Slightly Different

I actually got Chess for the first time in my entire life. To me chess has always been a game where you lose miserably. You just kind of make random moves and die. No fun at all. A guy in my work has been playing people. I listened to him. He said things like this.

You must control the middle four squares. Those are the most important.
You need to form pawn lines
You should leave the 3 pawns and king rook so you can have protection and castle
Chess is about having control and making your opponent react instead of act
You need to keep your lines open across the board and cut your opponents lines down

I am so sure I am going to get slaughtered but I make the first move to start the battle. I jump my middle pawn out and then start forming a pawn line from the middle. I move my horses around. I free space for my queen and both bishops to move. I form pawn lines and I have freedom of movement. I keep pressing my moves and I see him clear out a pawn from over at his kings side where he has already castled. It then forms around me I make my moves. I get my queen out. I put him 1 move from check mate. He starts sweating. He can not think of what to do. He figures all he can do is sacrifice his queen and delay the inevitable. Finally after a long time he notices that he can move a pawn up and foil my plans.

After that I kept a strong momentum but it shifted to him for a while. I traded queens with him because I figured he knew how to play them better than I did. We fought hard and in the end I accidentally stale mated him. He had 1 king left. I had a king, a bishop, and a pawn. I was trying to score with my pawn but I started moving one turn too late and could not get down. I ended up protecting my pawn with the bishop and then brought my king down but inexperience cause me to stale mate him instead of winning.

It was the most enjoyable game I have played in a LONG time. Totally awesome fun. I think I like chess now.