Hi there...

I just joined ICS last night and am working through my first week of instruction. So far, it's very good, but I can tell I will be stretched. I hope I can keep up!

I've been playing chess off and on for most of my life, but not very consistently until a couple years ago. I've never played in any OTB tournaments, so I don't have an FIDE rating. I mostly play online at Chessworld.com where my rating is currently 1645 (not sure what that translates to in the real world.) I've been trying to learn from books for years now, but don't usually get all the way through them and often get lost in the maze of variations when I try to play through master games. I just started using Chessbase Light and SCID, so hopefully they will help. Most of my improvement up until now has come through play as opposed to study.

My favorite player is probably Petrosian, mainly because I find his style so unpredictable and difficult to fathom! In addition to chess I'm really into music and play in a couple of working bands at night and I work in IT during the day.

Thanks for creating this forum, Blue Devil Knight! I'm glad I found it.

Thanks for joining the forum. I love the avatar!

Thanks, I love yours, too! I was a major X-Files fan.

Welcome!

Petrosian's style was to defend against threats before the opponents even could make the threats.

Yes, he was a master of prophylaxis.