Ancient Dupes

I was cleaning out my room following high school graduation. Ah, freedom! Then I stumbled across the following fiasco from freshman year.

This was at the third round of the conference tournament, Wabonsie Valley against Neuqua Valley. My opponent clearly didn't have a clue how to play against the Dragon. I should have crushed him with 17 ...Qd3. Unfortunately I forgot about the bishop on h4...

At this point my opponent told me that my position was hopeless and I should just resign. That was true. Nonetheless, this was a serious insult to my pride, so I said no and secretly swore revenge.

At about this point we were running low on time and went into blitz mode. Of course, with his endangered king, I won (by smothered mate too, I think). Most of my teammates won as well, so Neuqua came out victorious by a wide margin.

Sure, White could have easily defended himself. We were both pretty bad at chess. But this game left a large impression on both of us: from a completely losing position, my rooks crashed through and won the day. 

This is what I love about chess - it teaches people resilience, patience, optimism. I am not sure how much I will play chess in the future, but the mindset and creative problem solving it has taught me will carry into everything I do. Long live the game of kings.