I progress with chessfree game.

July. 8, 2011
I beat a computer at chess!  The computer program is "chessfree" on my iPod touch. Yes it was on the easiest setting, but still I amazed myself. 

I am getting better but I can't think my rating would be very high. Maybe someday I will have one (A rating )

Fast forward to today 24 november 2011. I have slid the difficulty up a bit on this game. I one a game and had a draw on another. The 50 move rule came into play for the draw. It was funny to just keep moving my king around quickly wasting time until the computer halted the action. I didn't get beat!

Gambit king

Signed up at gambitking.com. An online game playing site. Will try to play against someone soon

More games with Kristen

11-13-11
Kristen wins first game with a brilliant move that pins my king in by taking out my pawn at h2 with her queen. I had castled queenside already and thought I was safe with my rook at f1.  Her queen was protected by a bishop. Checkmate. This game took 25 minutes. 

The second game took 65 minutes and Kristen resigned as she had king, bishop and a stuck pawn. I had king, queen and two pawns, with one of the pawns that was free to make it across to the other side for promotion. Kristen had only 17 minutes on her clock. She is fast. 

So with about 8 games in the last few weeks we are tied 4-4.

Kristen and I played again tonight. I won one and then she won one.

We have been using a chess clock that I built about 4 or 6 months ago. It uses two battery powered little travel clocks and a toggle switch. Low budget. So we can now see how long it takes each of us to make our moves. It is new to us. It can also be used for setting a time limit on a game.

I learned a year ago how to record moves with chess algebraic notation. I have not been doing this lately. It is good if you want to go back and analyze your moves.

First blog

Chess

Introduction

I've been thinking of starting a blog about my journey into the world of chess for some time. I am a beginner or at least was about a year ago. This summer I have had nearly been dead to it. But as winter comes and my triathlon training eases up I can again get back to it.

Kristen was eager to play the other day and she beat me two games in a row. Tonight, 11-11-11, I checkmated her and then she resigned the 2nd game. The rust is falling off of me. She is a great opponent but can sometimes be a sore looser (grumpy). I hope we can both advance together. Jessica is good to play against too but is around less.

I have several computer games to compete against. One on my PC and one on my iPod touch.

Last winter I got all the books from the library on chess. Read some of each of them but not all of one. I got some books for Christmas and a Fischer book. I will list them later. Anyhow I have those resources. Got a DVD that Susan Polgar did for beginner children. It was good for me by reinforcing the basics. I now have her as a Facebook friend or I am a fan I guess. She posts links to so much world chess news and I don't have the time to view it all.

So anyway someday I might like to compete in a low key tournament here in Greenville after going to a few of the local chess clubs meetings. I would like to get a ranking or numerical value as to my level of expertise. I know that the top players (Grandmasters) are at the 2600 to 2800 level. I wonder if I am up to a 500 level yet?! I want to slowly over the years improve my skill and my ranking and see where it goes. I have no goal of 1000 level or a title that they have for the more advanced levels.