remembering a few thousand chess positions? A good question. He went on to say that the participants did much worse when asked to remember words they were shown, and much much worse when asked to remember a meaningless string of letters.

So here's what the article got me wondering, and perhaps BDK has an answer since this is kinda his field: How much of the memorization of tactical positions learned by doing 2-D puzzles transfers over to the 3-d chess board when it's sitting right in front of you? Disregarding for the moment the fact that even 2-D to 2-D cross over is less than that of real-life images, would it increase our brain's capacity to remember these positions if we studied actual pictures of positions instead of 2-D symbol representations of the pieces?

Maybe, and judging by the improvement of the Knights Errant it's more like "certainly", studying the 2-D positions helps a lot with playing online with 2-D boards, but is the improvement in OTB games comparable to that of online games?

Possibly some of you Knights out there can answer this question for me, have your OTB games been improving at the same rate as your online games with respect to the tactics studied in the Circles?

I think if there's any validity to my speculations (though I really have no idea what I'm talking about) there could be a fortune to be made in publishing a chess problem book that uses photographs of actual positions instead of diagrams. If you do publish such a book and make some money, don't forget to kick down a little for the "idea man"! ;-)

Todd vs. Dino, with Analysis

ToddvsDino06232007.pgn


So, here's a little analysis of Todd vs Dino 6-23-07:

1.d4 e6 2.e4 Bb4+ 3.c3 Ba5 4.Nf3 d6 5.Bb5+ c6 6.Ba4 Nf6 7.Nbd2 O-O 8.e5 dxe5 9.dxe5 Ng4 10.O-O Bb6 11.Nd4 Re8?? (He didn't see the discovered attack on his knight, perhaps 11...Qh4 with the idea of 12...Qxh2# would have been better? Although it looks like that can be defended against with 12.h3)12.Qxg4 Nd7 13.Bb3? Nxe5 (left my e5 pawn hanging, better perhaps was 13.Re1 or N2f3)14.Qe4 f6 15.Nc4 h5 (Better was 15.Bc2 with the idea of 16.Qxh7+)16.Nxe5 fxe5 17.Qxe5 c5 18.Bg5 Qc7 19.Nf3 a6 (Better was 19.Qxc7 since I'm up material)20.Rad1 Rf8 21.Rd3?? Re8 (Please, fork me, I'm begging for it! Dumb!)22.Rfd1 c4 23.Bxc4 Qxc4 24.Rd6?? Bc7 (Here, let me line up my rook and queen for a pin! Better was 24.b3 maybe.)25.R1d4?? Qxa2 (Hanging my a2 pawn, but what's worse is offering him my rook and queen for his bishop and queen with 25...Bxd6 26.Rxc4 Bxe5 27.Nxe5 or a bishop for a rook with 26.Qxd6)26.h3? b5 (I'm worried about a non-existant back-rank mate threat easily parried by 27.Ne1, but I still don't see how to save my rook?)27.Rd7?? Bxe5 (I'm apparently a little retarded LOL)28.Nxe5 Bb7 29.Rxb7 Qxb2 30.Rf4 Rad8 (It seems like 30.Ng6 would be better, with the possible idea of 31.Rh4 32.Rxh5 33.Rh8)31.Rbf7 Rd1+ 32.Kh2 Qxc3 33.Ng6 Rd3 34.Ne7+ Kh7 35.Rh4 Rxh3+ 36.gxh3 Rxe7 37.Bxe7 Qe5+ 38.f4 Qe2+ 39.Kg3 b4 40.Rxh5+ Kg6 41.Re5 Qb2 42.Rf8 b3 43.Re6+ Kh5 44.Rf5 g5 (44.Rh8#?)45.Rxg5 1-0

The true extent of the suckage of my chess skill is becoming rapidly apparent with my first ever post-mortem. I cannot believe I actually won this game. Amazing. I'd liken my win to the saying "Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then!" A little later I'll run this game through Fritz 10 and see how my analysis compares to his. I'd love to hear your analysis or your comments about my analysis. Did I miss anything or were my "better lines" not really better? Thanks everyone.

The Plan

OK, here's the deal: after reading every one's comments and going through some of the analysis, it has become QUITE apparent that I need to make tactics my main (only?) focus at this point in my training, since everything else flows from a strong tactical foundation . I'm now considering the Circles more seriously, but am still undecided.

So, I had been focused a lot on strategy, mainly because that was the core of my chess book library, and had relatively little training with tactics.

As I played my games, all these strategic thoughts had been floating around in my head (e.g. controlling the center, obtaining space, imbalances, finding outposts for my knights, keeping rooks on open files, etc.) but I had no idea how to implement them. I had strategic plans but not the tactical know-how to bring those plans to fruition while traversing the minefield that is the chessboard.

I've decided, in addition to going back through Wolff's Idiot's Guide to Chess as a refresher, to purchase the following books: Ray Cheng's Practical Chess Exercises: 600 Lessons from Tactics to Strategy, Murray Chandler's How to Beat Your Dad at Chess, Jeremy Silman's Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner to Master, and Paul Littlewood's Chess Tactics. I might also get some type of strictly tactic puzzle book like Polgar and Truong's Chess Tactics for Champions, or a John Nunn book.

I think it's going to be important this time around for me to, instead of just studying books, play as many games as I can. I'll probably stick to FICS for now, and OTB games. I need to get out there and, like I've heard another blogger say, "push wood"! I don't think I'll ever show significant improvement without playing real games and being able to apply whatever I'm reading about.

Another thing I've learned is that I am extremely impatient, the worst attribute a chess player can have. I either see a "good move" and make it immediately, or I get a specific plan ingrained in my head and follow it regardless of the truths of the position. I need to work on the old "sit on your hands" method...I forgot who said "When you find a good move, look for a better one."

Again, thanks for all your comments guys (and girl). Your insights have helped shape my plan of improvement. A Ray Cheng left an analysis of my game against my brother in law, and if it was the author Ray Cheng, I am deeply appreciative of the time taken to help a beginner.

Some Of My Games

Well, even though I'm too tired to analyze, I'll still post a few of my games for your viewing pleasure!

Before you laugh TOO hard (at my games), remember: I am a beginner. I took up chess for only a few months last year, reading such books as Wolff's Idiot's Guide to Chess, Silman's The Amateur's Mind, Schiller's Encyclopedia of Chess Wisdom, and Yasser's Winning Chess Openings. I already knew the rules and how to move, but had never really played before and I wanted to become an actual "chess player" instead of a guy who just knows how to play chess.

The problem was that I had no real opponents to play, and I am not a huge fan of internet games (ESPECIALLY on sites like yahoo, msn, etc.) So my games were extremely limited.

Here are a couple:


Todd vs. Wife (4-23-07)
my first recorded game

1. d4 Nc6


2. e4 Nf6


3. Nc3 e6


4. e5 Ng4


5. Be3 d5
   
6. Qxg4 Bb4


7. Nf3 a6


8. a3 b5


9. axb4 O-O


10. Bd3 Nxb4


11. Qh4 f6


12. Qxh7+ Kf7


13. Bh6 Nxd3+


14. cxd3 fxe5


15. Nxe5+ Ke7


16. Qxg7+ Kd6


17. Qxf8+ Qe7


18. Ra5 b4


19. Nb5 axb5


20. Rxa8 Bb7


21. Rd8+ Kc6


22. Qxe7 Kb6


23. O-O c6


24. Ra1 c5


25. b3 c4


26. bxc4 dxc4


27. dxc4 bxc4


28. Nxc4+ Kb5


29. Ra5+ Kxc4


30. Rc5+ Kd3


31. Qxb7 e5


32. dxe5+ Ke2


33. Qf3#

(I realize 21...Kc6 was illegal, I'm not sure if we saw it at the time.)

So, as you can see, I was and still am an amateur. With all the studying I'd done, I should have clobbered my wife who hadn't studied and hadn't even been paying all that much attention during the game!

Here's a game from a couple months later against my brother in law. This was our Father's Day game. I had about 11 games under my belt (almost all with my wife who never tried all that hard) and was still studying a lot, so I figured I'd crush him! And I was really looking forward to it, since him and I have had a friendly rivalry going for years; having battled each other in countless games of Command and Conquer (computer), Risk (board), GoldenEye (Nintendo64), Halo (Xbox) etc. etc. I was gonna show him who's boss once and for all.

Todd vs. Bro-In-Law (6-17-07)

1. d4 Nf6


2. Nc3 d5


3. Bg5 c6


4. Nf3 Be6
   
5. e3 Ne4


6. Nxe4 dxe4


7. Ne5 Nd7


8. Be2 Nxe5


9. dxe5 Qa5+


10. c3 Qxe5


11. Bf4 Qa5


12. Qd4 Bd5


13. b4 Qb6


14. O-O Qxd4


15. cxd4 e6


16. a3 Be7


17. Rac1 f5


18. Bc4 O-O


19. Bxd5 exd5


20. h3 a5


21. Rb1 axb4


22. axb4 Rfd8


23. b5 Bd6


24. bxc6 bxc6


25. Rb7 Bxf4


26. exf4 Rdb8 ---------------------------------->


27. Rfb1 Rxb7


28. Rxb7 Ra1+


29. Kh2 g6


30. Rc7 Ra6


31. Kg3 h6 ---------------------------------->


32. h4 h5


33. f3 e3


34. Re7 c5


35. Rxe3 cxd4


36. Re5 Ra5


37. Kf2 Kf7


38. Ke2 Ra2+


39. Kd3 Rxg2


40. Kxd4 Rd2+


41. Kc3 Rd1 ------------------------------------>


42. Kb4 Rd3


43. Kc5 Rxf3


44. Kxd5 Rxf4


45. Kd6 Rxh4


46. Re7+ Kf6


47. Re6+ Kg5


48. Ke5 f4


49. Rf6 Rg4


50. Ke6 h4


51. Kf7 Kh5


52. Kg7 h3


53. Rf7 Kg5


54. Rf6 h2


55. Rxg6+ Kf5


56. Rxg4 Kxg4


57. Kf6 h1=Q


58. Ke5 Qc6


59. Kd4 Qc7


60. Kd3 Kf5


61. Ke2 Ke4


62. Kf2 f3


63. Kf1 Ke3


64. Ke1 Qc1#
    
    

DAMNIT!!!!!

I had been SO confident, and he was taking SO much time on each move (no clocks), that I went into a different room and watched tv during most of his moves. The game was going well for me and I firmly believed I would finish him off with minimal effort.
This was the beginning of my chess sabbatical. If I had spent 3 months studying strategy and tactics and was beaten by my bro-in-law who, although a strategic mastermind, barely knew all the rules AND by my wife (a couple times in unrecorded games where I let her take back moves), was there any chance that I would EVER become a decent chess player? I was so discouraged at my lack of significant improvement!

I had one more game a few days later against a friend of mine, which I won. Then it was 1 year before my next recorded game (last month).

So there you have it, my chess experience. I studied intensely for about 3 months, played around 20 games, was frusterated at my failure to grow as a player, then was bogged down with school and work for the next year. So, here we are, and I'm getting back into it.

Any analysis of my games would be terrific. I'd love to hear your thoughts on my level of play and what I need to work on. THANKS

Dont forget to vote on your favorite white opening move! ------------------>

Real Life Chess

School is officially out for the summer and I have 3 days off before I have to go back to work!

But I'm still really exhausted from lack of sleep so I'll wait to post an analysis of any of my real life games.

I was really bummed out when I learned that the chess blog (chess confessions) I just found last week, which turned my attention back to chess and started me blogging, is dead. :-( Yeah, it's sad. I'll leave the link up in case anyone wants to go through the archives over there, I'm sure there are a lot of great articles (like "zombie chess").

ANYWAY, this quick post is to say that if there's anyone in the Redding / Chico California area that wants to play chess in real life, send me a comment or email or something. :-)

Tomorrow I should be rested and ready to do a horrible post-mortem on a ridiculously amateur game I've played.

Opening Moves and Computers

So, I had one of those nights where you lay in bed and turn over about every half hour until JUST before you have to actually get up. On the plus side, I had a few ideas regarding blog topics.

Needless to say I'm a bit on the tired side today. Tomorrow I've got to get up at 4:30am for clinical rounds at the hospital. Same thing on Friday. Bummer.

Oh well. Let's talk chess. Since this blog is still in its infancy, I will start with simple subject matter (not to mention the fact that I basically still suck at chess, with a rating of probably <1000.)




TODAY'S TOPIC.....(drum roll).....


Chess openings! (for white) No, not like you're thinking. Remember I said we're starting simple.

My question to YOU is this: Do you prefer King's Pawn, Queen's Pawn, or "Other"? Don't forget to choose your answer on the poll to your right! ----->

I currently prefer using the Queen's Pawn opening and my reasoning is simple: I don't have sufficient time to memorize the opening variations that occur with King's Pawn.

I have read in one of my chess books that King's Pawn openings require the memorization of a few main lines to keep from being caught off guard and giving your opponent an advantage early.

However, the Queen's Pawn opening is a little more loose and variable, with more subtle maneuvering. Do you agree with this?

One distinct advantage of the QP opening is that the pawn on d4 has built-in protection from the Queen, whereas the King's pawn is kind of hanging out there in the wind needing protection once you advance him to e4.

I'd like to hear your comments (please let me know someone is reading this) about these thoughts and which opening move you prefer.


Later I'll possibly discuss which 2nd moves are preferred to each of our mentioned opening moves. Spoiler: I am addicted to the Queen's Gambit.


BONUS TOPIC!!! Chess computers!


I have what I think is the best handheld chess computer in the world! Now, I'm not talking about a PSP or Palm Pilot with a chess application, that's not fair. I'm talking strictly about a handheld computer whose sole purpose in life is to play chess with you. Can you guess which one it is?


It's the Excalibur New York Times Deluxe Edition Talking Touch Chess, model NY22.



This thing is really truly amazing! The old version 404-D was widely considered one of the best handheld chess computers, with the only complaint being that it was sometimes difficult to see unless you were in the perfect light. Problem solved, my friend!
This new edition has an amazing backlight you can turn on and off with the push of a button!
I'd highly recommend you Google it and buy one for yourself!

First Blog (introduction)

So this is my first blog, I hope you find it semi-interesting.

My name is Todd. I like looking for chess-related stuff on the Internet and happened, one night, to come upon a blog called "chess confessions" that was talking about "zombie chess"! It was so funny I had to check out more posts on the blog and eventually discovered there is a group of chess bloggers who call themselves the "Knights Errant" (a Don Quixote reference) and subscribe to a method of chess improvement called the Seven Circles, espoused by this guy Michael De La Maza in his book Rapid Chess Improvement. The method involves going over large segments of tactical puzzles daily until you've mastered them, then moving onto the next segment, or Circle, of puzzles.

I was intrigued and studied up on the author MDLM and his proponents and detractors. It struck me as funny that some people took all this stuff so seriously and got into really heated debates about the matter. I haven't decided whether I am going to try the Circles, but I did decide to start my own chess blog!

Anyway, here's what you need to know about me...

1. I'm a 26 yr old guy.
2. I'm finishing my degree in Respiratory Therapy.
3. I have a wife and a son; one of which I have to bribe to play chess and the other is too young, you figure out which is which.
4. I am always busy with work and school and have time for only 1 hobby.
5. I chose chess as my hobby.

So, sometimes my blogs will be about chess and sometimes they'll be about stuff. Sometimes they'll be about chess and stuff.

Right now it's 12:44AM and I have to get up in about 6 hours, so I'll need to conclude my first blog. Hopefully they'll get better.