Beer, Pizza,...and Chess?

Okay, so hopefully some of my facebook friends followed the link over here to check this out. Most of my friends will know that I'm a chess player. I love chess kind of like how the pope digs prayer. I've played for years in various tournaments large and small and own a large collection of chess literature. You would think, after all of this time, that I might be pretty good at the game. Sadly, the truth is, I suck. However, that is about to change.


I've created a six month challenge. For those of you who don't know,a chess players strength is measured by a numerical rating system. The higher the rating, the better. My current rating on the site chess.com is 1430. By the end of August, 2013 I will have that rating up to 1800. I'll be using this blog to track my progress, write about things that I've been studying and learning about chess as well as writing about the learning process in general.


But wait! You are all saying, "I clicked on this link for pizza and beer. Where the hell is the PIZZA and BEER?"


Here's the deal. At the end of August, I'm going to throw a bash with pizza and beer at a location to be determined. I'm buying the pizza and at least the first couple of rounds of beverages. All any of you have to do to get invited to this fabulous happening is to check this blog out and leave some comments on a somewhat regular basis. If you are a fellow chess player (you know who you are) by all means feel free to offer advice. If your not a chess player, just say hi, tell me to go jump in a lake, post a link back to your site. Whatever. I just want to make sure I'm not doing this in a vacuum. For those of you who aren't in Alaska and can't join in on the festivities, well I can't airmail pizza and beer but I'll be posting videos, links to cool sites, funny pictures and anything else that I can do in order to make me your favorite attention whore.


I'll be back in a day or so with more details and some cool links but I've typed too much. We need some kittens and music.


Chess cat photo by Jim Duyn, Oakland California


Source: http://www.ibabuzz.com/garybogue/2008/11/14/whos-smarter-humans-or-cats-and-the-winner-is/

Of course, we have to have this: