I have some exciting news! Although my performance in my first 2 events, the WA Open and the PNCC club event, were abysmal, I learned a lot about my strength's and weaknesses's at the event. I woke up this morning with a text from John Rossell asking me if I wanted to attend the National Open in Las Vegas. At first, I was hesitant. I had just gone 2.5/7 in the WA Open, and in the PNCC event I hung my Queen. I've been performing pretty badly for my rating; 1300's don't hang queens, I dont care what you say! But in hindsight, I've only been back into chess for less than a month and the amount of time I have to study, although plentiful, isn't consumed by the myriads of other activities and endeavors I pursue that aspiring players are using on chess. This is no excuse; I've created this blog to make my study more serious, encourage actively entering my games online so my readers can view the games - it's a snowball effect. But, alas, he coaxed