My Chess Story

… Is not the most enthralling one, but it does give hope to parents whose children seemingly abandon the game when video games and poker come around.

I started when I was 7, and my cousins taught me the completely wrong rules of the game in order to be able to win (or because they didn’t, you know, actually know the actual rules of the actual game).

“The ‘Castling’ maneuver is where you get your castle onto the opponent’s back rank and then wipe out all their pieces that are still on that rank in one turn. The game ends when your opponent loses all their pieces.”

When I was 8, my Dad taught me the moves. He didn’t teach me much else though, and he unfortunately wasn’t very good at teaching in general. As a result, I got beaten again and again at this game, with very little understanding of what I did wrong or how to improve. “You lost too many pieces”, “You have to be more careful”, he would say, but he wouldn’t really take the game that seriously.

When I was 13, I played at my middle school’s Chess Club in the UAE, just before I moved country. These people were slightly better or way better than I was at chess, and it’s here that I began to realize the game is not for the faint of heart. People were actually putting together one or two-move combinations and I began to realize there was actual thinking involved and not just “I move then you move then oops, you lose.”

When I was 14, I played my buddy at chess repeatedly and lost time after time, each time slowly getting better at the game. I didn’t know how truly consistent someone could be at this game until I played Daniel. It’s as though he had some sort of secret weapon, about which I had no idea.

When I was 19, I played a chick at a party and got instant respect for obliterating her at chess. She was at least 4 years older than I was, though, and seeing someone. Nuts.

When I was 20, my buddy Calin reintroduced me to the game and taught me the fundamentals. Not only did he teach me how to attack, blunder check, and visualize, he also got me a copy of ChessMaster 10, a learning tool that I still use to this day, since returning to the game. I continued with this until my buddy convinced me that I should be playing poker and not chess.

When I was 22, I beat my med school buddy at a chess game in a cigar lounge. It reeked of smoke, he did not want a rematch, it was not close.

When I was 30, I played chess in Costa Rica, after a Significant absence from the game, and ended up meeting people who were kind enough to pay for my dorm bed, lunch, dinner and a movie that day, since I had run out of money after losing my wallet. This re-ignited my interest in the game, and I’ve been trying hard at it ever since. “Trying hard” means different things to different people, all it means to me is that I try to do at least a few tactics exercises a day, a few pages of my book when I can, and play a game or two and learn from them when possible. When I played GM Daniel Campora Sr., one thing he mentioned to his 2100-level son while he was playing he at 3-minute blitz in Prague is that I “Get better every time”. Shrug, maybe I should play more blitz haha. One thing’s for sure, I am way more into the game now than I ever was when I was a kid, and I sincerely doubt I’ll ever put it aside again.

– Jeremy

Chess Movies

 

One of my co-directors is rated 1872 CFC and he hadn’t seen a single chess movie until a little while ago, when I nailed him to a chair and force-fed him a movie he hated. In order not to sway public opinion, I shan’t tell you which of these youtube-trailer movies it was. Here are some movies which I think every chess fan should watch once, and then decide either they’re good or they’re overly cheesy and contain way too much of a hardship/adversity theme. There are other chess movies, I just haven’t watched them yet 🙂

 

New faces last week at the Etobicoke Chess Club

We had a small but enthusiastic turnout last week at the Etobicoke Chess Club with 12 people coming out to play chess. We made some new friends at the mall, friends who we hope will return more often, and while we did not start the League of Champions yet since we were missing some regulars, I am ready to start the tournament on a moment’s notice, all the game and format etc is ready to go on an app on my phone. Below are two pictures from last Thursday.

Magnus Carlsen’s secret?

I don’t usually like to read heady chess articles that analyze games to death, in ways I can’t fully understand, but here’s an article on Magnus Carlsen’s supposed secret to winning, written by chess.com:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/magnus-carlsen-s-biggest-secret

Take a look at it, it talks a lot about pattern recognition. Many beginners who start out in this game feel like “memorization” is involved to a heavy degree. At the beginner level, I feel they couldn’t be more wrong. Concepts and patterns are a lot more prevalent at those rating levels IMHO and from what I’ve read, and learning conceptual differences between one position and the next, and learning basic patterns and a blunder-check routine, can really catapult someone’s game.

I feel this article speaks on the surface level to n00bs like me, but also has something in there for the 1700+ player who wants a deeper look at what the author is really, specifically trying to illustrate. Enjoy.

Chess This Thursday! + League of Champions!

Chess this Thursday at Woodbine Mall 530 – 9pm (or a bit later) 500 Rexdale Boulevard, ground floor between the Shoe Rack and the Ardene, round tables red chairs!

 

We are starting the Etobicoke League Championship at the ECC. The League will be an on-going swiss-paired (or something like that) multi-round one-game-per-week 15|10 tournament-style chess competition within the rails of the ECC (we are actually surrounded by rails, it’s pretty sweet) which will allow us to decide two things:

1) Who is best

2) Who deserves Lancelot (Our cardboard chess knight trophy)

The winner of the League tournament (decided in March…ish?) will have Lancelot with them at all of their League games. All League stats will be updated on a weekly basis on the blog.

But enough about that. Here’s an International Master playing a 10-year old at chess in 2010:

 

Here’s a wikipedia article about that then-10 year old:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Sevian

I saw Sam, Nazi Paikidze and a few other serious players at a tournament in St. Louis. Unfortunately, everyone was seriously serious with their games so I didn’t get to glad-hand anyone. Oh well, it’s always fun to catch a GM outside of a tournament.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_C%C3%A1mpora

Monday Monday ….

White to move, get that black king!

 

Climbing the tactics ladder … again …

Climbing the tactics ladder has never been more demoralizing since falling from the ranks of 2000s back down to 1680 through many failed post-midnight half-asleep tactics sessions. Well I’m getting my strips back, one puzzle at a time. White to move.

New Location was a huge success!

 

18 players in total, came out for chess last Thursday! Everyone had fun, we had new faces, and Woodbine mall is turning out to be a good new home for us.

More space, more options for food, no financial obligation from Woodbine for our players (nobody has to buy anything) and for some of our players, a location that’s more accessible to the northern suburbs.

I’ll be changing the poster at the old Etobicoke Chess Club second cup location, and may need to buy new boards soon. The club is getting more popular week after week, come by next week and see for yourself.

-Jeremy

Chess This Thursday!

Chess at the same place (Second Cup 265 Wincott Drive) this Thursday from 630-1015 pm. This will be our last time playing at this location, before moving to the new one!

Starting January 18th, we will be at Woodbine Mall, 500 Rexdale Blvd, Etobicoke, ON M9W 6K5 from 5 30 – 9 30 pm. We will be between the Ardene and the Shoe Rack. Here are some pictures of the new playing area for Thursday next week: