Although I already was 17 years old when I first visited a chess club, I learned the rules at a much younger age. I remember that my father and me played a game from the Fisher - Spasski match that was published in a newspaper. It was during the summer or 1972 and we were on vacation in Cadzand bad. I was 10 years old at the time.
I liked the game but wasnt addicted at all. Soccer was far more important to me. I dont remember when I rediscovered chess, but when I was 16 I played it a lot with my friends. I remember how we shared our feelings when we were about to join the local chess club (Gestelse Pion in St. Michielsgestel). Kees thought we wouldnt have a change against the club players, but I was convinced that we were much stronger, and would beat them all.
In the same time (1978) I also joined a school chess club with a friend of mine (Marc). The club was run by Mostertman, who was a mathematics teacher at the time. He also gave chess lessons to the most talented players in the club. I wasn't considered one of them but managed to win the school club competition '78/'79 anyhow. I was very exited before the last game. I had to win, but my opponent, who only needed a draw, didnt seem to care much. 'Will it make you happy if you win this year's competition?' he asked me.
I confirmed and asked him what would make him happy. 'If I pass this school year' he said. I hope he managed that, but he definitely lost the game. The prize was a book: 'Ausgewahlte Partien' from Keres. It must have been my 1st or 2nd chess book. (Unfortunately it was stolen along with many other things in autumn 1983 out of the squatted flat I lived in at that time, but that's another story)
At the village chess club things went fine also. After the first half year me and my 2 friends all promoted to the first group. When I already had secured my promotion I even lost on purpose against Kees to help him to promote as well. Now, 18 years later, I find it hard to understand how I could do anything like that. It must have been my one and only game I ever lost on purpose.
Right after our promotion Marc and I had to play the club champion & the champion of the year before. The games had special interest by the other members. Surely these young rebels wouldn't beat the champs? But we both did! Altough I lost the game of the next week, in the end I won the 1978/1979 competition.
In 1980 I started to give chess lessons at pupils, until 1983, when I moved to Tilburg.
Kees didnt play chess anymore, but Marc took me to HMC, by far the strongest club in the region of Den Bosch and I knew that I was going to find my Waterloo there. I was only little above avarage there, which was a brand new experience to me. My will to win, which actually was my most important strenght, wasnt enough to beat the routine and deeper understanding of the game of the best players there (and also, of course, THEIR will to win!).
I remember a key game very well. H v.Oostrum, one of the best players there, very easily reached a completely won position against me. I was desperate, he could go for a mating attack, win a piece or anything! Or exchange all pieces and go for a very easily won pawn ending with a gigantic pawn up. I had seen it all, but couldnt do anything about it. To my surprise he immediately went for the pawn ending. He didnt even bother to search for a mate or win a few pieces. After this game I realized that my attitude towards the game was in for a change, and started to read chess books. I played a lot those days, mostly with people I learned to know on the 2 chess clubs I was at, HMC & Gestelse Pion. Nearly every day I was playing blitz. Some of them had a car, so we could visit lots of tournaments. And often I went for a ride on my moped on cold saturday mornings. But appearantly I didnt play enough, since in 1986 I joined another club, Waltoren in Boxtel, where I would stay for 3 years.
In 1987 my friends and me decided to form a team and join the regional team competition. We had to start in the lowest group, and became champion rather easily. To cheer things up a bit we sometimes turned up all in suit and tie or something. Once we all wore leather jackets. When we arrived the porter refused to let us in. It was indeed possible that we looked more like a motor gang than a chess team, but after I convinced him that we were here really just for chess he took the risk, 'All rite, you guys, take it easy here, OK?'
From 1987 until 1990 we won the group we played in every year and hence promoted every time.
My friend and team member Wil who lived in Amsterdam sometimes told me about the Grasmat. 'I'm sure you like it there! You dont have to keep your voice down and there's always music on during play. It's open until at least 6 o'clock in the morning and everyone smokes pot and gets drunk'. At the time this sounded very attractive to me, so when they organised their 1st tournament in may 1990 I left for Amsterdam to participate. I indeed liked it a lot and decided that if ever I would come to live in this city, I would surely join this club. I had no idea that already 4 months later this would come true. The club was unique and great fun. Unfortunately it was not so strong so I had to look for another one. In 1991 I joined Zukertort/Amstelveen, one of the best clubs in the land. I liked the combination. Fun at the Grasmat until 7 o'clock in the morning & real chess at Zukertort. Only thing was: Grasmat was on thursday, and Zukertort on friday... When I left Zukertort in 1994 I was faced with a problem: did I want to stay in an environment of strong players, and if so how?
Later that same year Klaas, another member of Grasmat, showed me how he played chess on the internet. I immediately fell in love with it. At the time there was only one internet club (ICS) and there were hundreds of players present, ready to play. You could find a strong opponent every minute of the day. This was of course the solution to my problem: a computer & an internet account. Unfortunately I didn't have the money, but just a few months later Antwan, an old school friend of mine, gave me an old computer & monitor. It was an XT, but it worked, and it certainly was good enough to play chess on the net with, which was in fact all I wanted. He also gave me a modem (2400b) and I immediately paid for an internet account. They assured me it would be there in 1 or 2 weeks. Naturally I checked daily, 3 or 4 times a day actually, to see if it was there yet. On a saturday morning, in februari 1995, right before I had to play a game for the championship of Amsterdam, the account was there and at last I could go on line. Unfortunately I immediately had to go to the tournament hall, but I knew that I would be back very soon. Even soner than I wanted. I played too quickly, messed up the opening moves, and resigned on the 14th move.
click here if you want to see the game. Afterwards I hurried home and spent the whole nite playing chess on the net. It indeed was fantastic!
In the first weeks I played for about 8 hours a day. It was in these days that ICS announced that they were going to charge money for their service. Since I was a brand new member I could only stay for one more month. I played hundreds of games there. I didnt have to worry long whether or not I should send them a cheque, since immediately after ICS announced to go commercial, a new non commercial server was in the make. They called themselves FICS an it was no worse than ICS, (which renamed themselves ICC) and I had a great time there as well. In the beginning I didnt know anyone there and just played a lot of games. Occasionally I chatted with my opponents or other people. Gradually this changed to exactly the other way round. As I learned to know more people there, I usually got involved in a chat immediately after I logged in, even if I just wanted to play a game. I enjoyed the chatting a lot though, and many times I logged in just to chat.
In the same year (still 1995) my Grasmat club member & friend Walter told me that he run a Dutch FICS and asked me to join the gang, which I did. I hardly visited the American FICS anymore. Because of the use of 'abusive' words like 'fuck', I had been muzzled there several times for a period of a couple of weeks. As a result of this I boycotted the server for a year, and the Dutch server (DICS) became my 'home' server. On both these servers my handle is not 'molware' but 'Chaos'.
In the beginning of 1994 I joined another chess club named ZZ. Grasmat had become so popular that the club could not host all the new people anymore so a few members of the club started another one based on the same formula. So if you want to attract a lot of new members to your club, turn on the music!
Ever since I got my internet connection I hardly participate in tournaments anymore. I don't see the point in getting up early in order to play chess in a tournament hall , when I can play it at home anytime that suits me, with music and cigars.

Click WWWDICS to see our homepage.

Or last but not least the molware homepage .

Many of my chess friends are not mentioned in this short and very incomplete chess autobiography.
One of them is Frank Steenbekkers, who's specialized in chess theory & gossip. If you have just discovered a great actress, Steen can tell you if she has posed for Playboy already, including the year and month, and how much she got paid for it. Also most of her previous relations, and if she's free at the moment. His imagination is even more phenomenal than his memory. He makes up stories so easily that at first you believe them, for the simple reason that no one can make up stories with so many details, right on the spot. He can. Together with Peter Rijkers we traded many coins for beer on friday nights in the late 80's.