My name is Thomas Hartwig, I am a 19 year old chess expert, and I have lived in Dearborn Heights, Michigan for all of my life. I was introduced to the game of chess by my father, and I began playing frequently on the Michigan tournament circuit (mostly in junior tournaments in the beginning) at about age 12, in 1994. Currently, although I am spending the summer at home, I am attending college at UMBC in Baltimore, Maryland.
At some point in my chess career, I was considered a fairly promising junior. This led to extremely rich opportunities to study chess with some of the strongest players in the country, among them Finegold, Yermolinsky, Kaidanov, and Mednis. This was primarily at chess camps for a couple of weeks, but it was invaluable nonetheless.
These days I am focusing on school first, and I have come to terms with the fact that this approach will not make me a GM. However, in my leisure time, I enjoy playing a bit and following the chess scene, which for me includes writing up my own notes to games that I find intriguing. From the beginning I would try to get these notes published in Michigan Chess, but these days I see that my state journal has no shortage of excellent material from players who are more active in Michigan than I am. Therefore, now I prefer to publish my work via this website, which gives me more flexibility and allows me to publish a much greater volume of material. If I have some chess fans out there, I hope they find this site and can get as much enjoyment from reading my notes as I have got from writing them.