Ah, I remember the good old days ( about 3 years ago) when I first started chess, and I would say "i'm probably a 1200 or 1300" when guestimating my rating, and then get crushed by 12 and 1300's! I would suggest joining the USCF and enter over the board tournaments- it is an intense and very educational experience- very unforgiving! One wrong move or missed tactic, and Bam! the game is hopelessly lost, all that work and concentration and internal dialog, focus, worry, etc, gone out the widow! chess is fun! Don't be surprised if you get crushed out there and keep it up! TACTICS TACTICS TACTICS. DON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE I, AND MANY OTHERS MAKE- your first tournament will establish your rating- IT IS RECCOMENDED that your first tournament be a large to medium sized one, and enter the OPEN section, you will play higher rated players and get killed out there, but your rating will most likely end up above 1000 even if you lose all your games. My first tourney was a small one, and my rating was established in the 800's, and I have struggled to scrape my way into the 1100's and rising. My friend entered a large tourney, open section, lost every game and ended up in the 1200's, and has not had to scrape his way upwards. Good luck!
I am hoping to improve my game also and have just been browsing on here. Thanks very much for the helpful tips. I have Yasser Seirawans 'play winning chess' handbook, which I find very easy going, although I have just come back to playing chess. There aren't many people I know off line that actually play chess with - so I have to be content with online chess or my grandmaster CD rom...oh dear!!
🙂
great site though!
cheers
kate