Hello random name clicking person. I am a 31 year old guy based in London. I began playing chess when I was pretty small - my mum was quite a serious player and was determined that she would teach her children to play. As it happened only I carried on (I have two siblings), but I have played in a very stop-start way since then. When I was doing A-Levels I played a lot, but mostly socially. I joined a club in my early 20s and played 2 league games, lost both and then stopped. I picked it up again when I turned 30 through playing chess on Yahoo, and have slowly taken it more seriously since. This year I played the season for my work team (I am a Civil Servant), and will finally get a BCF rating. Not that it will be very impressive - if it works out at 110 I will be pleased. This probably under-represents me, as I don't often lose to players in the 100-120 range. I have spend most of the season playing against players rated 130-150 and losing. But it all makes you better..
What I find hard to fathom is how much better than me it is possible to be at this game. Don't get me wrong - I know I am a humble rabbit. But I put in time and effort, work on tactics and openings (I am improving slowly..), and still will get utterly annihilated by someone really good. There must be things that really good players see that I simply don't.. perhaps one day I will.
Anyway, thanks for listening. Perhaps I'll catch you around sometime.
Kibitzing
