Looking for some intermediate advice

[Andy B]

When I was a student at Boston U (1986-90), there was a guy who played chess in front of the Au Bon Pain on Harvard Square and took on all comers for $2 a game. You got ten minutes and he got five. Someone who was accomplished might get five minutes to his four. I believe that this was his only means of support. Of course, this might be worse than no money, because he might have been better off making sandwiches in the Au Bon Pain.