Me and Chess

I am writing this really just to talk about my experiances with chess. It's pretty much a biography, but an interesting story.

To start, my love of chess didn't really catch on until I was 13. I knew how to play chess before then because my dad taught me, but I only played now and then with my him. In grade 7, I had a friend who was in a chess club at school, and I used to go with him and we would play. Even though he played chess more then me, I beat him often by playing a highly offensive style that gave him no chance to fight back.

Eventually I joined a pre-tournament, one that was only practice for the big one coming up on May 25th. My attacking style was crushed by the more experianced players like daniel and chris. I knew I had to fine-tune my play. In order to accomplish this, I joined a chess "exploratory", which is basically just extracurricular activity in school. I learned a lot, and when I played a small tournament with 4 people in the exploratory, I won all my matches.

I was ready for the big one in May. I had altered my orignal style to a more passive one, where I waited until my opponent slipped before I jumped. This served me well in the tournament, as I tied with the #1 player daniel and gave  chris a good run for his money. I came in 3rd overall, but I was quite pleased that I had played so well. (My name is still engraved on a plaque in Riverside Education Center in Nova Scotia)

After this I had to move to New Brunswick, but I wanted to learn more about chess. I found an online chess site called gameknot.com, and I played there for some time. It kept track of ranks, and I found mine was generally in the 1300's.

I also asked for a game called Chessmaster for my birthday. It was my dad who taught me to play chess, but it was that game that taught me to play chess well. Although I doubted my choice shortly after getting it, I couldn't be more happy that I have it now. It has helped me become a much better player, and my rank on gameknot went from 1300's to 1400's. Unfortunatly, gameknot banned me simply because my dad used the same site and they thought it was me using 2 accounts. I tried to contact them, but I STILL haven't gotten a response. And that was a year ago. So, instead I found out that my new school had a chess club. But, there was only 1 person who went there, a russian student who had learned chess a while ago, and he was very good. I played him every tuesday and friday until I could beat him fairly consitently, and then the chess "club" sorta just dissolved into thin air and was never brought up again.

So at this point I had lost interest in chess for a while. I honed my skills in Star Wars battlefront and Armored Core 2, as well as badminton, which is my favourite sport. Yet, even though I stopped playing, my dad continued, on this site instead, now that gameknot had banned him too. For a while I just watched, but then dad thought that after I had not played chess for so long he could beat me. We played  a few games while camping and at home, and yet even though I had not played for months, I kept on managing to best him over and over. After some time of this, I decided to get back in the game and play online. And thats when I joined a while ago. I will say that my style of chess changed the more I learned, and it went down as well as up. For instance, I have a book by Josh Waitzkin, a strong chess player, and his style is very aggressive and dynamic. I got used to his style, but it just wasn't me, and I found that I lost more then I won when I tried his moves. Instead, I switched back to the style I play now. My advantage is tactics, and I love closed games. I take things slow and wait for my opponent to leave an opening, then I strike. It may not be the best chess style, but it is the one I am most comfortable with.

 So that's my history, in case you want to know. The only real use this could be is that I will say this to people still learning: You will have good times and bad times. Once I went on a winning streak for 9 games on gameknot, but then I lost 9 games straight after. I don't know what it is, but sometimes you just can't focus. Well, don't let the losses get you down! Trust me, you will pick yourself up again soon. Also, if you are trying to get better, you could in the process make your self worse, like me and the chess book. (Although I would like to say that josh waitzkin's book is my favourite and has helped a lot. His style of teaching chess is very good, because he tells about his own experiances, putting life into the book)