I played terrible chess last night.

It was the first match of the CICL season. I had a rough game, but I was ahead for most of it and I was in a position that was winning, although a bit technical (Rybka confirms). I hadn't played flawlessly, but I had done okay up to this point. I gave my opponent a gift. Instead of playing a winning move, I played a losing move that I had seen, on the previous move, as immediately losing. I immediately lost.

Well, it's a start. Good game, well played, etc. I'm definitely going to learn some lessons from this.

EDIT: I suppose I should always remember that I'm only one step away from defeat.

Why I have not been blogging.

I've been reading the A Song of Ice and Fire series on the train instead of chess for the past couple weeks, so I've been thinking about that instead of chess. Accordingly, I don't have much chess content to share. I've also been too busy on weekends - I moved, I've been traveling, I've been going to weddings, I'm short on cash - to go to tournaments. The summer tournament is also over. I don't have anything to write about on this web-log if I'm not playing chess on the train or playing in tournaments.

Unfortunately, my daily commute is much less chess friendly now. Instead of 5 minutes of walking and 45 minutes of sitting around, it's 20 minutes of walking and 25 minutes of probably standing on the train. I gain five minutes, but I have so much less possibly productive chess time. I can't arrange my chess wallet and my chess book while standing.

Been busy lately.

I won a copy of Rybka 4 and the Rybka opening book for winning my section of the CIG chess tournament. That is pretty awesome. I have not yet had a chance to play around with it much.

I just moved, so I have been fairly busy and still do not have internet access at home. I have had to skip chess tournaments and have not had a chance to write much because I would have to write at work.