For my semester long learning journey, I’ve decided to try to tackle the game of chess. Chess is something that I have zero experience in other then exposure to its references in pop culture. With its resurgence of popularity due to online streamers taking an interest in the game I thought it would be an interesting skill to try to grasp a hold of. I’m a person that is very interested in games whether it be sudoku or different types of video games so I’m predicting that I’ll take a liking along my journey.

To start, my current knowledge is very limited in chess. I can recall some of the pieces movement and have played checkers in the past but have zero experience in strategy. From what I hear chess is a game that is not terribly difficult to learn but the ceiling for skill is very high. This is another reason the game interests me as I feel climbing the ladder in skill will be a great way to benchmark my journey.

This leads me into another interesting element that attracts me to chess specifically is the ladder system it introduces. In chess there is an assigned number to your perceived skill rating. Based on your wins and losses in online and in person games your number will increase or decrease. I think this is a great benchmark for my progress and looking at the bell curve of number distribution I can see how I compare to the rest of the community throughout the semester.

So my journey starts here and I am excited to see what it brings throughout the semester!

Photo via chess.com