Chess Training Journal #1
Submitted by on Wed, 11/19/2008 at 6:57am.
Introduction
Ray's the name. I love chess, and have since the age of six when my dad taught me to play. Always I've had a healthy fascination for the game, but recently it has become an obsession. Currently I'm on our high school chess team, and on our team is one of the top six(!) junior - under eighteen - players from Oregon. His brother too, is on the team - and my best friend, but that's not quite exciting for a post of this scope.
Through this team I met a FIDE master, to remain unnamed as of now - he may be titled, but that's no reason to give away an identity! 
He teaches our team regularly at meetings. It may not be free, but $75/hour for five kids is a steal - that's $15/student for those who didn't work out the math. That man has brought a lot of success in chess into my life in the month that we've been getting lessons from him. Mainly he has focused on:
- Endgame (theory)
- Opening theory
- Tactics
Which really, there isn't much better to focus on than that for me. He relates all things he teaches us in one category - e.g. opening theory - to another category he might introduce - e.g. tactics in the middle game.
Unfortunately I can't own up all my accomplishments in chess to our coach, it has come from playing with friends, family - a big thanks to my dad, who again I said brought me to this wonderful game - and opponents - the difference between friends and opponents to me is when a game is rated.
A lot of my success has come from reading both from online sources and books. My chess library consists of:
- Weapons of Chess Bruce: An Omnibus of Chess Strategies Pandolfini
- Chess Openings: Traps and Zaps Bruce Pandolfini
- Starting Out: The Modern Nigel Davies
- Silman's Complete Endgame Course Jeremy Silman
This repetoire of books I own currently satisfies me - especially the last title, which I believe I have and will get the most use out of in my entire chess career.
Here is a game I played on live chess. I went into the game previously preparing myself for playing a Ponziani if the opponent responded with e5 to d4 and with Nc6 to Nf3. Instead, he moved a queen to f3(?).
*This journal was taken from my thread in the Studdy Buddy Group forum. The Study Buddy Group is a group is an online chess.com club where players create a study journal in hopes to encourage improvement in chess.