Dave's Chess Page
I was a very late starter to chess. I only learned how to move the pieces from watching the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match on PBS. I will never forget that Fischer clinched the word title on my 16th birthday, Sept 1. I had still not played a rated game by my 16th birthday , by which time players like Fischer and Gary Kasparov were already grandmasters! But once I got into it, I was hooked. In less than a year, I became first board for my high school team as a senior and finished with the second best score in the County league. I joined the United States chess Federation (USCF) in 1973 when I played my first rated game.
I stopped playing throughout most of college, but picked up the game again in earnest in 1978. At that time I was lucky enough to be under the tutelage of two of the great teachers anywhere, the late Edgar Mccormick and my great friend Scott Massey,a life master. I learned from every game I played, especially the losses, and moved up to become a candidate master by 1981.
I then curtailed my over the board activities and concentrated on playing Postal chess, where I
almost became a master with a 2168 rating. I then severely cut back on chess when I became a parent, but rediscovered it in 1996 by joining the addictive Internet Chess club(ICC). If you love chess, you probably already know about this place, but if you have never tried it, check it out at your own risk!
The club is much more than just a place to play chess any time of day . I also keep in touch with friends in faraway places including my good friend Mark Pinto of San Francisco who runs the Mechanics Chess Club and is a life master in his own right.
Perhaps there has never been a better marriage than chess and the Internet. For just a sampling of the vast resources, try this hyperlink; chesslinks.