10,000 Games

If I haven't mentioned it before, I'm slightly addicted to online blitz chess.  If you're not familiar with blitz, basically it is 5 minute speed chess.  I like that I can quickly take a few minutes each day to play a few games.  Keeps my brain sharper than video games.  Since I opened my current account almost exactly four years ago (April 28, 2006), I've played 10,000 games. Won 5073, lost 4298, drew 629.


I've actually been playing online since 1999.  I wasn't very good when I started.  Back then my rating was under 1300, but I've been improving year after year.  The biggest jump was about 100 points when I stopped playing 5 5 (five minutes a game plus 5 seconds added with each move) and started playing 5 0 (five minutes a game with no time added after a move).  I'm pretty good at thinking fast and win a lot of games on the clock. 

I'm also too easily distracted - I check email or surf the web a lot during games - but I've become what is considered a decently strong blitz player.  I figure I'm currently averaging around 1650, and a little over a week ago I set a new personal best, 1718.

I play at the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS).  It is free.  Really and truly free, not one of those 'free' sites that only try to sell a membership.  http://www.freechess.org/