Introduction Part 3: California Dreamin'

I moved to California in August 2002 but neglected chess for some time, not playing in any tournaments, until I found the Paso Robles Chess Club in 2003 which was about 45 minutes away. I got to know the club's President, Dennis Steele, a very pleasant but curious character who would later run for Governor of Vermont. I stayed over at Dennis' house after helping him with a scholastic tournament and he showed me the early work he had done on a new site he was launching called Chess Maniac.

Another interesting character I came across was Warren Williamson, who mostly played in San Luis Obispo (which I had also begun to attend, albeit infrequently) but also played in Paso Robles from time to time. We travelled together to my first ever tournament in the U.S., the Central California Chess Congress in Stockton. Warren was rated around 1900 at the time so had to enter the Open section, whereas I was unrated and so played in the lower section.

Despite his rather distracting habit of bringing his own kettle with which to brew tea during games, Warren was a very nice and sporting player who I looked up to in my early chess days in California. He was good at blitz, had a keen eye for tactics, and had previously been an expert with a 2000 rating. This was something that seemed a long way off for me and I was very impressed to meet somebody with such a high rating!


Paso Robles Winter Open, 2004. I am in the bottom left,
engrossed in thought against expert Remy Le.

The Central California Chess Congress turned out to be a successful proving ground and I finished tied for second place in my section. However, the player who actually finished first was ineligible for some reason (I forget why) and I won the trophy courtesy of a playoff against the other people who I had tied with. This first tournament gave me a provisional rating of 1619.

After this initial success, I continued to play in Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo but did not play any rated games for nearly a year. In early 2004, the Paso Robles Chess Club held its first ever tournament, the Winter Open, and I duly signed up. The tournament was a big success for me as I tied for first and had my first draw against an expert, an exchange student named Remy Le. He wasn't best pleased about conceding the draw and naturally had to point out the multitude of ways he could have won but for his carelessness. I won my other three games to finish with 3.5/4. Also tied for first was Randy Hough who, although I didn't know it yet, would become a friend and one of my regular opponents in Southern California.