One of the most enjoyable chess events I’ve taken part in: the Pro-Business Cup preceding the 2013 London Chess Classic. I played as a team with Daniel Lindner representing Barclays Bank. Each member played moves alternately and there was no consulting allowed! Here we take on World no 5 Fabiano Caruana and his partner Fabio Buanne representing Orange.

In the final, we defeated the strong British pairing of GM David Howell (British No.2) and IM Ali Mortazavi in a thrilling game. Daniel and I seemed to be on the same wavelength all the way – we navigated some tricky tactics extremely confidently!

Receiving the Pro-Business Winner’s Trophy from IM Laurence Trent

Only a half hour from disaster! My first game against Scottish GM Jonathan Rowson was just the start I didn’t want in the London Classic as I converted a clearly better position into a bad loss!

A Nimzo-Indian against one of the World’s greats, former World Champion and current World No.2 Vladimir Kramnik. The game ended in a draw.

Psyching myself up for the last game against another Russian great, seven-time Russian champion Peter Svidler. I needed to win to qualify for the knockout stages but only managed a draw despite a promising opening.

Blitz fun at John Nunn’s 60th birthday blitz bash! Here I take on former World Top 10 player and 4-times US Champion Yasser Seirawan.

I was the only player to take half a point from World No.6 Hikaru Nakamura in the London Chess Classic as he rampaged to a winning score 9,5/10. But it was so close – I played beautifully to reach an ending 2 pawns up but failed to convert in the face of Hikaru’s fantastic blitz technique in the final stages!

The photo was taken halfway up Arthur’s Seat after we’d taken part in the Edinburgh Blitz tournament of 2014 which I managed to win. Natasha’s son Oscar was already at the top. The “Chess for Life” oldies took a little longer!

A letter to my grandfather, a little before Christmas 1981. I thought that grandfathers could do everything. I never thought that he’d have to teach himself first in order to teach me! He was a super grandfather!

I really should have grown up playing like Karpov…

Working with my first chess coach, Steve Giddins. Steve gave me a fantastic grounding in the chess classics. He came to every lesson with a sheet of A4, on which he’d written down model games and explained typical themes. I’ve been working like that ever since. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a photo of another player who helped me a lot around that time, another Medway player called John Smith. He just played games against me, and if he was getting an advantage, then he would turn the board around and see whether I could finish it off!

There it is – the Queen’s Indian! I think I was looking at the 4.a3 system at that time!

Looking a little dubious and no wonder – I never ever played this system!

The English junior team comprising of (from left to right) me, Michael Hennigan, Ali Mortazavi and Michael Adams carried all before them. I seem to remember that I made the lowest score of all on board 4 – 4,5/7 – but as you can see, I was a bit younger than the rest!

Black against GM Nigel Davies, a little confused by his move orders in the English opening!

Playing against chess computers was a regular part of my training regime as a kid. I’m playing here against one of the Mephisto computers, and I can’t say I’m thrilled by my opening strategy! In the background, you can see an Atari computer and printer which my parents were able to purchase thanks to sponsorship that Ray Keene organised for me after I achieved my first IM norm at the age of 13.

Analysing a Modern together with Chris Howell (left) and Dharshan Kumaran (front). Dharshan was a fantastically talented player who became a GM with a minimal level of effort that I still envy to this day! He’s now a specialist in cognitive neuroscience. Chris is the best second I’ve ever had at a tournament. I was rather dodgy during the whole tournament, and lost a crucial game late on in the tournament, but Chris’ enthusiasm got me up and running again. Without him, I would never have got a silver medal behind one of our role models in “Chess for Life”, Sergei Tiviakov!

How do chess players build up their stamina to emerge in peak condition for a long gruelling tournament? I was kind of old school in that regard. Here I am preparing for the next challenge with my Mum at the Mama Mia Italian restaurant. My Mum took the photo after I’d asked for no whipped cream “because I was on a diet”.