i must have been more patient in the 20th century...

i was surfing yesterday and i stumbled back upon IECG the first correspondence place i played. man i was patient...i was looking to get a record of my "first win" or something...in the 2 years i played there (not counting forfeits) i lost 48 games and drew 2. here are the two draws

[Event "QN.1999.0.00086"]
[Site "IECG"]
[Date "1999.10.28"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Sadler, Craig"]
[Black "Bisplinghoff, Steffen"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E88"]
[WhiteElo "538"]
[BlackElo "684"]
[PlyCount "52"]
[EventDate "1999.10.28"]
[Source "IECG"]
[SourceDate "2004.12.16"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 O-O 6. Be3 e5 7. d5 c6 8. Bd3 Nfd7
9. Qd2 Nc5 10. b4 Nxd3+ 11. Qxd3 c5 12. bxc5 dxc5 13. Bxc5 Re8 14. Nge2 Nd7 15.
Be3 Qa5 16. O-O Nc5 17. Bxc5 Qxc5+ 18. Kh1 f5 19. f4 b6 20. exf5 Bxf5 21. Ne4
Bxe4 22. Qxe4 exf4 23. Qxf4 Bxa1 24. Qf7+ Kh8 25. Rxa1 Rxe2 26. Rf1 Rae8
1/2-1/2

[Event "TE.1999.P.00101"]
[Site "IECG"]
[Date "1999.11.01"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Perez, Giorgio"]
[Black "Sadler, Craig"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E84"]
[WhiteElo "1903"]
[BlackElo "547"]
[PlyCount "37"]
[EventDate "1999.11.01"]
[Source "IECG"]
[SourceDate "2004.12.16"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 O-O 6. Be3 Nc6 7. Nge2 a6 8. Qd2
Rb8 9. Bh6 b5 10. h4 e5 11. Bxg7 Kxg7 12. cxb5 axb5 13. h5 b4 14. Nd5 Nxd5 15.
exd5 Nxd4 16. hxg6 hxg6 17. Qh6+ Kf6 18. Qh4+ Kg7 19. Qh6+ 1/2-1/2

it was terrible how weak i was in most of the games...part of it was the way i "kept score". back in those days, i would keep sticky notes with the pieces written on in pencil basically in FEN. you can imagine how that would suck. i had no idea what a dark square was or a light square. some things you keep on playing somethings you don't. for instance, i played the RL back then and also the caro-irregularly, but i had some sort of fascination with the King's Indian which thankfully i gave up. in any case it was interesting...too bad i couldn't find my "first" win ;)