Tuesday 8 November 2022

I think I have turned 40 (as a chessplayer)

 I'm pretty sure my 40th anniversary as a tournament chess player is coming up, in a few days. Unfortunately my first events were 'Allegro' tournaments, and so I don't have game scores. 

What I do remember is turning up to the Woden Chess Club towards the end of 1982. On the first night there was an interclub event taking place, so I just played casual games, which I lost quite badly.

The next week they started an Allegro event, which was 4 rounds a night with a time limit of G/15m. I started off with 0/8 but eventually recovered to finish on 4/15. Combing through back issues of the Canberra Times, it appears that this event started on the 9th or possibly the 16th of November. 

As the format was a time handicap event, it might be said that wasn't a real tournament, and if so, the 1982 ACT Junior Championship would then be my first proper tournament. After that it was a slow climb (last in the 1983 Australian Junior), but certainly an enjoyable one.


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