The High School Years

Apart from this past year, I think these 5 years were the ones where I spent the most time playing and working on chess, certainly in terms of improving my own game it was an integral part of my chess development.

I had moved on to high school (1987) and luckily for me our school already had 2 high school provincial representatives, one in year 13 and one in year 11. Our school team was ranked 2nd in our province for most, if not all of my high school career.

Over the 5 years of High School, I played board 3,3,4,2 and 2 if my memory serves me correctly.

I made the provincial representative high school team in year 11 as 12th board (reserve), year 12 as Board 7 and year 13 as Captain and Board 5. So 3 trips to Nationals, some great times away and mostly good memories, apart from nearly getting hit by a drunk driver / out of control car in 1991 in downtown Johannesburg. The driver turned into a bus stop at high speed thinking he was changing lanes, and he continued to roar along the footpath where 3 of us chess players were walking. We were saved by him crashing into someone’s garden
I was also involved in a training group on Saturdays for about a year where 3 or 4 of us high schoolers and one university student would get together and work on mostly openings and puzzles/tactics.

But, more importantly, I started playing chess at the Port Elizabeth Chess Club, which met in Tuesday evenings at the YMCA. Being exposed to and having to compete with adults who played more than just 1 e4 was important, I realised that in order to survive and flourish I would need to expand and adapt my chess playing style, opening repertoire etc.

Over the 5 years of high school, I went from playing 1 e4 to 1 d4 for about a year, then back to 1 e4.
In response to 1 e4 I went from 1 .. e5 to playing the Sicilian Najdorf and the Caro Kann Defence before settling on the Alekhine Defence at about 16 or 17.

Against 1 d4, I went from being clueless to playing the Nimzo-Indian, the Grunfeld Defence, the Queen’s Gambit Accepted and then finally the Dutch Defence

My openings bible was Horowitz’s Chess Openings Theory and Practice and I think I read it and re read it dozens of times, trying to absorb as many opening lines from as many openings as possible.
I made a great number of chess friends during this time, many of whom as still friends today which is pretty special.

And finally, I began coaching juniors in year 13, passing on what I had learned.

What can I say about my playing strength – I had never played FIDE rated chess, and South African ratings weren’t the most accurate, so if I had to guess..

1989 – Year 11 - 1300
1990 – Year 12 - 1500
1991 – Year 13 - 1700