Quo Vadis?

So where am I in chess, and where do I want to go? I just returned to tournament chess a couple of months ago after a lay-off of over two years,and right now I'm trying to play myself into shape for the Reno Chess Club (RCC) class championships and club championship later this year. Also, a fairly large Swiss, the Far West Open is coming in April and I want to represent well there. The overall goal is to raise my rating, which peaked at around 1825 in the early 1990s, up from the current 1600 and have fun doing it.

I really enjoy playing, win or lose, but if I lose I want to give a better account of myself, and of course I do want to win more often. Nothing wrong with that.

So to put it on record in a concrete fashion, my ideal program for the year 2006:

• Win the RCC B-class championship. Having taken the measure of the other B-players over the last couple of months I don't think this is unrealistic, if I play my best. But it won't be easy.
• A plus score (at least 3.5 out of 6) at the Far West Open. Given that I'll be one of the lowest rated in my section, this seems a reasonable goal, and would also raise my rating somewhat.
• End 2006 with a rating over 1700.

How I plan to study and prepare to accomplish these goals will be the subject of the next post.