One year on - where am I now?

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Approximately one year ago I befriended Markus Schaub on social media to begin what was for me to be the start of a beautiful journey. Having started and stopped the study of countless games, I had longed to find the right game for me. One that was challenging, but also related to my personality. 

In Merrills, not only did I find the game, but the person (Markus) to help and guide me, as well as many personalities within the game that were happy to share and connect their experiences.

A year on, where am I on my journey to becoming an expert player in this game? What have been the ups and downs. What have I learned so far that could be interesting for future learners?

First and foremost my love for the game has not diminished. I have played literally every day this whole year. I can't think of a day I did not at least play a few moves on-line or against an app. I cannot think of any instance in my life, even in music where I have done that. The game has really pulled me in.

As predicted, Merrills is as challenging as I thought it would be. In fact, with every new lesson I discover more depth and the road just gets steeper. Anyone wishing to find an easy game to master will be sorely mistaken here. It has considerable depth and surely will be a challenge for even the most expert in game players.

The Merrills community has been a beautiful experience to be a part of. Markus has spent countless hours sending me lessons, videos, e mails and so much more, I will be forever grateful for this. Other top players such as Gyorgy Bandy and Ferenc Voleman have also been very approachable and helpful with my (possibly naive) questions. There are many others, including many of the players I have played against on-line on the various sites, and the incredible app developers such as Calcitem and the open-source community at Sanmill who has spent huge amounts of time making a fantastic Mill game. (More to come later there)
 
Alot of people when learning a game are curious to know how long it takes to reach the different rungs of the ladder. It is a fair question and I am as curious as anyone. I think, and hope I have lifted myself from the title of beginner. I have studied various parts of the game in quite some depth now and have played hundreds of games in the last year. At least on the correspondence sites I play on I am definitely in the top half of players and in some cases quite a bit further up than that.
 
Having said that, in faster games - for example 5 or 10 minute matches I would still consider myself a beginner. I am not accustomed to thinking fast and the stresses and strains that come with it. It is something I am looking forward to working on this next year. Now that I have covered simply playing a lot.

Strategical patterns I think are my strength - much of this thanks to the lessons from Markus, but tactically I feel very weak. I still do not recognize basic patterns quickly and have lost simple games because of this. It is another area to work on. End-games are another area. I simply don't have much of a clue here beyond the basics. In total I probably put in more than 300 hours into the game this year to reach this point. Not bad I feel for a full time musician.

All in all, the biggest message I would give people wanting to start the game and do well is - don't give up! I know this is a cliché, but it is true. The beginning will feel like a mountain that is impossible to climb, but slowly things will get easier. It does take a lot of time - that much is true. But, it does get better and over time if you keep at it  you will see the results.


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