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.

I started playing chess as a kid at about the age of 8 at the school lunch time club. It wasn’t serious, and we just played chess – no coaching or anything. I didn’t play much after the age of 11, and most of my time was spent playing cricket (I was good at that!). I was beating my Dad consistently and my only remaining opponent didn’t seem willing to play chess anymore (Dad was more of a Go player anyway!).

(more…)

Hi everyone!

This is the start of a long journey, from your average club patzer to wherever the world of chess takes me – hopefully onwards and upwards!

Along the way I’ll publish my thoughts, experiences, progress, some reviews and anything else I can think of.

I’ll start by updating you with the ’story so far’ in the near future…