I'm 38 years old, married, and live and work (partner in a small
software company) in Glasgow, Scotland's largest city.
I started playing chess at age 12, then gave it up for 6 years on going
to university and discovering women and alcohol. Now I play regularly
OTB both in weekend tournaments and for my club, Cathcart, in the
Glasgow and Scottish leagues. My OTB grade is 1885.
I started to play CC about 5 years ago, initially mainly to help with
opening preparation for my OTB game, but quickly began to enjoy it for
its own benefits, and have now qualified to play in this year's Scottish
CC championships, starting January 1998. I'm the lowest-graded of the
10 players, so I've nothing to lose and can have some fun!
I detest players who use chess-playing engines to help them play CC -
for me, the game is about friendly competition between two people.
However I do think it's OK to use books and databases, as this seems to
me more in the nature of research. Consulting books as long been
accepted as an integral part of CC, and databases are, in my opinion,
simply an extension of this. There's something fundamentally different
about using a chess-playing program to check your tactics, and, for me,
takes away much of the fun to be had from this most enjoyable form of
chess.
Amici Sumus.
Mike