I learned to play chess in kindergarten and later played against friends and classmates, but I never joined a club – and then ended up not playing it for decades.
But now I started to get back into it… using apps to learn and play just makes it so much easier to make progress.

I can also honestly say that I’m fairly addicted to solving at least a few chess puzzles daily. Chess puzzles are about finding the – typically between one and three, sometimes more – moves that will deliver check mate to the opponent or at least lead to a material advantage. Zugzwang (enforcing moves by the opponent) and accuracy (you will lose noticeably more points for a busted puzzle than the points you get for a solved one, especially when your rating is higher) are key. A puzzle of that kind usually takes just between a half to several minutes.
My latest Chess.com puzzle rating – achieved as of mid May 2025 – is…

Does that make me a strong player..? Nope, at least not yet – my actual Chess rating is nowhere close, and still in its infancy. My tactics are pretty solid by now thanks to the many puzzles, but I still have an awful lot to learn when it comes to strategy (especially openings).

But I have plans to change that over time. My main weaknesses, as far as I can tell, are impulsivity (moving too fast and overlooking opportunities or dangers) and fixation/omission (not scanning the whole board properly before making a move). But self-awareness is always a good starting point 🙂

If you play chess and would like to play remotely (even if every move takes a day or more – no worries, we’re all busy people) you can find me on these platforms:

lichess.orgchess.com
My user namesvenfchesssvenf
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