Learning to play chess.....

I am a big fan of Japanese Anime and mangas. Few months back I watched a anime called Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. One of the characters named Shikamaru caught my attention. He was show as a lazy bum but extremely intelligent. His intelligence was displayed by showing him playing shogi(a Japanese version of chess). I don't know why, but this character inspired me to learn chess. It was because i was lazy or as intelligent as he was shown. But just because I spend most of my day's time sitting around in a cubicle with computer in front of me( I am a software engg btw). Because of this reason mainly, I wanted to learn and play chess. So this was why I started playing chess.

Even though it may seem,after reading this that I am a very good player, well I am sorry to disappoint you, I am not. I am no where close to be decent player. This is why I want to write this so as to show myself and other my journey in chess. Shortly after getting inspired, I started playing chess online where I was brutally defeated and humiliating told that I cannot play chess and have to improve. This was when I started to search for e-books on chess or any kind of tutorial. I found ample of e-books but I was amazed that none of the books I found were remotely teaching how to play chess. They were just some strategies used by players when they advance in the game. Shortly after getting disappointed I found a game called ChessMaster Grandmaster edition. This was exactly what I needed. This game has everything what a beginner wants to learn in order to play a chess game. It teaches;

• The basic rules for each piece.
• The way to develop a piece.
• Using a team work of various pieces to attack opponent.
• The openings of the games.
• Has various levels of oppnents to train with so as to gain confidence.
• Saved games of various great players and grandmaster.

I started with from the basics, learning the basic rules. The rules from pawns to queens and concepts like forks and en-passant. As I can make out is that I am improving steadily. Few days back I was easily beaten by a player of rating 600 now I am giving hard time for players of rating 800 and above. I am still learning and improving.
I will keep posting my improvements and journey in the world of chess.