The warrior of board 64 with 2000+ open games

Hello everybody! Friends, Happy Easter! Today I'm sharing the interview my family and I conducted with a member and friend of our community: @Damjan1989

A member of the chess.com community who has a very high level of chess and an amazing ability to play many correspondence chess games (1 to 7 days per move), open tournaments (3 days), and participates in many daily matches for various clubs (also 1 to 3 days per move).

What's surprising is that he always has more than 2,000 open games. He also plays live in all formats and is an active member socially (private messaging, forums, blogs).


Part One of the 10 question interview more Two closing questions

1. How did you discover chess? Who taught you?
- Well the discovery was when me and my brother were kids and he would always beat me, and that bothered me a bit. I was always considered by the people who knew me as someone who was a bad player this was when i was a bit younger and no one expected of me to be a good chess player.  
This motivated in me a desire to prove to them and to myself that i can actually play this game.The longer i played i the more i realized that i actually was not that bad, but i discovered also one more important thing about me and chess and that was that i had an incredible love and passion for this game.

2. What was the first tournament you won? Do you remember that feeling?
- This one is hard because i have never won an over the board tournament. And have never played one so i do not. I can only say about one situation though and that was the daily championship here on chess com and i got past the first round and the feeling was great.

3. Of all the opponents you've faced, is there one you remember with particular fondness or admiration?
- The one opponent of whom i admire the most , he was also the hardest opponent i ever had it was gm that i drew here on chess.com. In the past this particular gm was very strong when he was at his best he was more than 2500 so that feeling of drawing him i will never forget because it was incredible.

4. Which game were you most proud of, even if it wasn't perfect?
- A game in daily chess in which a won against a fide master it was great game and it was probably one of the best i have ever played.

5. What do you like most about chess?
- I love almost everything about this game, because if i did not i would stopped playing a long time ago. But the least i like is the opening because there i think i am worst .The most i like is the endgame because that is were i think i am best at. I hope that this answers were good and want to thank you both for asking them.

Second part of the interview

6. There were times when chess meant something different to you, perhaps a refuge or a special motivation. Do you remember any such moments?
- At the begining i remember being very excited . And yes it was special motivation to play chess to get lost in the 64 squares. And in meeting new friends on this site like you and your family . I remember saying to myself if had never started playing chess my life would be alot different than now. More  serious but then the exciment part would probably be gone and i would probably not been doing what i love.

7. What can you tell us about your training? What's your favorite club on 
chess.com?
- My favorite of chess com is the puzzles which tend to do almost very day. Also the articles by chess com are very useful and i have learned alot of what i know about chess by reading them. And the occasional video lesson i heard when i had diamond.

8. Did chess teach you anything that you've applied outside the club, in your daily life?
- Probably the best two things that chess has teached were discipline two not to use my free time by being empty. If am going to play more regularly then why not do it the right way and learn  about and properly play. The second one is patience i learned that if i wanted to become at least decent at it  then i must be patient.I think this has helped me in my life as well.

9. If you could give advice to someone who's just starting out, what would you say?
- I would to a person starting out practice makes perfect at least thats what helped me. Play as much as you can and as much as time allows you of course. And analyze your game after so you make sure to see where your making a mistake so you do not make it again. Read a occasional article here on chess com about chess if you can they are pretty good. And do your fair share of tactic puzzles.

10. And this question is from me, as a friend: what would you say to someone going through a tough time and looking for the strength to keep going?
- I would tell him to do what he loves doing or do what your passion is because that make you feel better and can put smile on your face which is very important. To never forget about laughter y this i think can help alot it can reduce stress and try to smile as much as possible it can do wonders for your mood i think. These were the things which helped me through my tough time. And maybe using or doing your dictionarry  maybe a am a tad oldfashioned. 
But written word can probaly also help with the emotion of a person.

Questions to close the interview

11. What physical activity do you do? Do you particularly enjoy any particular activity?
- My physical  activity i do is brisk walking. In the past i used to go to the gym but was quite a while back even before i  started to play more chess.

12. Of everything we've discussed, is there any question you wish I had asked you that I didn't? Is there anything else you'd like to add?
- Well  besides playing chess, i have another love and that is writing.

Friend! Thank you very much!

Finally, @Damjan1989 has an enormous game history (129,158), one of the largest I've seen. Assuming he's in a period of rest when he's not playing, I'd like to give a statistical calculation or estimated frequency of how often he should make moves in his games, but it's best if each of you does that.

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The King of Daily Matches in our club
The Predator of the Arenas Live Chess
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