Two things that I know now that I didn't know a week ago

One of the most important concepts about chess that I just learned a few days ago is that control of the center of the board is extremely important. When your pieces are in the center, they have the widest, most uninterrupted range of attack and this is obviously a big advantage.

Let me put out a basic example. When white moves the King's pawn to e4, black is at an immediate disadvantage since white is freeing up their Queen and the King's Bishop, and when they move the King's Knight out on the second turn, they are gaining yet another advantage by increasing their attack range in the center. Black must immediately play on the defensive or risk losing uncompensated pieces. 

However, this doesn't mean that white can just put pieces in the center and win. Black has many strengths, and if white is not careful, pieces on the sidelines can be lost and this can give black a small material advantage which can add up quickly. Still, if white plays correctly and adjusts for black's moves, white can keep momentum on their side and force black into a series of moves that they might not want to necessarily make.

Also, I learned algebraic notation! This should be the first thing that anyone playing chess needs to learn on the theory side of things. If you're looking on the white side of the board, the bottom left corner is a1, and the bottom right corner is h1. The top left corner is a8 and the top right corner is h8. The squares in between are all filled in accordingly. Knowing what the spaces are gives you a generic template for notating moves.

Obviously it's not quite this simple. Each piece has its own letter representing it, and there are special notations for check, checkmate, castling, en passant, and capturing pieces. The knowledge of these concepts will enable you to decipher games posted online and in books, and this opens up a whole lot of learning opportunities for you--definitely something that you need to know if you are going to get better at the game.

Opening Moves

I love playing chess. But I'm not the best. In my defense, I haven't really played regularly since high school, and that was over 13 years ago. But I started playing again last week on chess.com, and I am absolutely loving it. I thought that tracking my journey from beginner to wherever I end up would be interesting on two levels, both for giving me a way to track my own progress and learn, and to provide a blueprint of sorts for those who wish to learn the game and become better at it themselves.

If you're looking for expert advice on how to perfect your game, this is not the blog for you. Not yet, anyway. I currently am well under 900 rating in both standard and blitz games, with my standard game about 250 points higher than blitz. So I'm far from an expert. But I hope to be one in the next few years. Did you know some people make a living playing chess? I had no idea until a few days ago. This would be really cool, and while it's probably extremely stupid to bank my family's future on me bringing home a regular paycheck from chess, it would be amazing to say that I am that good.

So this blog is geared more toward those who are not very good at the game, but have lofty ambitions. I will be posting regularly here tracking my progress and documenting the improvements and setbacks that I experience. Hopefully this will be a learning experience for both of us and we can realize our dreams of kicking butt in the Royal Game. Good luck!