Chess Tournament

The last couple of days at work have been rather slow, so a lot of the guys have been playing chess. They had a mini-tournament, but that's about wrapped up, so they decided to have another one next rotation. However, this one will be bigger, and they asked me to join. Now, I'm not very confident in my chess playing abilities. Outside of my family, I've never won. So the last couple of days I have been playing against computer programs and developing my strategy. Thus far I've had moderate success. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. Some of those wins have been rather perplexing to me as it seems that the program will go into some kind of panic mode and just surrender pieces. So I've been looking online and trying to figure out some new stuff. If anyone knows of any good sites, has some tips, or is willing to give me some strategy I'd be very grateful.

The funny thing is, is that this evening Cherilyn and I went to the mall and they had a setup of tables and chess games for anyone who wanted to play. I didn't play (remember the lack of confidence thing?), but it was interesting to see a girl around 8-10 years of age beat a full grown adult in a game of speed chess.

Well, I will continue with my research. I'll let you know if I get obliterated or become the great underdog story of the squadron. So far my bet is on the former rather than the latter.