I had a passing knowledge and interest in chess for a long time, but one of my friends pushed me to play more often. Now I enjoy chess greatly, but I don’t think I’m all that good at it. I’ve taken exactly one game from him by lucking my way into a good opener I didn’t actually know. In a correspondence game where I had virtually unlimited time to think about my moves.

I struggle at evaluating board positions effectively, so I tend to brute force think my way through all the possibilities that come with a move. I can sometimes determine which moves to care about thinking about, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought of a goofy move and realized why it was goofy almost too late.

That said, chess is a fun game for all levels of play. I’m on lichess @gregdan3!