Played chess regularly in High School & College; got my rating up to the 2100 range (USCF) before I started grad school and no longer had time to play in tournaments. Haven't played competitively in 25 years, but still play for fun as often as I can. I was actively involved in inter-collegiate chess, and played 2nd board at the 1984 & 1985 Pan-Am team tournaments, which were the last tournaments I played.

Grew up in NYC, and played lots of blitz in Washington Square Park on weekends, and also played at the now-defunct Manhattan Chess Club until I moved away for college. Sammy Reshevsky would occasionally show up, and it was incredible to watch him play! I learned a lot about positional play just watching his games and kibitzing during the post-mortems.

There were (and still are!) literally hundreds of strong 2200+ players in the NYC area, so my lowly ~1800 rating was only good enough to qualify me as a Patzer! When I moved away to college, my rating quickly shot up into the 2100 range, which shows how strong the chess scene was in NYC back in the 1970's.