Can I step into the chess river twice? – part 2

The beginning of the story is here

You never know where a casual chat with a friend might lead you. A few weeks ago, I talked to a friend about the Internet and he told me that his son had been playing chess on the Net for a while. Unfortunately, he couldn’t give me more information on this.

I’d heard about correspondence chess in pre-computer times and actually played chess with a few of my pen-friends. I’m not sure now if I finished any of those games. It’s more likely that I got bored since a game by mail lasted several months.

On-line chess seemed much more attractive, so I googled a bit and found several websites where you can play online. Unfortunately, for some of them you must pay for a membership to be able to play. However, I wasn’t sure as to how long I’d like to play.

I slept over that idea and in a few days had another look. This time I noticed a website where you can just sign up and play. Of cause, you can get a premium membership that gives you more flexibility, but their free membership isn’t bad. I signed up and started a few games.

I’ve been playing there for about a week and won two games out of five. The other three are still in process. Sometimes, my opponent and I have enough free time to make several moves.

Sometimes, my opponent or I make only one move a day. Starting a new game you can set a time control per move from 3 to 14 days, which is fine because you can be so busy that it isn’t possible for you to play a lot. However, if you have time, you can reply quicker and make several moves a day.

There are other possibilities to enjoy chess, but for some of them I need to get a premium membership. Maybe I’ll do so. Now, I’m thinking of playing in a tournament in January. If I understood right, I need to win at least five games, before I can sign up. So I need to hurry