A Bit Of History .... Or How I Got Into The England Team.
On one of my earliest visits to the Norfolk and Norwich Chess Club as a 13 year-old junior in 1974, I had the pleasure of meeting Owen Hindle for the first time. As other members of the club were proud to point out to me, Owen had had an extremely successful chess career, having been Norfolk champion on a great many occasions, and having played many times for England including playing in the Olympiad team.
It was the playing for England bit that fired my imagination! For years previously, I had watched on television as the likes of Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore had represented their country - my country! - at football, and now I had actually met a man who had done the same at chess! I immediately resolved that I would do everything in my power to become a good enough player to emulate Owen's accomplishment.
One of my wiser moves in those early days was to ask Owen what he felt was the secret that would make an aspiring youngster into a strong player, which elicited the best piece of advice that I have ever been given, which was to play through as many Master Games as I could. And from that point on, until I retired from active chess over 25 years later, barely a day passed where I did not at some stage study some GM games, despite the workload that thirty-odd correspondence chess games at one time would give me.
My immediate successes were winning the Norfolk under-15 championship in 1975 and the under-18 title two years later, but it was a switch from the Over-The Board chess to Correspondence play which happened gradually in 1978 and 1979 that was the catalyst for my rise to international level.
My initial notable achievements at the new game were back-to-back British Junior (under-21) championship titles in the 1979/81 and 1980/82 events. Following on from these, I was blooded on a high board for the Great Britain team in an International Friendly Match in 1982. I should point out here that the top players are asked to give priority to competitive international events and encouraged not to play in friendly matches, so there is plenty of room at the top of the GB team for players on the fringes of the England team.
I felt that I was about to realise the goal that I had set myself so many years previously, particularly when I got promoted to top board for the GB team in 1985, and held on to that position for the next five years. But England team after England team was announced, and each time to my great frustration, my name was missing from the list of players.
And then in 1990, I received a letter asking if I wished to be considered as a possible player for England in the 3rd North Atlantic Team Tournament. I had had similiar letters before for previous events, but had ended up disappointed due to not making the team in the end, but this time the hum on the correspondence chess grapevine sounded very promising.
After an agonising wait, I finally received the letter that I had dreamed of getting ever since I had first encountered Owen. I had been selected for my first England team on board 6 of 10. England had won the 1st and 2nd North Atlantic events, and so the signs were favourable that there was a chance of posting an impressive score. As an extra bonus, there was an opportunity to go for my first International Master norm as well, although the score required to register this on my board was 8 out of 10 - a very tall order indeed!.
Well-to cut a long story short, England won the tournament and I scored 9 out of 10. All of those games are given in the annotations section of this site (numbers 056 to 065 inclusive), and I was to remain in the England team, eventually rising to board one in the Olympiad side, until my retirement from chess in year 2000.
It was the playing for England bit that fired my imagination! For years previously, I had watched on television as the likes of Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore had represented their country - my country! - at football, and now I had actually met a man who had done the same at chess! I immediately resolved that I would do everything in my power to become a good enough player to emulate Owen's accomplishment.
One of my wiser moves in those early days was to ask Owen what he felt was the secret that would make an aspiring youngster into a strong player, which elicited the best piece of advice that I have ever been given, which was to play through as many Master Games as I could. And from that point on, until I retired from active chess over 25 years later, barely a day passed where I did not at some stage study some GM games, despite the workload that thirty-odd correspondence chess games at one time would give me.
My immediate successes were winning the Norfolk under-15 championship in 1975 and the under-18 title two years later, but it was a switch from the Over-The Board chess to Correspondence play which happened gradually in 1978 and 1979 that was the catalyst for my rise to international level.
My initial notable achievements at the new game were back-to-back British Junior (under-21) championship titles in the 1979/81 and 1980/82 events. Following on from these, I was blooded on a high board for the Great Britain team in an International Friendly Match in 1982. I should point out here that the top players are asked to give priority to competitive international events and encouraged not to play in friendly matches, so there is plenty of room at the top of the GB team for players on the fringes of the England team.
I felt that I was about to realise the goal that I had set myself so many years previously, particularly when I got promoted to top board for the GB team in 1985, and held on to that position for the next five years. But England team after England team was announced, and each time to my great frustration, my name was missing from the list of players.
And then in 1990, I received a letter asking if I wished to be considered as a possible player for England in the 3rd North Atlantic Team Tournament. I had had similiar letters before for previous events, but had ended up disappointed due to not making the team in the end, but this time the hum on the correspondence chess grapevine sounded very promising.
After an agonising wait, I finally received the letter that I had dreamed of getting ever since I had first encountered Owen. I had been selected for my first England team on board 6 of 10. England had won the 1st and 2nd North Atlantic events, and so the signs were favourable that there was a chance of posting an impressive score. As an extra bonus, there was an opportunity to go for my first International Master norm as well, although the score required to register this on my board was 8 out of 10 - a very tall order indeed!.
Well-to cut a long story short, England won the tournament and I scored 9 out of 10. All of those games are given in the annotations section of this site (numbers 056 to 065 inclusive), and I was to remain in the England team, eventually rising to board one in the Olympiad side, until my retirement from chess in year 2000.