Let’s cut right to it. It’s the annual CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP at my chess club. There are 43 players. After five rounds of the six-round tournament, here are the standings:
- 1st – Guy A, 5/5 (he’s far and away the best player)
- T-2nd – ME, 4/5
- T-2nd – Guy B, 4/5
- T-2nd – Guy C, 4/5
Of the 43 players, my OTB rating puts me at 21st. Naturally, everyone thinks they’re under-rated, but if I had to guess my ‘true’ rating, I’d say I’m 8-10.
- Round 1 – I played the 2nd highest rated player in the tournament and lost.
- Round 2 – I played a bad player and won.
- Round 3 – CONTROVERSY ALERT. My opponent no-showed and I got a forfeit win.
- Round 4 – I played a good player and won.
- Round 5 – I played a really good player and won.
I don’t give a shit about the forfeit. If anything the guy should be apologizing to me because I wasted an hour on a Wednesday night sitting in front of a board by myself.
The 6th and final round is Wednesday. I have white against Guy B, the #4 rated player in the tournament.
If I win, I either TIE for 1st (assuming Guy C beats Guy A which will almost certainly not happen), OR get sole 2nd (assuming Guy A beats or draws Guy C, which is much more likely).
If I draw I could still tie for 2nd, and if I lose I’ll get 3rd-5th.
Stay tuned!
When I was training for Broad Street or Eugene, I would go to sleep at night and my mind would wander about running every night. I’d think of the splits I just ran in the workout, the mileage number I just hit in the week, I’d visualize the race coming up down to the second and who I’m running against. It was fun. It was passion, as lame as that sounds.
I’ve written a few times that I enjoy these long (sometimes 3-4 hours), over the board chess games. I feel like I get in a flow-state which I can’t say for many other activities in my life. I’ve moved towards studying and learning the game as opposed to playing fast online games.
With this, and specifically after my round 5 win, I noticed the same feeling I had while I was running a lot. I was in bed thinking about chess and visualizing the same way I did about running. Just like running, I look forward now to the hard part that people don’t want to do because I know it will make me better. And it feels good to have something I’m passionate about.
I don’t want to overstate this. The dedication to chess I’ve had in recent months has paid off, but we’re talking a few hours in a given week. I’m not staying up all night hoping to become a titled player and the passion / enthusiasm swings with success. If I lost my last two games, I wouldn’t be writing this section.
But my point is that it’s nice to have something in my life that I feel passionate about, that I’m working towards and seeing progress in, no matter how trivial.
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