After feeling good at my skill in playing chess, I joined Chess Life, a global chess club that keeps up with your ranking among all players. They would send out a magazine on chess happenings around the world. Inside it would list chess tournaments all over and I searched for clubs near me that I could compete in a chess tournament. At the time, I lived in Arlington, TX after getting out of the Air Force. I found a club in Fort Worth that would allow non-members to play in their tournament and send scores to the Chess Life organization. I called and registered to play.
It was tournament day. I arrived and signed in. I then took a seat waiting for the tournament to start. I watched people preparing wondering what they were doing. I did not know about the study of opening play. Later I learned that they were going through different openings they would play against their opponents. I looked over the room and saw many tables set up with green and white checkered boards and vanilla and black pieces set up on them.
My first opponent was a young player who played a good game. I remember this game because some club members came over and were impressed by my position. I played a very defensive game at that time. The younger player could not find a way through my defense and I was able to gobble up his pieces and eventually he resigned. My first game was won but the rest of my games were not as impressive. I was put up against tougher opponents to find my true level of play. It was a great learning experience though. I enjoyed it.
No comments:
Post a Comment