Grow With Chess Blog

Let me start by introducing myself, my name is John Evans. I live in Orlando Florida and I love it here. I went to the University of Central Florida where I graduated with a double major. I have a B.S in Computer Engineering and B.S in Liberal Arts Studies. After graduating from school I started my career as a software engineer and I've been fortunate enough to be doing that for last nine years.

Now that we have gotten through with the boring stuff here's a few things you won't find on my resume. I was born in Honduras . My mother is Honduran and my father is an American. I moved to America when I was two years old so I don't speak Spanish or remember very much about there. I grew up all over the country, from Arizona to Florida . My mom was a dedicated homemaker and my father loved working outdoors so he had his own construction company and commercial fishing boat before he retired several years ago.

Once you get to know me you will see that I am constantly trying to learn something new. That's why I have too many interests to remember or list here, but I'll list a few of the big ones. Let's start with chess. Chess is obviously important to me or I wouldn't have started this site, but since it is so important I'll dedicate some space to it at the end. My other big interest is astronomy. I've been an amateur astronomer for years. I use a Meade LXD 55 reflector. Sounds impressive don't it? Astronomy, much like chess, is about patience. You can spend an entire evening without a good view of anything, but when you catch even a short glimpse of Jupiter or Saturn the sight is honestly breath taking. The last few things that occupy my free time, not necessarily in this order, are reading, music, computer games, and watching sports. With all these things needing attention I have very little time for much else.

My Chess Career.....

My chess career is long and distinguished, well its definitely long. I started playing chess when I was about six. That means I've been playing for almost 30 years. I love playing tournaments and I'm fortunate to live in a city where there is plenty of chess activities. Unfortunately, my schedule prohibits me from going to as many tournaments as I would like so I play a couple games everyday online. If you find yourself on the US Chess Live server look for PapaDragon (that's me) and I'll gladly play you a game.

I believed so strongly in chess, even in my youth, that I started chess clubs in my high school and college. I organized tournaments and even created a program to teach chess at the Boys and Girls Club. I knew even back then that I had discovered something very special and I needed to share it.