Pattern over panic
A chess motif and a chord progression are the same thing: shapes you have seen enough times to trust under pressure.
Two hobbies, one rhythm
I think in openings and breathe in phrases.
Chess taught me patience. Singing taught me to let go. This is a small home for both — the board, the voice, and everything they have in common.
12
Years at the board
8
Years in choirs
400+
Rated games played
30
Songs in the setlist
Chapter one
The Board
Sixty-four squares and no luck to hide behind. I started with a plastic set and a library book, and I am still chasing the same feeling: the moment a plan you saw ten moves ago finally lands.
Openings I love
The Catalan for white — patient, spacious, quietly suffocating. The Caro-Kann for black, because solid never goes out of fashion.
Favourite phase
The endgame. Few pieces, no noise, every tempo counts. It is the closest chess gets to a single sustained note.
How I train
Fifteen tactics puzzles each morning, one slow game a week, and an honest post-mortem of every loss.
Knight before king — always
Ten minutes of scales, then everything else
Chapter two
The Voice
Singing is the opposite discipline: nothing to calculate, everything to feel. In a choir you stop being a soloist and start listening harder than you sing — which, oddly, is also good chess advice.
Voice type
Comfortable mezzo range with a warm lower register — happiest in alto harmony lines that hold a choir together.
What I sing
Gospel and choral arrangements, a little jazz standard for fun, and Afro-soul ballads that let the phrasing breathe.
The warm-up
Lip trills, five-note scales, humming up the octave. Ten minutes before anything ambitious leaves my mouth.
Where they meet
A game and a song ask for the same things
Silence is structure
The pause before a move and the rest before a phrase both carry weight. Neither game rewards rushing.
Practice beats talent
Scales and tactics are the same discipline wearing different clothes — small daily reps, compounding quietly.
A normal day
The practice loop
Neither hobby improves in bursts. This is the small, unglamorous schedule that keeps both of them moving.
- 06:30TacticsFifteen puzzles, no clock pressure, full calculation before moving.
- 07:15Warm-upBreath work and scales while the kettle boils.
- 18:00Slow gameOne long game online, notated and reviewed afterwards.
- 20:00RehearsalChoir night twice a week — harmony lines and blend work.
Fancy a game — or a harmony line?
I am always up for a slow game with a post-mortem, or an extra voice at rehearsal. Leave an email and I will get back to you.