cathexis wrote on 07/18/21 at 23:16:55:
For right now, the club I joined in June this year meets on-line only although it has been around almost 70 years. Like many clubs, they are dependent on others for a physical location for OTB play & meetings. So those places must fully open first. They hold weekly Ladders & Quads on Chess.com. I confine myself to a free membership on Chess.com since I need something to play. No surprise, I am both a novice and unrated. I couldn't care less about the ratings these sites offer: There's only one rating that will matter to me and I look forward to earning it.
On this forum, besides help with openings, most of my help has come from the General board here. This includes several members who've given me personal help and advice that I value highly. It is hard for a newbie to understand they are asking the wrong kind of question, or assuming the wrong kind of answers, when they just don't know better. True in life, doubly so in chess. I mean myself, if no one else. Chess.com could boot me tomorrow and I promise you I have so much other material still to cover I would just soldier on until things opened back up. I would also continue to ask questions here on any chess topic, not just openings. As elsewhere in my life, I've often found it helpful to recall the old saying, "Save the drama for your mama." (Though I admit it has sometimes been a post-facto recall).
Cathexis
I appreciate you taking the time.
Without drawing too much attention to the matter or going into great detail: Things are resolved. My USCF is linked to both my ICC account and a Chess.com account. I agree with you, however - there is just endless material available to us today, especially if we spend a few dollars here and there, and losing access to only one outlet wouldn't entirely derail anyone. As of now, I don't have to worry about that again.
I'm getting much better. After my 1st round draw in T4545 play, I won the other day in round 2. I was black, got into the Richter-Rauzer in the Sicilian, and my opponent resigned on move 19 after a tactical exchange where he blundered early and things liquidated into a pretty lost endgame for him. I also ended the game with ~49 minutes and he was under 20. The fact that, for a second game in a row, I was way ahead on time is a massive improvement for me. This was another board 1 game and prior to it we were tied 1.5 - 1.5 for the match so it also gave us the match win. My team has a bye this week.
Most of my study material right now is ChessTempo, ICC, and the International Chess School I subbed to. I'm also going to be starting to do more tactics and review of games OTB as directed by the study material. And, most importantly: No drama. Whatever occurs. It's simply not worth the wasted time and energy and I thank you for reminding me of that. I haven't posted anything anywhere lately other than on this forum and while on ICC. Well, I'm also commenting on CT tactics a bit again now, too. I think in depth discussion of individual tactics is actually a really underrated method of improvement.