On 13th September 2004 I played in my first league match. I remember it well, playing for Downend E Team away to Yate D Team. It was played in the corner of a traditional English pub, slightly smoky, not much light, oak beams, wooden tables. I was playing on board 6, the lowest board, but still felt very nervous. I had a whole load of new things to remember: the clock, the scoresheet, time controls. Fortunately I was given an easy ride in my first game, but even so the nerves didn’t leave me, not until I’d finally checkmated my opponent. I never knew 2 hours of chess could be so exhausting!

The game is published here purely as a landmark in my chess life and is admittedly of low quality, but I was pleased to get the win and not make too many mistakes along the way – perhaps I oversimplified, but winning safely was my only concern.

I look back over this game and realise that I see much more now than I did back then – at least it shows that I’ve improved over the last 3 and 1/2 years.

This entry was posted by Dave on Thursday, 6th March 2008 at 9:42 pm and is filed under My Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.