Nathan AbboTT
Favourite Colour: Turquoise Favourite Football Team: I don’t care as long as I don’t have to watch :) Pets: I used to have four goldfish, named after the Tweenies, but then we got a fifth, named it after the dog and it killed off all the others with fin rot! Doodles is a deadly, deadly dog. I like cats, maybe I’ll get one soon! |
Hobbies other than Chess:
Climbing, Videogames, playing the piano and assisting in the running of an assassins guild. You could ask, but I’d have to kill you! |
Marital Status:
DEFCON 5. Favourite Music Band/Singer: Tough one! Varies from day to day, but you can’t go wrong with rock or electric. Errrm, maybe David August? He does some cool, melodic techo-ish stuff that I’m enjoying at the moment. At the other end of the spectrum, maybe Black Stone Cherry for some nice, homemade Kentucky rock. Favourite Film of all time: The Shawshank Redemption; absolutely fantastic book adaption. Hot Fuzz and The Dark Knight also make my top 3. Last book read (excluding Chess): Why would I read it if it’s not about Chess? 11/22/63 by Stephen King. It was pretty good, not sure I was satisfied by the ending though! Favourite Holiday Destination: Anywhere hot! Of the places I’ve been, I liked Spain the best, but in the future I’d very much like to visit California, Japan and ‘Stralya. Now for some Chess Stuff! Excellent. When did you start playing? Properly? Around when I first went to university, so four and a bit years ago now! I did know the rules before that, but I wouldn’t say I really knew how to play. When did you first join a club? In my fourth year of university, about a year and a half ago! ‘Twas, of course, none other than the St John’s Chess Club of Norwich. Most memorable Chess Moments: I remember that my first game at the club was against Ken Ellis, and I won! Winning the N&N Rapidplay Congress U120s was pretty memorable, as was my first experience of county chess, and many other moments as well. Funniest Chess Moment: Playing blitz at Richard’s Christmas party and being offered chocolate by the mischievous Harry Hoskins. Of course, it was not actually chocolate, just a bowl of backgammon pieces! The white one I took didn’t taste particularly good. It was also pretty funny playing blitz against David Payne as he sung a series of rather colourful pub songs to the room last Christmas! Good times. Why did you become interested in chess: I got into it through youtube, strangely enough! I watch some gaming channels on youtube, and one of them, Hutch, introduced me properly to chess and from there I watched a bunch of chess youtube channels and picked up the game. What are your strong points and weak points? Tactics and speed are strong suits for me, but patience and strategy are where I fall face first at the moment. I’m working on it! Do you have a copy of your best ever win? My best win by rating over the board is against Andy Hartland of Lowestoft. I do have it! Your aims for the future: Chess or otherwise? In life, I want to travel. I’ve never left western Europe and there’s so much more of the world to see! I’ve already talked about a few holiday destinations, but Canada, Dubai, Norway, Greece, South Korea and South Africa are also on the list. In chess, I’m just trying to keep improving and pushing that rating higher! I’d be thrilled to make it to IM, but in the next year I’d settle for hitting 170 ECF and 2100 blitz on chess.com. Are you ever going to beat Harry Hoskins? Maybe. It’s really hard to win when there’s so much pressure after losing and drawing to what seems like an unstoppable force after so many times. But, word has it that he’s matched me in the Rapidplay championship, so that seems like a pretty good time to bring down the beast. What do you mean assassins guild? I warned y |