A surprise at Christmas

When I made the last move, I thought still there would be a long game ahead. To my surprise, it only took me a few moves to finish the game. Can you guess how it happened?

My first rating update.

I’ve just finished my fifth game and got a new rating. It’s extremely high (1619) and I feel that it will drop very soon since it’s a bit difficult to play at a such high level after such a long break.

When a few weeks ago I started playing chess, I got a provisional rating which was 1200. I played a few games against players with the same provisional rating and a few games against players with a rating that was a bit higher than mine. Some of these players were really good and it was difficult to defeat them. The result was too close to call. I’m happy that I managed to get points against some of them. Thanks guys for the good games.

So, I’ve won my first five games and now I can sign up for the tournament in January and try my skills in Advanced Chess.

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.