I dont recall exactly how i was introduced to chess but my first memory of it was the night i got home, i was around 5. Something triggered it, i dont know what, but i wanted to play chess and learned that my dad could play. So, from what ever knowledge i gathered from that mystery introduction that day, i went ahead and made my own chess board from a piece of cardboard and different coloured lego pieces.
I accidentally make the board a 6x8 and asked my dad to teach me how to play. after a few games i learned my error and the next night i have fixed the board to be an 8x8 and only just had enough of the right coloured pieces of lego to make the pieces. I even used the thin blocks it was so tight.
A few months of a lego board later I was at the local swap market with my mum, who often went every Sunday morning. I saw this $5 chess board, A beveled wooden board with custom hand carved pieces. The bevel was also hand carved into a tribal pattern and the pieces were of some similar tribal style which I still don't know anything about. The board could fold in half like a briefcase. I convinced mum to buy it for me.
It was very difficult to tell some of the pieces apart from each other and i didnt know how to play chess very well so i stuck labels on the bottom of each piece so dad and I wouldnt get confused. I still have this chess set today.
After i began beating my dad he didnt want to play me anymore, but luckily we just got a bunch of new games on our PC, one of which was called MPC Battle Chess. I also still have the original cd today but its too corrupted that it doesnt read the game files anymore. Ive tried finding a copy online but with no luck.
It was such a great game, each piece was a medieval character and each different combination of capture had its own animation. the rook was a Stone castle that morphed into a rock beast, the bishops staff turned into a snake, the queen used magic, the knight was a knight, naturally. the Kings mace turned into a flail and of cource the pawn was just a spearman. it was actually very brutal now that i think about it. but that kept me entruigued and i could play for as long as i wanted. I learned about En-Passasnt and castleing from this game, something dad didnt even know about.
Many years had past and i had kind of lost interest in chess because i had no-one to play with and its not such a popular thing among kids my age. but i met my best mate when i was 10, He was a genius, should have skipped grades i reckon, but we somehow become inseparable and played chess sometimes.
during high school, the school Chaplin organized a chess club during school lunch breaks and i began going. i wasn't the best player at the time, but it re-sparked my flame i got hold of a copy of Chessmaster 2 on PlayStation. I must have played 4 hours a day for several months.
I quickly became the best player in the club and it wasn't until i brought my best mate in that i was knocked down to second. this only fueled my desire to be better and the next year i took the title for myself. my mate wasn't as into it as i was so he didn't come back the next year.
The last year that it was held i was also the champion, but i had to win against a strong opponent. his name was also Jason, and it seems over just a few months, he had basically done a Jason and gotten supremely better.
I was in a tough position, on the ropes you could say, during that championship match. i was trapped behind a wall of my own pawns at f4,g4,h4, being harassed by a well placed bishop and a queen after he cleaned the left side. not sure if i was black or white.
He focused to much on his attack, and during the tense moments i found a way to push for mate. all i needed was one tempo and a subtle move that would give me an initiative. Jason played a move that gave me the breathing space i was looking for and i jumped at it, shaking with adrenaline as i moved the piece. by now it was just us 2 and David the Chaplin supervising, 10 minutes late for class. we played a 70 minute game.. the longest game that i had ever played.
So I retained the title for a second year in a row. i took another break after that but when the new Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition came out with Joshua Waitzkin and his art of learning series i became hooked one again.
This time i learned how to use chess principles like forks and pins and such, I learned a few openings and learned stategy and tactics. developing pieces, controlling the center, endgame mechanics and everything else. My game drastically improved and my genius best mate, while still a challenge is bested most games.
One thing that has weirded me out is that i often sat at around 1500 and often would get up to 1600 in rating on chess.com many years ago, but now i am sitting around 1200. i have been playing chess for about 27 years and the last 15 i have played a game or more every day. i can feel myself finding ever more interesting moves but coming back to chess.com after a few years on chess with friends i dont see the same ratings. If anyone knows why please message me.