My USCF Games

kevingong

Updated: Jan 2, 2010, 8:15 PM | 0

Now that I've finished my blog posts analyzing my old USCF games, I thought it would be a nice time to summarize and look back.

I played a total of 103 games in the following years:

36 played in 1986
43 in 1987
16 in 1988
2 in 1992
3 in 1993
3 in 1998

I'm proud of my overall record of 54-34-15, but at 1844 I'm rated right about where I should be. My record against various ranges:

1-9-3 against players rated 1900 and above
4-6-0 against 1800-1899
7-3-6 against 1700-1799
15-4-4 against 1600-1699

I have a 27-21-8 record as black, 27-13-7 as white. So I guess my insipid opening can't be that bad.

I wonder if other chess players go through a similar pattern of devoting a lot of time to the game for few years, realizing they're not going to be the next champion, then quitting. I say this because having gone back and entered all my old games from 20 years ago, I've looked up several of them in the USCF ratings list. Almost all of them quit by the early 90's; only a very few are still active USCF members. Those who continued to play have, for the most part, exhibited a decline in rating over the years.

So part of the question I have is, will it be possible for me to raise my playing ability and rating? The only reason I started getting interested in the game again was because my son started going to a chess club and I started helping out with the club. Then I found chess.com and in it found things that could help me improve. Will that translate into better play and better ratings? Maybe.

The other question is, will I ever play another rated USCF game. Maybe. I don't have any definitive plans to start paying my dues again and playing, but I could see it happening if my son becomes more serious about the game and wants to play rated games in a few years. Then I might just go along with him to a local club and play. We'll see. In the meantime, I'll be playing blitz games on chess.com, using the tactics trainer, the computer workouts, and maybe cracking into the openings explorer. I've also been impressed with some of the chess videos I've seen on YouTube. If I had all this at my disposal when I was starting out, maybe I would have been a better player back then.

My USCF Games

Kevin's Chess Blog