Black and White Squares

I had been playing chess for at least ten years when I finally decided to participate in a real tournament, not the ones I was used to over the internet.

My final days in school were drawing near so quickly. I felt like I had missed out on a lot in all my years at the university, and so I thought to make amends and explore other things that weren't academic.

The school chess club Of course, the school always had it, but I was just considering it for the first time in my final year. And it was because of the tournament.

There could only be a limited number of people chosen to participate in the tournament, however. And there needed to be a selection process—an in-house tournament to select them.

Thankfully, I had been really active with chess around that time, and so I was pumped to participate. What I didn't expect, however, was that I was going to play so many rounds with different people.

I knew that I needed to win as much as I could in order to qualify, and so I became very serious. I became more serious than I would be over the internet with other players from around the globe.

The first game happened, and I won. The second followed, and I won as well. Each game lasted about twenty minutes, or maybe even more. And these guys were not there to lose as well. With each move I made and every combination I thought of, I had to put in a keen effort to be as accurate as I could be each time. One wrong move, and that could mean the end of the game.

After the third or fourth game, I needed to cool off and relax. It was intense playing back-to-back games with strong players. And after that break and each game, I kept having to take breaks.

We were all in a big room on a round table, and so I had a lot of players around me who were just in my sight all the time. They were all seeing me, too. Seven games played flawlessly, and that was me that some of them were looking at me for. They wondered who this new guy came from to be going unbeated so strongly.

I met someone at that in-house tournament. It was the guy who beat me in chess with some very weird moves that were unfamiliar to me. There was a friendly chess match between him and his client that year.

This time, I knew chess better and was doing pretty well, so I was confident that I would win some games with him this time. He had also been keeping flawless like myself. When the finals came, I was put up against him.

"Finally, my chance to redeem myself." I said to myself when we were about to start the game.

The first few moves were very solid. But not long afterwards, I flopped. He saw it, and then he took advantage. There was no way to continue after the blunder that I had made. And then I resigned.

I didn't make it to the final team eventually. At some point, I realised that it clashed terribly with one of the programmes that I had to attend. So I stepped aside.

The whole chess tournament was my first. And it wasn't even the main one. The experience was very fulfilling, doing it with other people. I no longer play chess as much as before, and so the likelihood of being in a tournament again is very unlikely.