The Ancient Master (Cont.)

Hey guys!

It's been a long time since I posted my last blog. I posted a story with just the prologue and chapter 1 and forgot to update my viewers.

As you guys said in my last post, you has asked me to continue the story, and I did uptill Chapter 10 right now.

Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 2: Embarrassed Myself in Front of the Whole School!

Our car reached the school just in time for breakfast. When I was getting out, Dad said, “You forgot your phone!”. That was it. I was a new student since last month so everybody would notice me all the time. You want to guess what happened? Well after Dad mentioned that, everyone was looking at me like I was nuts. I mean I was an 8th grader and we were allowed to carry our phones in school but I still didn’t understand why everyone was looking at me. There it is! The most embarrassing thing in my life happens on the first day of the second month of school. While I was getting traumatized, that’s when my friend, Joey came up to me and said that phones were no longer permitted for 8th graders. This is when my mind went blank for a second. I was so confused until I remembered that I saw an unread email from the school in my laptop and forgot to open it because I thought it wasn’t important!! “Bruh”, I thought. As I was thinking to myself, the principal had come toward me and gave me detention for bringing a phone to school today. Like, come on, it’s not my fault that I didn’t read the email. They sent that so last minute. They should have announced it before break or something. But nope, they have to give that information just now. Great! Not one of my best days right after break! But I knew I was in for some big trouble. Because the bullies are always in detention.

Chapter 3: Dreadful Detention

When I was walking in the school to reach the detention room, everyone was giving me weird looks and some were laughing at me. That was so not fair. “If they were in my shoes, they’d understand.”, I pondered to myself. Before I even opened the door to the detention room, I heard laughing, screaming, and especially trash talk. They were literally talking about the little kids they pick on so loud, that even when the classroom door is shut you could hear them! When I walked inside, people stopped everything they were doing and were just staring at me! After a few quick stares, they went back to what they were doing. I was actually kind of surprised because they didn’t even make fun of me one little bit. I was relieved and I took a seat. But boy was I wrong. After I sat in my seat, one of the really fat, big bullies, named Trey said, “You’re so skinny I think you could be TRASH!” Everyone else chuckled and started to make hilarious (not funny) jokes about me! Some of them said I stink like a skunk, others said I look so ugly that no one would like me. I wanted to ignore them but I couldn’t. They were just so, so annoying! I couldn’t stop them! They were literally laughing like pigs, monkeys, and probably even like a buffalo. That’s when I said it to them. Not softly. Like really, really loud. Then I was so scared and I was in disbelief. Why did I say that? As I was thinking, Trey came over to me and said, “What did you say, trash?” I heard my heart beating a thousand times faster than before. I knew what was going to happen. I was going to get beat up! But suddenly, Mr. Jones came in before Trey could punch me. I was saved! Mr. Jones came to tell us that detention was over, and we could return to our classes. I didn’t want them to punch me after he left, so I ran from the detention room to my classroom before they had the chance.

Chapter 4:  Chess, Chess, and Chess

After school was over, all the parents got emails about what clubs, kids in school could sign up for. Now you see, my dad is a chess whiz! He loves everything about chess and he would probably force me to join the chess club it if he has the chance. “Adir!!”, Dad calls me. Oh no! Hopefully it’s not about that chess club! I have no interest in chess. I suck at chess so much that even a beginner at chess can beat me! I come down the stairs and see my dad’s eyes beaming at the phone! “It’s definitely about the chess club.”, I thought. “Adir! You have to join the chess club!” Dad says. Great. I knew this was going to happen. “But why??!!”, I replied. “Come on! It helps in critical thinking, and how to predict the outcome. You are signing up no matter what!.” NO!!! This was not happening to me! Or was it? I don’t want to do it! But when it comes to dad, if he tells you to do it, you HAVE to do it! I mean, chess was boring and all but at least I could give it another shot. But if I still sucked after that? I am going to quit immediately after the first day of clubs. (Only if that’s possible.) None of you even know why I HATE chess! It was one of most embarrassing, traumatizing, and mortifying moments of my entire life! You see…. That’s just great! I start off with a Dhar Mann pickup line. Sorry but I watch TOO MUCH of his videos! Anyways, it all started off at a chess competition. Actually I was an intermediate in chess before and I went into the second round. There was a beginner in the second round and I was against him, but he beat me!! Everyone made fun of me and were even confused how I got into intermediate level! After that humiliating incident, I never played chess again. So now I suck at it! But I guess I’ll see tomorrow.

Chapter 5: Club Sign Up Day

Well, a few days after my dad told me about the chess club, I decided to sign up for the club! I knew I wasn’t ready but I had to give it my all!! Wait a minute! Do my eyes deceive me, or do I see my opponent that beat me in my last (really long ago) chess competition. NO WAY! THIS GUY was singing up for chess club! I was toast! My memories started coming back to me. I tried to focus on signing up but I just couldn’t! Finally, I took a big gulp and walked up there. By the time I got there, people were looking at me and laughing while they walked away. I knew I had to be strong, but with my last opponent there? Not a chance. But still I took the courage and I signed up. There were other clubs that I could sign up for that would take away my chess club time… I would seriously love that! Right…… There was no way I could do that because my dad would get to know somehow. All my life after that chess competition, I vowed to myself that I would never ever play chess again. Yet here I am signing up for the chess club like I don’t care. This just reminds of a song, “The Best Day of My Life”, except I change “best” to “worst”. Then, I had a thought that might save me from getting humiliated! I slowly walked up to the sign up sheet for chess. If there were less people, there was a chance I wouldn’t get embarrassed, if there were more people, the less chance. When I saw the sheet my mouth went from normal to an oval shape. There were almost like 50 people in the club! Oh man, oh man! I was definitely going to be miserable for that whole period.

Chapter 6: Chess Club…..

Subsequently, chess club was started. Me in chess club was like dad’s greatest gift! But to me it was just going there, sitting, and going out. I didn’t know how it would be until I actually reached the room. All of a sudden, my eyes started to widen. Everybody over there was already playing chess games. And from what I saw, they were playing like pros! I slowly walk in, feeling a little doubtful about myself as soon as I bumped into the teacher. “Oh, hello there!”, he said. “I’m Mr. Morse. Are you a part of the chess club over here?.” he asked. I nodded my head a bit slowly while looking at the chess players. “Great! You can start by playing that little boy in the corner then! Good luck!” he uttered. I started to stare at the boy in the corner. He was so confident that when I reached the table, he started to put the chess pieces on the board super FAST!! To be honest, I was just speechless! While we were starting, my opponent started to play the Caro-Kann defense! Wait… How do I even remember that?? Anyways, I thought that I was doing the right moves and I was thinking that maybe I could actually win this game. Actually, I had to win! Because, guess what? My opponent was a 5th grader!! Like that would be so lame if I couldn’t beat THIS shorty! A few minutes later, our game was coming to an end. I had two rooks, a knight, and obviously a king, while he had a queen, two bishops, and a king. There was probably a 50/50 chance I could beat him. But again he had a queen. I don’t even remember how I lost my queen in this game. How could I be so careless about the most important piece in the game! But still I tried. And lost with an unbelievable checkmate! This was not a good day. Looks like I was going back to the day where I lost against to a beginner! How disgusting!!! Ugh! I hate this club already! Wish this period was over! I was in for some more trouble because that 5th grader started bragging about how he beat an 8th grader in chess! How….how…. unfair! Time to go home, sit in a corner, and question my life existence!

Chapter 7: Practice Time!!

After a few chess club periods, I was TIRED of losing in my chess matches that I finally decided to practice. And by practice I meant by playing video games like Among Us for about 4 hours and then practicing. That would take up my whole day and would be perfect to strengthen my game techniques. But obviously the first few days I lost track of time which eventually lead to sleeping at midnight and then I started to actually take lessons from my dad and my new chess coach. I started practicing different types of openings like Scandinavian Defense, England Opening, and way more! I was starting to play just like I was before! Well… not yet. Yeah, I was getting all the openings and defenses but when it came to playing someone my mind just goes like scribbles in my brain. I just don’t know what to do. Which is why my chess coach gave me logic board games to exercise my brain daily. They all looked so BORING!! But the fact that I still needed to “up” my game was very essential. So I started with one and then a few the next day until my brain got “smart”. Not really insulting my brain that it was dumb, but I would say it got smarter. Of course, I had to take a break and visit my cousins over the weekend and have some fun! I played video games all day with them! They got pretty good at the games they were so weak at. I thought maybe I should get better than them, except I still had chess on my mind. I knew I had to concentrate so then and then, I played chess games with my dad for most of the time and played video games for just 2 hours now. And I was going to sleep at a proper time too. Only because school was tomorrow. I was just really ecstatic for tomorrow! I needed to get to chess club and show everyone my skills! And especially show that 5th grader who’s boss.

Chapter 8: Chess WHIZ!

There I was, standing in front of the club door, waiting for them to open the door for me. Technically, it was the door was locked and no one was inside, but I had very high hopes on them to open the door, and I just walk inside like a pro! Whoo! I felt really good! Confidence was just boosting in me! After 20 minutes of waiting, Mr. Morse looked at me in shock. “Why, what a nice surprise!” he said. “Tryin’ to get into that championship, huh?” he asked. I had NO IDEA what he was talking about, so instead of acting dumb, I just nodded my head and he let me into the room. I was sitting on one of the tables, setting up the pieces, and waiting for others to come. I was ready! People started rolling in, and my first opponent was a 10th grader. Looks like he already knew how bad I played, and he was already smirking. People started whispering in my ear, that I was playing one of the best players in this club. I just had to prove that I was good! The game started, and we were playing speed! Everything was going great except I got stuck in a puzzle. His queen had given check to my king and I had nothing to block it so I had to move my king. But just in the nick of time, I realized he had done a very big blunder! My pawn was attacking his queen and as soon as I captured his queen, everyone was shook. The lad had realized what he had done and resigned immediately, ultimately making ME the winner! Everyone clapped and were astonished that I won with one of the best players in the whole room! I was really proud of myself and people were cheering MY name all around the room! Even Mr. Morse joined in! That’s when things started to go downhill. After that, the 10th grader came up and said to everyone, “That was just pure luck. You wouldn’t have seen that coming unless you actually payed attention. I bet you couldn’t beat me if I rematched you.” The whole room went like “Ooooooo” The next thing I did was one of the stupidest things I did in my entire life. I did a stupid comeback saying, “Oh really? I bet that I could win again, against you in the real championship.” “Okay. May the most skilled person win.” he replied. When I reached home, I felt proud of myself but when I did a little research about that guy in my class, looks like he was a national player in the whole world. I knew the “real” troubles were going to start now…

Chapter 9: Am I Ready??

I had practiced so much for this moment that I knew I was ready. But a lot of doubts had rose in my mind. Was he more prepared than I was? Did he know tactics that could bring me to checkmate without me knowing? The tournament almost started in 15 minutes. I didn’t know how I was going to win against a professional NM, but it was worth a shot. I couldn’t back down now. The championship started and my first game was with a teen who I think didn’t know what he was doing. He was moving his pieces randomly, like it was a giveaway variant and I easily checkmated him which brought me to the next game against a grandpa. Now he used some tactics against me but it couldn’t fool me and I won the game. I prepared with tactics no one knew and also knew brilliant moves that could make my opponent resign. I had passed the preliminary round and was onto the semi-finals. Oh great!! As expected, I saw the 10th grader NM. That wasn’t good. That means if I won the semi-finals I would go against him. I played my game furiously trying to win as my opponent was hard to crack. He was even doing weird trash talk! Like stop that and play the game opponent! Since he was caught up in his trash talk, he wasn’t focusing on the game and it led to an easy checkmate. Now it was time for me to actually think. I went into the finals and just when starting to see what tactics I could use, the host announced, “Adir Erben and Jack Karlson, please come take your seats.” We both took our seats and stared at each other aggressively. He had a smirk on his face, already beaming with pride, thinking he would win by starting his strategy of trash talk. Honestly it was pretty irritating, but even with his trash talk, he was putting up with my moves and giving back good, quick threatening moves. That’s when I was stuck. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to be smart or was he doing blunders I couldn’t see. I had my answer. I could see me checkmating him in just a few moves because looks like he missed a fork. My knight was going to fork his queen and king. I did the move and he had realized that he had blundered once again, resigning making me the winner of the game and the championship.

Chapter 10: End of 8th Grade and New Admissions

Before I knew it, 8th grade was over, and I was pretty popular considering the fact that I beat one of the national chess players in our school. Even the bullies like Trey were being extra nice to me. I was finally getting respect. That’s when the decisions at home made me rethink my life choices. Looks like right after the chess championship I won, beating an NM, I was already getting different kinds of school choices and scholarships. I had to think if it was worth staying in my school or was it worth going to a new school. My mom was all in it for the money, she was surprised that I would go into different schools which offered crazy amounts of money. Like one of them offered at least $5,000! My dad was only looking at how good the school was.. While looking at the various schools I could be able to join, I found a school called, “The Old School of Chess.” Now it looked very unrealistic in the picture and it just didn’t make sense for me to join a chess school. I needed to find a job and get money with that. But my dad insisted on it. He said, “Maybe you winning the championship, was a sign for you to join a chess school.” Maybe this is what you are meant to be.” I didn’t plan on that, and I said I would think about the different choices and let them know. There were many great choices to choose from like the schools for talented and gifted, or even international academies. I kept thinking about Old School of Chess. What if I was meant to be a national chess player just like dad said… What I the universe was calling me to do it… By the end of summer break, I knew what school I had to go to. The Old School of Chess was calling my name. Although it was in California and I lived in Texas. It was no big deal for me. I had to face my challenges. Fortunately, I could finish 12th grade and play chess at the same time which was a great opportunity for me in the school. Soon, I was off to California and I was pretty nervous and excited at the same time. Even though, I would miss my old school, I would surely enjoy my new school as well.

For Chapter 1, look at my last blog and tell me what you think about it in the comment below! Look forward to them! : )