Introduction

Hello,

Just wanted to introduce myself quickly and say hello.

I just found this site and think it will be a great place to help me improve my game. I'm not a very good player now, actually forget very good, I'm not any good, but I'm hoping to change that.

I'm hoping to find some help with the "middle game". I have a few openings that I like to play. Most are queen pawn and I'm reasonably able to develop my pieces in a way that "should" lead to some decent play . . . I seem to get "lost" once I've developed my pieces. I have trouble finding intermediate goals throughout the middle game. I guess I'm just not sure what I should be playing for before checkmate becomes a real possibility.

I've read about and I'm conscious of some general ideas regarding the center, time, space, tempo, etc. I guess I just need to develop my sense of them in order to improve.

I'm looking forward to learning more about this great game from all of you.

Sincerely,

Ted Kramer

Welcome to chess.com Ted! This site has plenty of great features to help make you a better chess player. I hope you enjoy yourself! 

Welcome to the site,
I've been playing here for a while and my play has been developing ever since.
I hope it will be as useful to you as well. Good luck and enjoy your games.

ps. queen and pawn openings? To be honest I don't believe there are many healthy openings with a queen.

Gr.

 "Queen pawn" meaning d5. The queen stays put . . . for a while at least.

-Ted 

Of course, sorry forgot about that

Good of you to say hi.  Welcome!  Have fun playing! All the best in chess!

study tatics ted that would be my advice,tatics trainer here is very good

welcome ted! you're going to enjoy yourself :) make sure you check out the Site Map to see all of the stuff you can do!

Thanks for the kind words and warm welcome. I had a look at the "game explorer" last night and really liked what I saw. I think learned a few things already regarding an opening that I like to play.

Interestingly enough, I developed an "opening idea" or "opening lines" that I like to play without the knowledge of any texts or books. I kind of got into speed chess a little bit a few years ago and just through playing a zillion games started to find some positions that I was comfortable with.

By using the "game explorer" I was able to find some games played by high level players that start out using a few of the moves that I like. The moves that I like to play aren't very original, but it does appear that a common middle game "theme" seems to arise in the games played with the openings that I was looking at. And interestingly enough, I've never really pursued some of the major lines that I saw in database games. . . . I guess it isn't hard to figure out that I must not be a very good player if I've never understood these things, or played those lines, but that is why I'm here. 

So far I think I'm really going to enjoy myself here.

Thanks again for the warm welcome.

-Ted