Why am I here ?
Although I learnt to play chess at an early age I never really had anyone interested in playing on a regular basis and I wasn't interested enough to try and find a local club to join. Playing against computer programs was ok, but frustrating, as I wasn't good enough to have a chance against anything but the most basic levels.
About a year ago, a friend and I started getting together on a regular basis on a Sunday evening to chat and play backgammon and one week she suggested we try a game of chess for a change. Well, it turned out that we were about the same level of (in)competence and we both enjoyed the game so chess took over from backgammon.
Now, my friend spends quite a lot of time abroad and she suggested we sign up to a chess website so that we could carry on our games. I'd already played a couple of games on the chess.com Facebook application so last October I signed us both up to chess.com (she's not the most computer literate person so I set the account up for her).
Well, I quickly became addicted to playing online whilst she spent the next three months in Kashmir with no internet connection! She came back to England for Xmas and we got in a couple of OTB games but now she's back in India and we've finally started our first game on chess.com.