The Odyssey begins…

So I thought I would kick off this blog with a “State of the Union”-type address. You know, so that all of you out there in the Big Blue Blogosphere know just what you are dealing with here. And as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I will spare you the reading (for now).

The position pictured below occurred in a blitz game that I was playing on FICS last week. I’m playing white, and black just played Qf3. What move did I play in response?

Kxf3 you say? Well, if anyone else were sitting behind the white pieces, that would be an excellent guess! But I was the one sitting behind the white pieces, not someone that actually knows how to play the game of chess. You have to think more blundery.

For some reason, I had it in my head that the Queen was covered by another black piece. Clearly, this is not the case, but in my head at the time, that Queen was invulnerable. So I played the only move (in my feeble mind) that would get my King out of check. I played Kg1.

Every time I look at that picture, I wince. It’s little consolation to remember that I had less than a minute on my clock at the time. That’s really no excuse for a blunder this spectacular. I proceeded to lose the game, after my opponent picked his jaw up off the floor, ate my Rook, and continued to punish me for my error.

Ah well, live and learn. That’s what I tell myself to avoid bursting into tears.

I started this blog to chronicle my journey along the path to chess mastery. As you can see, I’ve got a long way to go. Stop laughing, sit back, relax, and enjoy. It should be quite a trip…