I'll keep this brief. I normally hate the 'goodbye' type posts, but I wanted to say thanks to everyone on this board for the entertainment, instruction, encouragement and all sorts of other things y'all have provided over the years. I really enjoyed the time spent here -- specifically the chess board, it's a great community. For the past several months (maybe even couple of years) chess has become more of a source of frustration and disappointment for me than an enjoyable hobby. I'm giving it up, at least for a long time until the thought of playing seems fun again.

Thanks again making this place the best kept chess secret on the internet. Y'all are great people, truly. Take care.

Peace

damn, you were always one of the best things about the forum tex, hope you come back some time

Wat?

You can always take a break rather than "calling it quits" imo. Also, even not playing you may enjoy checking the forum even more from time to time since there won't be any pressure to get better. Basically, the "Rei approach" which definitely seems like it can be fun.

I hope your time off the board goes well but I have to say I hope to see you back in about 6 months, .

Shame to hear that, Tex. You'll be missed.

This. The SSPLO forum didn't start hating me after I switched to 2-card SnGs. I still hang out there because the HUSnG/Spin forum has no LC thread.

That said, I did play a PLO20-100 session on August 31 and luckbox ~€600 in ~3K hands Just like with PLO, I think one doesn't simply quit chess, it's chess that can quit them (but usually doesn't).

Thank you for dedicating lots of time to making this forum an awesome place, Tex

That sux 4 this forum.

Best of luck in the future man

I definitely agree you'll be missed. I'm sorry to hear that you aren't enjoying chess any more. For what it's worth, while I still keep a couple correspondence games running on chess.com at any given time, I haven't really enjoyed playing chess either for the last year or so. For me, being a chess "fan" and focusing on the high level events (without making any effort to try to understand the specific moves, use it as study, or any of that, just enjoying the drama and results and unabashedly utilizing computer analysis to "explain" the situations to me while games are live) has remained a lot of fun!

If you want to stick around the forum just for the low content stuff and for the commentary on professional events, you'll always be welcome. If you leave, but then choose to come back later, you'll always be welcome. And if you do stay away for good then I most sincerely wish you all the best in life. You're good people.

Hope to see you back here soon.

Tex,

Taking hiatuses is a pretty normal thing. I've had like five serious hobbies over the years and I've taken long-ish (three-month to several-year) breaks in all of them -- usually because of the natural cycle of interest, but occasionally because of frustration too.

And I generally came back a lot better at all of them after the breaks. It's often necessary to just take a long break in order to completely shake free of your usual playing/studying/thinking/etc. habits, so that new/improved ones can settle in much later.

Saying "goodbye" to the community strikes me as overkill, unless you really hate chess so much you can't even look at the word, so reconsider! You can still be a casual fan, playing the occasional blitz game when you can't resist but mostly not playing at all, and dipping in once or twice a month or so to check on what's happening with the latest prodigy or at the most recent supertourney.

Tex:
Just don't stay away too long. Just browsing this sub forum doesn't take up too much time or effort and keeps you in touch. GL to U

I find golf and chess similar. I'm not good at either (21 hc in golf) but there are times where all I do is think about them. Then times where I swear them off forever. It's weird. But yeah I wouldn't swear off chess if I was as good as you. You don't have to play to be an aficionado. I've never played football yet obsess over it during nfl season. You can still keep up with the pro tournies and review games on YouTube to feel satiated, and not have to beat yourself up over your own performance.

The A&M game was my favorite of the past weekend. Enjoy the season.

Knew you wouldn't leave us.

BUSTED

User Control Panel -> Edit Options -> Login & Privacy -> Use Invisible Mode

Actually I'm not sure if that blanks the Current Activity information though. Might just be the illusion of privacy. In any case, the mods know everything at all times.

I think it does. Re privacy: admins can still see what you're doing, and mods can see what time you were last active on 2+2.

I respect people who use non-invisible mode, however. I'm too self-conscious about my excessive 2+2 usage for that.

At the risk of getting trolled, what are you seeing under my Current Activity? When I click on your profile Current Activity isn't listed fyi.

Lol, Tex's current activity also not showing up now. But maybe that's because he's not currently online. Still seeing Last Activity field so nothing has changed and he's not invisible just yet, if I'm understanding how this works.

Yeah that's what it looks like after a non-invisible user logs out.

Whatever, the man knows his T&A. I had to log out of my account and view my profile that way to confirm invisible mode is hiding my Last Activity and Current Activity info. Instead of "View your 'About Me' as seen by everyone else" there should be an option to view your profile as seen by everyone else, but that doesn't seem to exist.

BIG +1, 4 the most part

Tex,
What was your rating?

Stop worrying about your rating. Just have fun out there.

says the guy who's avatar is implying masturbation.

Fitting.