My Most Memorable Game

Here I was, just 17 years old, less than 2 years into my short chess career, and I found myself facing off against a master in the 3rd round of the NorCal Scholastic K-12 Chess Championships. To say the least, I was nervous, terrified, excited, and ready to dig in for the battle of my life.

I had won my previous 2 games which is why I had now jumped up to board #7 and found myself sitting across from Jennie Frenklakh, a lady master and only 15 years old! Her anxious father could be seen not too far off waiting for his chess prodigy's next round match to start.

For some reason my confidence was running high. I had been studying countless hours over the last few weeks, and felt like I was playing really strong chess lately. It would take every ounce of effort, skill, and maybe even some luck to pull off an upset of this nature though. My rating was only 1463 and hers was an astonishing 2147! The chances of beating a player with a 700 point rating advantage in chess is...well...NOT GOOD.

Well, I hope you enjoy the game!

After the game, my whole high school team was so excited and it was hugs all around. Unfortunately I had dashed Jennie's hopes at a 1st place finish and she felt so disappointed in her loss that she started to cry. (Hey, she was only 15.) I actually felt really awful once I saw that, and later that night at the mall as we talked about the game, I made a comment, "Yeah..but I hate when I make girls cry." and my coach just thought it was so funny that he went and had a custom shirt made that very moment with that quote on the back.

Yes..indeed, my most memorable game!

(I went on to play on Board #4 in the next round against ANOTHER master, Vinay Bhat. It was also a great game, but I went into a king and pawn endgame down a pawn and lost. In the 5th and final round I played against "Zak", rated 2056, and lost again, and finished the tournament with a score of 3-2, but was the ONLY player in the tournament to play 3 players over 2000!)