i dont play as much anymore but if you have Iphone there is an app called game pigeon that you can play through text messages and its pretty cool.  you just make your move at your leasure and then so does the other person.  if you want to play dm me ill give you my number. im probably not great right now lol

Dr Winston O'Boogie wrote:

Just took up the game a  month or so ago. I use the Chess.com app and it's been a good resource. I'm horrible to say the least. 54 is probably not an ideal age to learn the game, but I thought it'd be good for my brain. As of now, I miss patterns and setups all over the place, miss obvious moves and play defensively all the time. Very frustrating. But I'm determined to try and progress and learn a little patience along the way. I do enjoy the thinking that goes into it.

Any players out there?

I know how pieces move. I love the game but suck at it. 

Kind of like the connections NYtimes thing. 

Have had people that know me say “but you are so good at math” to which I say “hard calculation math yes, abstract geometry and the like no. Chess is more about pattern recognition and being able to “see” the board 5 moves ahead. 

Thats not me. 

I love it but like you am frustrated by it. Most people who have played for more than a month would probably beat me. 

Back in junior high and high school, I played it a fair amount. Kind of peaked at the level of "decent" where I could beat a lot of my classmates, but the ones who were actually good pretty much could end me without breaking a sweat. 

Nowadays, every great once in a while, I'll play the free chess game on my computer, but the skill is not there. I think I sort of realized my place in this game when, in high school, I received a Nintendo chess game as a gift and found out that I could beat the computer if it was set to take under 5 seconds or so to come up with a move, but if it took any actual time to do so, here come the pain!

It helps to come up with 3-4 opening moves that u stick to depending on what they do but that helps if you want my advi

geeblock wrote:

It helps to come up with 3-4 opening moves that u stick to depending on what they do but that helps if you want my advi

I’m learning that. But I sometimes get so caught up in executing my opening that I miss shit right off the bat. I’m led to believe this is typical for where I am now. I play some decent games against similarly rated beginners and then I’ll get killed several times in a row in quick succession. 

When I lived in Kansas I played a lot during work. My coworker was a really good national ranked player until like 7th grade. I probably played him close to 200x. I was one move away from winning exactly one time and of course didn’t make the correct move. He made sure to point it out after lol. 

I would say I’m on the low side of average.