Chess Journey

I played chess as a kid, drifted away, and have come back to it deliberately as an adult.

What I'm exploring in this series:

• Middlegame intuition. Openings get me a position; what I keep losing in is the middle. Pattern recognition, candidate moves, prophylaxis.
• Study, not just play. Tactics puzzles, engine review of my own games, calendar-driven progress instead of vibes-based progress.
• The engine as a teacher. Modern engines tell you what's better but rarely why. The interpretive work is where the learning happens.
• Adult-learner honesty. Time-boxed practice, plateau logging, and not pretending I have unlimited bandwidth.

Target this year: ~1500 ELO and a real grasp of the openings I actually play. Posts will document moments, not lessons-as-tutorials.