About Me

Me and Games

I love boardgames, having a good number (which my niece describes as obsessive): my favorite of which is chess. That love lead me to be the school chess teacher at our grade school, and to start this blog.

I am not an expert at games. I have always loved games, though I had not played regularly in years. I got back into the hobby at the end of 2007. There are those who know far more than me. I hope that my lack of expertise means I can provide information for those who want to play more casually, or are just getting into the hobby.

I have a monthly board gaming group that started in September 2008; it's hard to believe we are still going.  We have had as few as three players at the beginning and as many as twelve recently; it is going strong.  Favorite games for the group include Carcassonne and Acquire.

My game collection can be viewed at my profile on BoardGameGeek.  I can be reached there or at sofrankly.blog@gmail.com.

Me and Chess

My first chess set  was literally out of a box of breakfast cereal.  My brother, who is 15 years older than I am, taught me to play.  He was my most consistent opponent - until I started beating him.

My seventh grade teacher introduced me to hex-and-counter wargames, and really started my chess “habit”.  He introduced me to chess books, and the concept of actually getting better by studying!  At that point I really grew to love the game.  Part of that was the fact that, as a socially awkward kid, actually had a skill that earned me respect among my peers.

I played a lot of chess once out of college: club chess, postal chess and at lunch at the office.  I still play a lot at chess.com, and In February 2009 I started our school’s chess club. It grew to as many as 20 children before it dropped off.  We stopped in 2014.


Frank