The Internet Chess Club

One thing I strongly recommend to the LDMS players is the Internet Chess Club. You can find the Internet Chess Club, or ICC, at http://www.chessclub.com/.
To register for the ICC, you go to this site, read about it, and then download the "Dasher" software to your computer. There is a free trial, or you can pay right away. For students, the fee is $29 for a full year.
The ICC Dasher is your window into the online chess world. Over 100,000 games are played each day. There's usually about 3,000 people online at any time, sitting at their computers somewhere in the world. To play, you simply ask for a game. The Dasher asks what kind of opponent you want, what color you want to play, how long of a game, etc. You submit your request and wait- usually just a few minutes- and your game begins!
After you're done with the game, you can save and/or print the notation so you can replay the game! In fact, if you EMAIL that notation to me, I can post the ACTUAL GAME here on our blog site!!! Below as an example of how a game looks when it is posted on the Internet. A very sloppy late night game I played recently... I look forward to posting our own games soon as soon as I get some notation from you!