I am Secretary of Northenden Chess Club in Manchester, England.

I am from Livepoool and began playing chess when my dad bought me a chess set following the huge surge of interest in the game thanks to the 1972 World Chess Championship between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in Reykyavik.

I remember being disconsolate after returning home form primary school with my first chess set one day, setting it up at home and discovering a pawn had gone missing in action. My dad got back from work and phoned the school. The caretaker opened up for him and he went there and found the lost pawn.

At secondary school I played for all the school's teams until I was 16 and also played for the Liverpool Schools Team on a number of occasions.

Also, during this time, the English GM Tony Miles put on a simultaneous in my school and I remember being there in the library on the outside of a square of tables which ran round the edge of the room with me and 20 or so hopefuls on the outside and Tony Miles pacing around the inside pausing to make a move in front of each opponent.

I do not recall the final result. I know I lost (I went down fighting of course) and I do not doubt that GM Tony Miles won most if not all of the games, but the event is etched in my mind as a watershed moment. I had really liked chess before, I fell in love with it then.

Since those days in the 70's and early 80's I have played quite a bit of chess and always kept my hand in.

With the age of the internet I have discovered so much more.

Being Secretary of Northenden Chess Club is one of the highlights of my life.

I play to learn and have fun. I am not keen on pre-moves, do not like people abandoning games to let time run out, and I love people to be civil and agreeable.

Have a look at our club's website: https://www.northendenchessclub.com/

and check out the blog too.

Thanks for reading and happy chess!

torvagar