For those of you who don’t know me, my real name is Dave Chesser. I’m in the pic above doing push hands with Mike Martello’s excellent teacher — Wang Jie. I’ve been using the screen name “chessman” for years because it was my high school nickname.
My martial arts background has been discussed before, but here it is again in brief. I started out in tang soo do back in my hometown. I upgraded to a mixed style called Cuong Nhu in college and trained up to brown belt level. When I found my choy lay fut teacher during my sophomore year, I quickly switched over to his style and dedicated myself to practicing what he taught. I also learned wing chun, Zheng Man-qing taiji, some judo, a little nine palace baguazhang, some pigua, etc. at that time. Basically, I was a martial arts fanatic.
After university, I joined the U.S. Army. I moved around a lot and picked up what I could. I started learning baguazhang and xingyiquan in 1996. I was smitten with those practices, so after I got out of the army, I moved to Taiwan to study those and other arts. The rest is fairly well documented on the blog.
Other things may not be so well known. My bachelor degree is in philosophy with a minor in Asian Studies. When I joined the army, I became a mental health counselor (that job was never boring) and almost finished a master’s in counseling psychology. Instead, I ended up later getting a master’s degree in international relations. I specialized in national security.
I’m married to a beautiful Taiwanese woman and we have two young children — Nicholas and Rachel. As far as a career goes, I’m a freelance editor and part-time writer. I have written several high school English textbooks that have been published in Taiwan.
I hope you enjoy reading the blog as much as I enjoy writing it.
Please feel free to make comments on anything that catches your eye. I love discussing the posts with my readers.
Take care and good luck to you in your training.
Drop me a note: chessman71 “at” gmail.com
