It was my first chess tournament, I was in kindergarten at the time and I had just joined my school’s chess team. Although it was almost eleven years ago, I remember a specific game in that tournament that motivated me to improve my rating and start playing chess at a competitive level. I had just one my last game and with the high of my last win, I went to check the pairings for the next round. My ecstatic face slowly turned blue as I found that I was playing a player that was 300 points higher than me. I slowly walked to my board with butterflies in my stomach and a feeling of unsureness. However, amid this unsureness, I told myself to just play the game and let what happens on the board dictate the result. The game went on and I continued to defend my ground, thwarting any threats or tactics from my opponent. Reaching the endgame, I noticed that I had a pawn that I could use to promote into a queen. After successfully promoting and checkmating my opponent, the feeling of beating my higher-rated opponent by just playing the game was a feeling I had never felt before.
Although this win was the start of my journey in competitive chess, unfortunately, I had very few of these moments throughout my journey. The most important that I've learned through playing competitive chess is persistence. After reaching a certain level, it was very hard for me to improve rating-wise even though I was doing all the right things: practicing tactics, studying middle game strategies, and running through different endgame situations. I had reached the point of frustration that I wanted to quit, I had little to no progress and every time I went to a tournament I would lose rating points instead of gain more. At the point of giving up, I had a small win in a casual game at a chess camp. For some reason, this win had motivated me to go back into it with a new sense of vigor.
Looking back, I had some of the best times of my life and met the brightest, closest friends through playing competitive chess. The one thing that I wish I experienced is getting to know more girls who had the same interest in chess as I did. Unfortunately, looking back I can’t even name one other girl that played competitive chess along with me. I wish that in the future this reality changes and more girls find their interest in playing chess.
Komentarze