[DrTodd13]

I sometimes play but I only play Chess960. You can play this on ICS.

[luke warm]

hi justin... have you started reading any books yet? i suggest, fwiw, that for now you concentrate on one opening when you are white and one defense to the king's pawn and one to the queen's pawn when black.... fischer (almost) always opened e4 as white and (almost) always responded nf6 vs. Q pawn (usually aiming for a king's indian type structure) and c6 (for some variation of the sicilian) vs. K pawn... very simple strategy, but he became an expert in those systems

i think mauro is a pretty good player, i don't know who else... i play but rarely have time... good luck to you, chess is a great game

[Free]

It's been a while, but I used to play a lot on www.pogo.com

Sad thing is there are lots of cheaters who work with a chess program running in the background. However, if you know who you're playing against, it's always fun. My nickname is FreeHimself, since "Free" wasn't available anymore

[pigpenz]

Free, on Dec 30 2006, 05:18 AM, said:

It's been a while, but I used to play a lot on www.pogo.com

Sad thing is there are lots of cheaters who work with a chess program running in the background. However, if you know who you're playing against, it's always fun. My nickname is FreeHimself, since "Free" wasn't available anymore

boy there must be cheaters everywhere

[whereagles]

I played a lot when I was young, but quit after going to university. Took too much time to reach the top level and I wasn't settling for any less than that

[Winstonm]

Your boss (Hamman) - if you are still working there - knows a little about the game.

[jmc]

I played a ridiculous amount of chess through high school and college. When I wasn't playing chess I was playing spades. I met some people at a coffee shop once who were playing bridge and I took a break from my chess game to ask them if i could play. They told me I was not good enough and I should take some lessons first. It inspired me to learn bridge and now I waste ridiculous amounts of time on bridge.

Chess is a tougher game to play in many ways then bridge. I find losing a long chess game much more demoralizing than losing a bridge match. The individual hands break up the monotony of the whole. I also think its easier to tell whether you are good at chess than if your are good at bridge. Its much easier for bridge players to convince themselves they are decent when they suck.

Next time I am going to a national I'll bring my board and clock. It'd be fun to find some off time for some speed chess at the least. For online chess the internet chess club is best but not free. The free internet chess servers are ok. I access via Mann's winboard, which also lets you play the good program gnu chess or crafty.

jmc

[Chamaco]

Hi Justin,
I play on the FICS chess server (find info at http://www.freechess.org/).

To play there you need a decent Chess Client Interface, I use and recommend "Babaschess".

On FICS I am not logged often (my nick is Chamaco), but if you want to arrange some session of play/study/tutoring, I am happy to learn.

In this case, if you want, I can give you my Skype address so we can arrange something. I do not have plenty of time right now but I'll be more than happy to help as much as my current possibilities allow :-)

Mauro

[zasanya]

I suggest http://www.instantchess.com/ .I play as zasanya.

[gwnn]

I used to play chess competitively and was good-ish (talented but lazy), but I gave up cause I was always making silly mistakes (ie the ones marked with "??").

Bridge is cooler. Well, 5min. thinking time is fun @ chess too, but that's not the "real thing".

Easiest stuff @ chess for openings is e4-e5 (nice straightforward games, no subtle strategies) and d4-d5 (remember NOT to capture white's pawn if he next moves c4).

I guess finding a good game of chess is easier than finding a good game of bridge. U just look for highly ranked people.

[BurnKryten]

Ten years ago or so, I was an expert and played in lots of tourneys. I haven't played live tournaments in ages, but I do play correspondence chess at SchemingMind. I am CuriousShadow there. The memory load for openings gets frustrating at higher levels, so I try to play mostly Chess960.

I'm a bit baffled that anyone would suggest opening study for someone learning to play chess - that's perhaps the last thing to worry about The simple things are much more important: Develop your men quickly, control the center, that sort of thing.

[keylime]

I am the worse chess player in the universe. I understand the basics, but I am so clueless on the middlegame that if I win I play the lottery immediately afterwards.

[vang]

how funny, i have just started to play chess a month ago (after years of pause) on http://www.redhotpawn.com . i like this more than FICS or other "instant" chess online, this one is like corespondance chess (fastest setup is 1 day per move).