Introduction

I started playing chess when several uncles of mine in Houston, Texas taught me the moves when I was about seven or eight. I'd see them each summer when my parents shuffled me off on an annual tour of relations and during my time in Houston we'd play. Sometime around age 12 or so something "clicked" and I took to the game and began regularly beating my uncles with ease...

During my freshman year in at Roswell High School (NM) one of the teachers (Dr. David D. Archer) began an after hours "Chess and Karate" class (Chess Boxing is nothing new). We formed a team and took home one of the trophies at the regional much to the chagrin of several other established chess programs. We also played in the NM Junior Championships held in Albuquerque that year (1978) where I lost the first place game in my section and finished eighth.

That summer I again made my rounds of our relations (the uncles found other things to do when they saw I had a chess board, which was often) and followed the Karpov Korchnoi battle. I was devastated when Korchnoi succumbed to Karpov and his psychic staring, yogurt bearing contingent.

I started a family early on and forgot about chess except for playing a small "Chess Challenger Seven" I purchased at Sears in late 1978. It was destroyed in 1985 when my younger son discovered it could be used as a weapon against his older brother...

In the mid-Eighties while in college I caught the bug again. I started back playing tournament chess, got club TD certified, and started helping run and running tournaments as well as founding a college chess club.

In late 1987 we moved to El Paso where I played and ran a few tournaments, but by the early Nineties my work schedule and family commitments precluded more that sporadic chess interest.

Enter the Internet! The emergence of ICS again perked my chess interest. By 2001 I was playing on the ill-fated USChessLive and on FICS. In 2004 I gave in and bought an ICC membership. Then ICC started offering CC games. I played several events and then the guy that was organizing on ICC disappeared. But the idea of playing CC without all the book keeping appealed to me. This January I re-signed up for CC games on ICC as well as registering with ICCF.

ICCF has a great web server. You simply log on, go to your event, make your move on the chess board, and then wait for your opponent. ICC is a bit more complicated. If you play there send "dro" a message if you can't figure out the protocol.

I'm using ChessPad to keep track of my games on both servers. I'm sure someone has a better system, but ChessPad works for me. I have six games going on ICCF and six on ICC. As they are ready to be published I'll put'em up.