A Chess Journey

My name is Matt Cornelisen, and I relish playing chess. I've played since I was a child, but I have never put serious study into the game. As a consequence, four decades later, I remain a glorified beginner.

Currently, I play online exclusively. I've played on various sites, with lichess.org being my chess site for the past year. My rating varies, ranging from ~1300 in Blitz to ~1500 in Rapid. I have shied playing games with time controls longer than 10 minutes, but not for any particular or specific reason. Now, I have decided I would like to improve my chess. I play and play without any substantial change in my rating. I have found myself wondering, after playing a dozen Blitz games in a stretch, whether or not I could get better. Well, I'm done wondering. It is time to find out.

To that end, I reviewed various online chess sites and have decided to use Chess.com going forward. I've never registered there before, and the idea of starting with a clean slate is appealing. Additionally, I realize it is the leading site in use amongst the GM's I occasionally watch on YouTube.

I'm going to commit to improving my chess to the best of my abilities over the next year. Time commitments preclude me from dedicating hours per day to the endeavor, but I will seek to make daily progress. Chess.com has a well-presented study plan that I will be using. I've decided to start with the Beginner's Plan and work up from there.

I realize it would be easier to say my goal is a rating of X in Y amount of time. I also understand that such a concrete goal isn't what I'm after. In reality, I want to see if I can get better with study and focus. I'll be posting here regularly, documenting my journey. I welcome any advice, comment, or criticism, and I hope that my journey might help others considering the same.