Now that I liquidated my US based business, which is searching and selling magazine and newspaper back issues, even very old ones of a few 100 years ago, I have more time to play chess again..

I started learning chess in high school in Holland, where we had special after school chess classes. Then I paused a bit and next I became a club chess player during the 1972 Spassky-Fisher world championship match.

About 25 years ago I played chess last in a serious way in Europe and achieved a national rating in the Netherlands of 2075, playing in a club team in the 2nd national league at the 1st board position. Even had a 'low' FIDE rating briefly after playing in one major open tournament in Austria, where I had the opportunity to play against a few grandmasters and masters (against them it was a meager result for me though, but I believe overall I scored 3 out of 7).

My goal here is to get sufficient practice to be able to get back into playing again in offline tournaments in the USA and Europe. My first OTB tournament is planned for July 2013. Can't wait get the extra flavor of crossing swords with and learning form live chess players. It probably won't be as pretty as playing here, since I'll have less time available, and the (for me new) faster time checks will also impact that plus my missing one eye and poor remaining vision, but I'll get used to it eventually.

peterleeflang