Have dabbled with chess since the 80s when my dad brought home a CHESS CHALLENGER machine. That was very cool at the time, punching in the moves and seeing the computer's response on the red LED display.

Many years later I made my own board using LEDs to light it up and also charge some glow-in- -the-dark pieces:

I was probably the worst player at school chess club in the early 90s, not bad tactically but lacking any strategy or opening/end game knowledge. However, I then went home and played a lot of BATTLE CHESS on my Amiga 500 computer (great animations for the time!) which was great fun, even if I didn't improve my chess that much.

Rediscovered chess again in mid 00s and continued to play very occasionally, casually until becoming happily obsessed with it in 2019 and determined to make some real progress.

Prefer the deep-thinking chess of daily games but am also looking to improve at fast chess too, in time. My favourite aspect of chess is mid-game tactical battles and my favourite players are Alexei Shirov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

I have had coaching with James Coleman who is a great player and game analyst, very knowledgeable and helpful around all aspects of the game, and quick to respond to questions. Check him out: https://www.chess.com/member/jamescoleman

Shirov is awesome!

runbanjorun