Chess

[plural]

So
I've been trying to get back
into playing chess

For the record
I'm not very good at chess
or
at least I do not feel very good at chess

this maybe be because
~90% of the people I've ever played
were ranked chess masters

but anyway

I've been told
I've got a bizarre method of playing chess
in that
not having formal chess education
I've developed an unusual way
of playing
generally setting up
overly elaborate traps
that will result in a large number of pieces being traded
hopefully in my favor

while this does not stop
the above mentioned masters
from kicking my ass
it does occasionally make them stop
look at me
then look back at the board
to see what they are missing

sometimes
I manage to spring one of my traps
so it ends in my favor
which is quite nice

so anyway
I've been using the program "Chess Titans"
just to get used to the feel of playing again

I play each level
until I win five sequential games
[and no taking back moves either]
then move to the next level

today I'm on level five
and
I won three games in a row
drew one
lost one
and
decided I was bored
and wanted to have some fun

so
I did
and below is the result

I'm black by the way
[I almost always play black]

Comments

[bookfoole.livejournal.com]

After one queen, I tend to avoid promoting pawns to queens unless necessary --too many queens of your own on the board makes it easier for the other side (especially a lone king --or a king with his pawns blocked) to go for a stalemate.

I play a week opening, but I play it every time --and it's non-standard, so I'm familiar with it's weaknesses and most opponents who are used to remembering openings often know it's a bad opening, but can't figure out how to take advantage of it (it's a double fianchetto opening). It's a bit hypermodern --allow your opponent to overextend himself in the center.

[bookfoole.livejournal.com]

oops --I do know how to spell --"weak opening"

[plural.livejournal.com]

if I'm playing to win
I agree

in this case
I was trying to see how many queens I could use
in a single checkmate

as for the rest
I've never studied chess formally
so know very little of the names etc
although
if I recall correctly
I believe one of my friends
used to refer to my opening
as a sicilian defense on lsd