Something clicked in my mind a few weeks ago that said “you should be playing chess”. I used to play quite a bit, so here’s my journey so far. At least part of this interest is probably due to my recent reading of the book “Ultra Learning” (reviewed on this blog). But who knows?
Between 1996 and 1999 I played a lot of chess. Like almost daily. I had a good friend that was a decent player and every time we met we would play. He beat me every single time. Every single time. I was determined to some day beat him.
So, what did I do? I joined a local chess club. Played matches every Monday night at the library. Tournaments nearly every Saturday. Some of these tournaments were certified by the United States Chess Federation (USCF), which allows one to get an official ranking. The local chess club also had a comprehensive library of chess books so I borrowed a couple and studied them in detail.
My games with my friend started going longer. I was still losing, but not as quickly.
I then found a series of books written by a guy named Lev Alburt. A Grandmaster. He had a book about chess tactics. Another about chess strategy. By combining my new knowledge with regular practice games I started winning a few games. I beat my friend a few times. My official USCF ranking was climbing.
In early 1999 my chess career came to a screeching halt. I was assigned to a big project through my job–a corporate merger project–and my free time was zilch.
Fast forward to March 2022. Maybe April of 2022. Although an active boardgamer, I hadn’t played a game of chess in over 20 years. And something told me that I needed to restart my chess journey. So I did.
One of the first things that I did was to find the USCF website. I don’t recall them having a website in 1995. Maybe they did. Anyway, I signed up. One of the questions they asked is “have you ever been a USCF member?”
Heck yeah!
After a few fits and starts I found my old membership number, my tournament record, and my ranking. It was 1035 if you need to know. Certainly not great, but I had a great trajectory going.
Chess.com is the USCF website. Of course they have multiple forums, places to find online opponents, options to play against their computer opponents, book reviews, and so on.
Apparently “relearning chess” or “adult relearning chess” and so forth are pretty common search items. I jump in. The deep end of the pool, as it turns out.
I found an online tactics trainer (chess tempo app), which is really cool in that it maps your progress over time. I found a couple of beginner chess books from the library and quickly devoured them. I played against the chess.com bots and made rapid progress until I reached the 1300 level bot, named Nelson (who I win against probably 15 % of the time), and have added a couple books to my personal study library (I had sold off many of my chess books years ago, including the ones by Lev Alburt that I mentioned earlier).
So, where am I now?
- I’ll estimate that my ranking is probably close to the 1035 that I had earlier. The online chess bots seem to be over rated.
- I’m already thinking about the board differently than I ever had before. The pros call it “positional play”.
- I’m working chess tactics puzzles on a regular basis and seeing consistent improvement overall.
- I’ve gotten a couple of used classic books waiting for study after I work through a couple of advanced beginner books from the library
- I’ve gotten samples of the various chess magazines to look at. Haven’t subscribed to any yet.
Is this just a passing fad? Flavor of the month? Who knows? But I’m learning and having fun and this is what I need to be doing mentally at this time.