I had forgotten that my Christmas present to myself was this chess.com membership. A gift that keeps on giving …

I first came to this site/club/obsession about 16 years ago. I thought I was a pretty good chess player but I soon learned I was pretty bloody ordinary! Over the next few years I got to know people in other countries, made friends within the intangible community and improved remarkably at chess. I also increasing amounts of time in Forum discussions. Forum arguments is more like it: I was aflame in the Off Topic battles. Those ‘maiden aunt rules’ of “nice & friendly” were far more observed in the breech rather than in the keeping. (Yes, I know; however cliches are thus for a reason!)

Unfortunately, one of those nasty inverse-proportion laws came into play. It seemed that the more I invested in arguing, the more my chess game suffered. If I remember correctly, I was in the mid 1500s when the tipping point came. It took half a dozen years to reach my best but within a couple of years I was back below my beginning. Almost an “inverse squared proportion” effect …

timbeau01