I love playing chess! Other than this, I also love doing painting and sketches. My favorite painters are Paul Klee, Emil Nolde, Kandinsky, Van Gough and Paul Gauguin. And I love Jazz music - particularly old Dixieland Jazz (likes of great L Armstrong!). I also was a great fan of Elvis, Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylon and Pete Sieger . Originally I'm from India, a retired person now and we all (me, my wife, my son and daughter) live in this great city of Toronto, Canada for the last thirty five years. I started playing chess roughly three years now. It is a great game and for me is a learning process still. I do spend a great deal of time in chess playing (using this site) and it is just my feeling I am making a bit of slow progress! My favorite opening is the King pawn and I try to build a kind of my own strategy though it does not work always! I still have to learn more of the other variations of openings including some new and tricky fashions. Also I 've to learn the technique of "pawn play is the soul of chess" as we all know a stronger Queen can eventually be promoted by a single pawn!