Her name is Caissa and she's a very demanding mistress. She'll kick you when you are down and throw tantrums when you threaten to put her away. You will lose sleep over her. You will wish you never met her.  But... when you really look past the fits, you will find her true beauty through the art that she brings into your life. This is what will keep you coming back for more.

At your level, your first name should be tactics, your middle name is tactics and your last name is tactics.  Get training on some basic one move poisitions daily like practicing free throws in basketball. You'll find that tactics is like giving Caissa a bouquet of flowers.

I spent some time using GoogleMaps to zoom around the CCSCSL neighborhood.  It is very nice.  Streets like that just do not exist in California.  Unfortunately the Google street view of the Center is old and shows a business that apparently was previously in that location (possibly a cafe or restaurant?)

It would be hard to live in that area and not play chess constantly !

Amy

nice article. you are better then 1100

i now a lot of openning principles but some times i play weak moves on the openning. So for a basic intermediate player i recommend The ABC of opennings by Andrew Martin. "Open Games, Semi-Open Games, Closed and Semi- Closed Games, Flank and Irregular Openings. Invaluable advice is given about what to look for and how to play each specific category, and the instruction is enhanced by the use of recent, thematic master games to compliment this advice. General instruction about how to play the opening is also included."

Scarblac "Sad to read that you spend time on openings. They're a complete waste of time for you."

scarblac its like growing up! You dont know why it was a good idea or bad idea to take certain paths in life, but then after when your older and wiser you understand why they are but then its too late.

OPening theory is important to an extent but should not be concentrated on too much by beginners as it is the other middle and endgame which is where they make all their mistakes mainly. As he is 1600 on this site i presume he has some handle on chess at this stage, but its a good idea to not get bogged down with it.

nice article. its nice to see passionate players. i lived breathed chess in my earlier years. 

Not sure if anyone mentioned any other move sequences but one that jumped into my mind was 

20. BxPf6  if Qf8 then QxPh7#

and any other loses except 20. ...Qd7

and then 21. Rad1

As i look at it on the analysis board it isnt as instant winning as i thought. lol

Well  played anyways

Very nice article, thanks.

Nice article and great game.  Keep up the work, it will pay off.

Don't worry about memorizing lots of opening lines at your level, just play stuff that leads to the kinds of games that you like to play (such as open, tactical games or slow, maneuvering games).  I like to play obscure variations of the Sicilian, and then go on intuition (although I've never played official OTB chess--I'd love to have the opportunity).  Don't take this as advice, as I'm lower-rated on Chess.com than you are at this time.

A very nice combination and a great article.

To the gentlemen who felt sad because I studied some openings, 

It was a great pleasure to start studying some openings, so please don't feel bad about it. I enjoyed it, I really did and don't consider the pleasure of learning about them a waste of time at all. 

Thanks everyone again for reading and I'll be posting part 2 over the weekend.

Thanks for sharing!

Nice work Sean and a good read.

Thanks for sharing..I have one opening as white and two as black and when those break down I go to the basics..center pawns, then knights, bishops, castle and rooks to the center. As black I hunker down and let my opponent bring the game to me.

Tiff !!

PS I don't punch my boy friend in the face before 'AND' after a date. 

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

First congrats for playing OTB : that's the real thing and not every Internet player has the guts to make the step !

Second, I really enjoyed your prize-winning game : you certainly played well above 850 elo during this game.

Nice reading about your experiences, and good luck on your way up

"Really though, studying Chess and playing OTB was like entering an abusive relationship. It was like meeting a new girlfriend who punches you in the face before and after each date. You love it but it causes bruises."

Classic!  Great article.

I know exactly how you feel mate.  i am in that position (no pun intended) now myself.  I had known how to play chess for years, but i only started competitively last year, when i joined a chess club.  My first tourney was a scholastic, and i ended up going 2 and 4.  I learned a lot, and in the next two tourneys i ended up going 1 and 4, with a lot of close games with players much higher rated than i was.  I disagree with you about beating kids, though.  In my last tournament, i did not face anyone over the age of twelve, and three out of the five opponents were of the scary Indian variety.  These were people who actually put time into studying openings beyond three moves, and bought actual in depth chess books.  They were also the kind of people that go into uber fast chess tactic/problem discussion with anyone who happens to be around them before the match (annoyingly seemingly arrogant, though they probably weren't stopped by their parents, so they might not know any better).  It feels good to take their arrogance down a peg.  Unfortunately, the parents are always watching, and they generally talk to each other about how i am stronger than my rating and warning their kids about me, thus decreasing the chance that my opponent might be lulled into a false sense of security.

Sad to read that you spend time on openings. They're a complete waste of time for you.

Thanks everyone for reading and commenting.

Michael, very kind of you to say so, the Siccilian is actual the main reason I dreaded playing 1.e4, the massive amount of theory I faced in higher rated opponents was absolutely terrifying. I played a lot of 1.f4 for better or worse but I'm saving all of that for part 2!

Sean

Hallo Sean,

I really enjoy reading Your articles. There's a lot of "heart blood" in them (can You say this in English, it's quite literally translated from the German word "Herzblut").

Your game was great fun. Never have seen such a strong 849. Felt more like a 1500+!

If I were You, I would drop the Sicilian for a while. There are simply too many possibilities to change the way the game goes from both sides (each change in the pawn structure is important) of the board. I often play the Alapin as white, which might not be the best opening choice but gives me a surplus in the opening knowledge in most of my games and dropped the Sicilian as black in favor of the French or even e5, where is much less theory to learn to get a feeling of what You are actually doing. At least in my opinion.

Sincerely

Michael