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| I first learned how to play chess at age six from my father and (maternal) grandfather. I enjoyed playing the game, and in fact was a member of the United States Chess Federation and played in a couple of small tournaments, but I was never a "serious" player. Over the past year, I have had a resurgence of interest in playing chess "seriously", and have been trying to improve my playing ability. I had not played an "over the board" (OTB) tournament game since 1992, so I was working hard to get back into shape to play in tournaments again. My "training regimen" has (ideally) been an hour of study per day if real-life circumstances permit...when you have to work for a living and have a wife and a small child, available time is at a premium! When I am studying, I will work on a new opening line, review middlegame and endgame tactical excercises, and review my opening repertoire to date. I just played in my first OTB tournament in 13 years in February 2005...of course I did not do as well as I hoped for, but I was pleased with my overall performance, and I could take stock of what I needed to work on further....I have found that my performance has been much better online than OTB...I think the main reason is that I am so used to looking at the board in a two-dimensional environment online that I have difficulty visualizing over the board in a three-dimensional environment! I make more tactical errors and outright blunders! So, I am working hard to "retrain" myself to visualize over a three-dimensional chessboard. I set up chessboards for some of my email correspondence games to look over when planning my moves. I am an aficionado of gambit openings, both as White and as Black. I have been slowly developing an opening repertoire that heavily features an ever-increasing variety of gambit (and counter-gambit) openings. Not that I will play gambit openings exclusively, however...I already have a decent arsenal of more conventional openings and defenses! So, you will never know what you might come up against...! It has been a struggle so far in the tournament games I have played, having lost nearly all of them and have dropped over 200 rating points since returning to playing tournament chess. However, the quality of my chess has slowly been improving, and I am also challenging myself by playing much higher-rated players in the tournaments. Things should start to turn around sooner or later! I plan on starting to post my tournament experiences on my blogs. I am a member of the United States Chess Federation (USCF), and a member of the Georgia Chess Association (GCA). I am the founder of a new chess club in my community, and even though things started out slow, we have six "regular" members after six months...! More details later as they develop. My real ambition in all this is to be able to teach chess to children (especially underpriviledged children) and help them to improve their minds and broaden their horizons. Oh, and to teach my little boy to play chess too! My new employer Kid Chess will help me on my way to broaden childrens' horizons! In the course of my study of the game, some chess masters throughout history I have grown to admire include (in roughly chronological order): Paul Morphy, Adolph Anderssen, Joseph Henry Blackburne, Aron Nimzowitsch, Jose Raoul Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Paul Keres, Mikhail Tal, Boris Spassky, Robert J. "Bobby" Fischer, Jan Timman, Viswanathan Anand, Garry Kasparov, Alexei Shirov, Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Morozevich, and the young Judit Polgar, Hikaru Nakamura, Sergey Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen! Watch out for these four! Regards |
| For now, here are some useful links: |
| FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) World Chess Federation: The official worldwide governing body of professional chess. |
| USCF (United States Chess Federation) : The USCF is the official sanctioning body for tournament chess in the United States, and for US participation in international chess events. |
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| Castle Chess Camp Emory University Atlanta, GA |
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| AmChess is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to promoting chess. The mission of the American Chess School is to research the benefits of chess, to teach the art and science of chess to its students by providing them with expert instruction, and to organize opportunities to hone their skills. These opportunities include, but are not limited to, participation in tournaments, matches, camps, exhibitions, tours, and access to lectures, newsletters, magazines, books, and classes. The American Chess School provides these opportunities on the local, national, and-- where possible--international levels. |
| The Georgia Chess Association is the official Georgia state affiliate of the United States Chess Federation (USCF); the ruling chess body in the United States. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to the statewide promotion of chess in Georgia. In meeting the needs of that diverse chess community, the principal activities of GCA include active sponsorship of scholastic chess; publication of Georgia Chess magazine; sanctioning, scheduling and oversite of official state championship events; and generally working to help maximize the involvement, coordination and success of the many individuals and organizations involved in chess throughout Georgia. The GCA is committed to expanding communications within the Georgia chess community through the internet, in order to better link and network chess resources and activities statewide. |
| The Castle Chess Camp is a nationally renowned program of chess instruction, recreation and competition that brings together some of the best chess teachers and scholastic players from across the U.S. The camp concept was developed out of a five-year study of 7th and 8th grade students by Dr. Robert Ferguson in Pennsylvania. Those students engaged in chess classes showed dramatic improvement in their schoolwork compared with those students who were engaged in other forms of "enrichment activities." These results prompted Dr. Ferguson to form the American Chess School, which held its first resident "Castle" camp in 1982. The year 2006 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of Castle Camps. The Atlanta Camp, itself seeing its sixth aniversary, is brought to you jointly by the Emory Chess Association and the American Chess School. Emory Chess Association Inc., is a non-profit, non-discriminatory corporation dedicated to the promotion of chess in Georgia. |
| Kid Chess teaches chess to Atlanta Area children in a fun and educational environment, on campus at various schools, with homeschool groups, other locations, and also at Chess Place, our modern facility in East Cobb County. We firmly believe in our motto of "Chess Makes You Smart; We Make it Fun". Our flagship enrichment program "Fun With Chess" brings the benefits of chess to children in a manner that is both engaging and fun. Additionally, our facility in East Cobb County, Chess Place, provides a modern inviting venue for our summer camps, night-time classes, and tournaments. |
| Chess For Juniors was founded in 1983 and has grown to become one of the nation's largest and most active private chess clubs for youth. |
| America's Foundation for Chess (AF4C) mission is to strengthen the minds and character of young people by advancing chess in our schools and our culture AF4C is committed to the education of our children. By making chess a larger part of America's cultural fabric — accessible in schools and in popular culture - AF4C hopes to elevate the profile of chess in America so that it will soon become a regular part of every child's classroom experience. In nearly 30 nations around the world, including Venezuela, Iceland and Russia, chess is integrated into the country's scholastic curriculum. In the U.S., despite the numerous studies that demonstrate the impact learning how to play chess can have on cognitive and critical thinking skills, chess is rarely incorporated into American schools. AF4C was founded in June 2000 to change this. Developing a Classroom Chess Curriculum so that K-12 schoolteachers can teach chess on their own and partnering with the U.S. Chess Federation to promote the U.S. Championships are two major steps the Foundation has taken to change the game's image in America. By promoting scholastic chess and both national and international chess competitions, AF4C will be on its way to helping children use chess to exercise their minds. |
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| Chessbase is a German software company and are the developers of the renowned Fritz and Chessbase programs. The main page at the website also features up-to-date international chess news headlines. |
| Mig Greengard's excellent site! E-mail chess newsletters, online play and training, message boards, "the Daily Dirt", and more from Mig Greengard, ChessBase and various Grandmasters, International Masters and coaches. Because losing sucks! |
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| Massive and ever-growing online PGN chess game database with java viewers, live broadcasts of key games from the top chess tournaments around the world, and discussion forums. |
| Chess forum featuring a chess book exchange where everyone is welcome to particpate in lively discussions about various chess-related topics. |
| Chess training, downloads, skill evaluations and improvement guides, and a wide range of chess software and books. |
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| Bill Kargel & Grandmaster Susan Polgar...Stone Mountain, GA...June 24th, 2005 I just got pasted by Susan in a simul! :-P |
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