Wynchesster

I work as a GIS analyst (Geographic Information Systems), but that is just my day job, which I really enjoy doing. My real passion in life is being out side either on my mountain bike, or my road bike. I mostly ride for the love of it, but I have raced and competed in a handful of 8 and 12 hour Adventure Races, as well as Sprint Triathlons and 2-Half IronMans. I am lucky in that my wife shares my passion for riding, although I prefer to be on my mountain bike, and she loves her road bike. Either way, we travel and camp all over with our friends exploring new places to ride. As athletic and competitive as I have always been in life, I was still always a member of my schools Chess clubs and teams. I was probably the only one in competitive sports in those clubs, and took my share of jabs from team-mates, but I never cared. To this day, Chess is probably the one-and-only sport that I do not mind losing in. I am very appreciative to witness great moves on the board, even if they are against me. I have loved playing chess since my grandfather started to teach me how to play around the age of 4. I instantly took a liking to the game, and I was that kid that would play anyone, at anytime. Up until the time that I went away to University, we would still play at least once a month. We never kept any kind of record or score, but I think it is safe to say that I was on the losing end a majority of the time. Sadly, he passed away during that first year that I was at school at the age of 80. I inherited the chess board that we had played on for 16 years which he owned for 30 years before that. After that, I barely played a game of chess for the next 12 years. I started University in 1994, and I found that finding anyone who wanted to play, or liked to play, very difficult. I moved around for several years taking different jobs, and basically gave up chess. No one ever wanted to play, and the Internet was not as prevalent as it is now. Thanks so much for that!