Robalero

Learned to move the pieces over sixty years ago and am now sixty-eight years old. Really became absorbed with the game during the Bobby Fischer era in the late 1960s.  Not a great player, not even very good, but I love the game and always have so I'm always willing to play and to learn.  I did play in my 30s and 40s in USCF rated events, and I did okay. Now as I have gotten older and I am retired I have gone back to things which used to bring me great joy and satisfaction in my younger years. Two of those things are cycling (which has helped me tremendously with my health) and now chess (I need to keep my mind in top form to combat Alzheimers and also keep it in top shape as my  body). Body and Mind!!!  

I was born and raised in Texas, pero soy Mexicano (dual citizenship). My wife is from Monterrey and I spend half my time in south Texas and the rest of the time in Monterrey.

I was an educator for 37 years and have now been a scholastic chess coach for going on 40 years now. I continue to work with students and continue to have success as a coach. Being from an area that was, at the time a chess desert, I trained myself to become a USCF Tournament director and my tournaments began with thirty to fifty participants, by the time I retired as a TD, I had achieved Senior TD status and was directing tournaments where there were five, six and up to 800 participants. Organizing and directing chess tournaments brought me great joy and satisfaction, plus it created a chess oasis not only for my students, but for chess lovers and afficionados who lived within the area. 

Chess coaching has brought me great success but more than that a tremendous amount of satisfaction. For a chess aficionado and chess coach there is no more satisfying a feeling than watching your students win as a team and individually and walking up to get their chess trophies. 

My first year on Chess.com was one of growth and lots of learning. I have finally begun to understand the principles of positional play and competing in daily games has helped me tremendously as I have sharpened my skills, particularly that of patience; not to look for that fatal blow or devastating move every single time; and learning that positional play is about improving one's position and gaining small advantages with every move in the middle game. If you make a concerted effort to NOT force something that you are not sure of, or of something that is definitely not there and simply play to improve your position with every move and place your pieces on good squares; good positions in your favor seem to magically appear on the board.

Positional chess is also about pawn structures, learning all about pawn weaknesses and pawn strengths, how to protect your pawn structure and how to create pawn weaknesses in your opponents position and also the formidable power of the passed pawn and fully understanding that many games are won or lost by passed pawns. Above all else Be patient!

Finally, my nemesis and most disruptive foe is myself and the amazing ability to still blunder a piece or step into a fork.