I just left chessworld.com

Not an easy thing to do technically since there IS no direct link for doing so. Plenty of sign in places and renewal links, but no where do they advertise an "abandon site" location.

I had to click through a number of links and read further instructions before finding a footnote that indicated that anyone seeking to leave their membership needed to access their profile page and remove their email address. Of course, that means I'll have some 75 games where a happy online chess player will claim a "win on time" and gain rating points... but at least I'll never again receive an email notice that PatzerX has claimed a "win on time" from moviegeekjn.

I long have had a fascination for the royal game--even during my childhood years when my competitive dad always beat me. Later, when I first took up coaching chess for Tuba City High School, my dad eagerly challenged me... and after two consecutive wipeouts, he never ever wanted to play again... and it was pointless to slaughter him over the board.

I learned a great deal about the game, reaching an official Expert level in tournament play (one level below Master), realizing that I needed to improve in order to boost the skills of some of my high school players--the ones who wouldn't use books to improve their game. We had notable success over the years--a remarkable run of 13 years where our AAA school from the Navajo reservation competed competitively with the top rated AAAAA schools from Tucson and Phoenix, winning four state championships along the way.

Chess can become an addiction I found--some are totally consumed. I can't claim that degree of obsession, but I did participate in a number of USCF tournaments and did attend the first two world championship matches between Kasparov and Karpov when they were held in New York City.

After leaving coaching and chess tournaments behind in the early 1990s, there was a bit of a chess void. But then I discovered online chess with the rise of the Internet. You could actually play people in real time simultaneously... but this had a decided drawback. You had to glue yourself to the computer for hours, just like over the board play.

Asynchronous games were far better. Online chess sites sprang up with this concept--very similar to postal chess... but this was streamlined much like email.

I joined a couple of these sites. And played off and on for a few years. LetsPlayChess had various levels of players and you could accept or reject any number of challenges--more games available when you became a paying member. And then I found ChessWorld had even more features--the part that I most enjoyed was their Team play. You could join a team and compete against others--it gave me more motivation to do so than individual games.

When my dad died in the fall of 2008, I didn't feel like playing the game for a spell... and took a "holiday" from these sites for a spell by clicking on a holiday selection link.

About a month later, I opened my email to find over 50 spam posts from LetsPlayChess about how all my games had timed out and been declared losses. I never returned to that site--too pissed to consider rejoining.

ChessWorld was a better fit with its team play and more controls for taking holidays, etc.

But the past few months, I kept forgetting to check my games ... and would get occasional emails about how PatzerZ had claimed a win on time.

I'd go and discover I had some 50 games in time jeopardy, and make some moves to avoid losing automatically.

But it just wasn't a lot of fun any more. I was just relying on past knowledge and making rote moves en mass... not seeking creative solutions. 

I considered leaving these chess games shortly after retiring from the working world. But could not find any means to do so. Then thought I'd see how I felt after taking a two week holiday to go to Burma.

Burma was great and I devoted a good part of a day to post my pictures from the trip (reminds me that I should provide some links here at OS). But then I got an email from ChessWorld about a loss on time. And frankly... I didn't give a damn.

Online chess just doesn't do it for me anymore. I have other interests. Hiking in the local mountains... and I just got an email from travel agents in Columbia that excites me.

At this point in my life I've learned that it's important to pay attention to what your body, mind, and spirit are telling you. Life is far too short to spend on things you've  already left behind.