| 1971 | Born |
| 1976 | Got my first chess set and quickly learnt to play |
| 1979 | Played my first non-serious game in Argentina, against a 6 year old (I was 8). |
| 1980 | Started playing chess again, this time intensely, with Michael Riddell, a friend scoring 60% in regular games together. |
| 1980 | Joined the George Romney Primary School chess club. |
| 1981 | Played my first tournament series, a few tournaments held in Primary Schools. Reached the Final. |
| 1981 | Played in a team event for my Primary School against another Primary School in Barrow and we got whopped 8-1 I got the only point, we got beat by scholars mate. Their team went to the Barrow Chess Club and included David Livesey a later sparing partner. |
| 1981 | went to secondary school and played little chess the first 2 years. |
| 1983 | Got my first home computer a VIC 20, went to home computer club at the Dowdales Secondary School and there they had quite a strong chess computer program, which I played a few times and never beat. |
| 1984 | Got Sargon II chess for the Vic 20, a very basic chess program which looked 1 or 2 moves ahead. To begin with I lost against it every time. |
| 1985 | Beat Sargon II Chess a few times. |
| 1986 | Joined a chess club at Dowdales culminating in a chess tournament, a KO which I got knocked out first round in. Robert Moore, a pupil, was the strongest player. |
| 1987 | Finished secondary school and found another regular sparing partner in David Livesey, scoring about 50%. |
| 1988 | had another mini-tournament with Robert Moores, Dowdales, gang and did badly but it was abandoned without a winner. |
| 1988 | Got my second and last home computer, the Amiga and got copies of Colossus X chess and Chessmaster 2000, they were about 115 grade ECF, to begin with I lost every time. Later in 1988 I was beating the computer programs about 12% of the time, that would estimate my grade at 87 ecf. |
| 1989 | I went to University of Dundee, and I rememeber the British Championships were being held there that year. I didn't play but I got only a few friendly games in with friends. |
| 1990 | I went to my first proper chess club, The Barrow Chess Club which met in the Vickerstown Institue on Walney Island, Barrow-in-Furness. I went with David Livesey and entered my first serious tournament the Club Swiss. |
| 1991 | In my 3rd serious game I played for a county team in a minor inter county competition and won my game against Fylde and North Wales player John Aspinwall. |
| 1991 | In my 5th serious game played David Siddall a 152 BCF player and got a draw. |
| 1991 | Beat a 150 BCF player in about my 10th game., and played for my first official team event Barrow juniors vs Workington, and played a J Rodney a 110 BCF player and got a draw. |
| 1991 | Got my first ever grade of 97 BCF. |
| 1991 | Started reading books Chess Praxis and My System among other chess books. |
| 1991 | Got my first chess magazine- the BCM (British Chess Magazine), it wasnt until I took chess seriously in 2012 that I started actually reading them. |
| 1991 | Entered my first serious tournament of graded games, the Cumbria Individuals Minor Section, a tournament held over a weekend in Barrow, and finished with 0/3, i pulled out of the tourney early. |
| 1992 | Completed my first Chess Tournament finishing 3rd in the Cleveland Minor II and actually winning 28 pound odd in prize money. I later moved to Ulverston Chess Club, which held its meetings in ulverston Library, from Barrow. |
| 1993 | Met Janice Benson my chess inspiration. Was doing a degree in Physics at the University of Central Lancashire. Didnt play much chess in those years but still got in about 20 games a year. |
| 1994 | Started reading Think Like a Grandmaster and Play Like a Grandmaster two excellent books by Kotov. I bought my first dedicated chess computer (ie a board computer) Montreal and beat it a few times -it was 135 BCF about. |
| 1995 | my chess grade had risen to 135 and early in 1995 I entered a Preston Premier weekend Congress held by the Spectrum Group of chess tournies, I was in the under 175 top tournament and I finished 3rd winning 35 pounds in prize money. My score was 3.5/5. |
| 1995 | I bought my second dedicated chess computer Polgar on an Exclusive board -it cost 780 pounds and was about 170 grade I beat it only once and got a few draws out of about 1000 games played against it. |
| 1995 | Started playing David Hodgson a new sparing partner who had joined Ulverston Chess Club in 1994. Out of maybe 500 games I only lost I think it was once, but he was a strong player. |
| 1995 | I drew against a chess computer online about 180 grade in one of only two games i played against it, while at university in Preston. |
| 1996 | I entered the Cumbria Individuals county championship in the top section and finished 2nd ahead of a 177 grade Matthew Mackenzie and behind John Toothill a national master and 190 BCF. |
| 1996 | My chess grade rose to 153 BCF. |
| 1996 | I bought my first PC and with it bought Fritz 5 the chess program, I have never beaten it. I got a few draws but they must have been the settings I accidentally put it on. |
| 1996 | I played in the National Club Championships for a manchester club, the White Horse while staying in manchester, I played against Richard Bohm and lost, we played the Bolton club I think. |
| 1996 | I had my breakdown and was hospitalised for 8 months. |
| 1997 | I got chessbase 9 the chess analysis and database program in which I used to record my games and analyse them by going through games move by move looking for tourning moments in the game. |
| 1997 | My concentration had gone out the window.and my performance at chess was affected. |
| 1998 | I won my first club championship at the Ulverston Chess Club. |
| 2000 | I gave up most serious chess due to work commitments and life being so fun with Janice. |
| 2001 | Janice arranged for me to play Nigel Short in what would become a famous drubbing of him by me 11-1. I was known in that period as ICC Fischer |
| 2003 | I took up serious chess but then was hospitalised again for 8 months. This time I played chess in hospital a lot and while there bought my current dedicated chess board computer which is 210 grade. i have a 3.5/10 record against it in the past 10 games. Thats a 195 ecf performance. |
| 2005 | I played on the internet chess club for the first time for a while, my international rating was 2350 in 1997 when i last played online but it was only 1600 in 2005. |
| 2007 | I played soon to be world champion, Vishy Anand in a simultaneous charity event and paid 80 pounds to get soundly whopped losing 2 pieces in 10 moves but i had an easily to deflect mate in 1 chance. |
| 2010 | I played in my first open in a Blackpool Rapidplay and pulled out after getting 1/4. I actually managed a win not a bye. |
| 2012 | I beat Grandmaster Keith Arkell in a game online we only played two. A few weeks later at the British championships I was talking to Keith and he confirmed it was him who I beat. |
| 2012 | Finished 7th in the British Championships under 140 section with a score of 3/5. |
| 2014 | Entered my first Masters tournament at the Isle of Man in the top section. Finished next to last with 1/9, the 1 was a bye. |
| 2014 | Entered a top international rapidplay, the London Chess Classic Super Rapidplay and got a creditable 4/10 no byes. To put it into context Hikaru Nakamura won and the great Jon Speelman could manage only 7/10. |
| 2014 | Played in my first correspondence international event (for Wales) and scored a few wins. |
| 2015 | I bought a load of books and studied classical games using them, from the past. I did this for 2 years. |
| 2016 | I bought a number of fritz trainers which are a cross between a video and a computer program, they give grandmaster level of introduction to an opening, then i make notes on the second showing of the video, then i go through making my own lines using the opening books i have, picking lines from the trainers or books or computer analysis, which I perform on difficult lines. From 2016-2018 all my study has been of openings and middlegames from my mainlines, using this method. |
| 2017 | I scored my best ever score in a Major event, at the Manchester Autumn Congress in 2017 with a score of 2.5/5. |
| 2018 | I started to enter many weekenders, I struggled in many tournaments, playing some great games but not winning many games just at best getting draws. |
|
2018 |
My attempt at achieving a professional chess player role led me to pay a large sum of money to IM Alexander Battey, who proceeded to train me rigorously in chess. My performances immediately improved in tournies. One of the main books we went through was the John Nunn book Understanding the Middlegame. |
| 2018 | I scored my best ever score in a Major event, at the Manchester Summer Congress in 2018 with a score of 3/5. I had a great 3/4 in the penultimate round and met a top welsh junior in the last round who I blew a draw against. |
| 2018 | My terrible results in the Leyland Open over a period of many years led me to enter the Leyland Major. After my run of form at Leyland I felt uneasy about my chances but was pleasantly surprised as i got 2.5/6 with no byes in a really tough field. It would have been better but i had a tough last day losing both games. |
| 2018 | Got my best ever result in the Preston Congress, i got 2.5/5 in the major section. |
| 2019 | started well in the Blackpool under 155 intermediate with 1.5/2 but ended with 3 crushing loses and in minor under 145 in Preston i also got hammered 0/3 and pulled out. |
| 2019/ 2020 |
got great results the 2019/2020 season in the League scoring 50% for board 1 and 2 in the Barrow B team, I continued in the same vain with a win against Yorkshire and a draw against Lancashire in Inter-County Championships. |
| 2020 | entered Online English Blitz Championship and finished on 3.5/11 twice in qualifying tournaments in 181 and 158 places out of 224 and 186 respectively. Many titled players and top British players played. |
| 2020 | entered the world famous Golders Green Rapidplay with an online entry got an excellent score of 3/4 as a filler. Only losing to a Russian in the open section. |
| 2021 | entered the world famous Hampstead Open with an online entry got an excellent score of 1.5/5 with no bye points. |
| 2021 | Entered the Online British Championships Qualifier and came 44th with a score of 3/5 only missing qualifying for the main event, by a single point. |
| 2021 | I finished in 16th place in world famous Arena Kings Online International Tournament out of 2200 entrants |
| 2021 | Finished with a win against a 1960 elo player and a 1 pt bye to get my highest ever Open result in the Hampstead Online Open in may, 2/5 |
| 2021 | Got two wins and a bye to have 3/5 in online hampstead open June |
| 2021 | Reached a 4/5 for the first time in any Tournament in Leamington Spa 4NCL 25th Congress in the Minor section and won 150 pounds. |
| 2021 | Beat a 170 grade player for first time(in serious game) in Online British Championships Qualifiers in a 45 15 time control game. |
| 2023 | Played on the Lichess Liga event for the team Welsh Dragons which is an international online league and finished with some 2000 elo rated performances. |
| 2023 | I got a place on a 4th division team (The Anglian Avengers 2nd team) in the 4NCL League(the British and Irish League) for 3 games. Igot 1.5/3 points on board 2. |
| 2023 | Beat a 2015 ecf (equivalent to 177 grade) in an otb rated game and went on to have a 2187 performance from 7 games in a row unbeaten. |
| 2024 | An 1800 performance from 16 games in a row including a draw vs a 2134 elo ecf. from oct 23 to jan 24 |
| 2024 | First place and 6/6 from Lancaster Rapidplay u1750 inter a 2427 performance.Won 150 pounds. |