Monday, May 20, 2019

Back to the Game I Love

Whew, after long years of hiatus I was again back to playing the game I so dearly love - CHESS.  Yesterday, I had an opportunity to play at the Malabon Chess Club,  a place I am so familiar with as I lived in the nearby town Navotas for almost 5 years.  I am still active on playing online as I am an Arena International International Master (AIM) recognized by FIDE but felt so rusty over the board.

On my first game, I was paired with a small boy - whom I beat already before.  This time he was ready to kill me.  The time control was 5 minutes with 3 seconds increment.  I was so confident for a while but my complacency faded as I was, little by little, outplayed during the game.

 Photo credits: Ernie Baltazar (I was there on the left side)

My second game was as awful as the first one, but this time I was winning, however, I failed to convert and didn't see the winning combination.

After the 2nd game, I recomposed myself by taking a short walk and returned to the playing venue just in time for the next game.  I successfully won my 3rd to 6th games but again lost my seventh game to the top seed.

I was in trouble of not getting into the top 10 should I lose my next 2 important games - so I needed to be careful.  With 4 points out of 7 games, I was paired with a player with 5.5 points (there were 3 players with the same scores).  Luckily, I beat my opponent and the other 2 players with 5.5 scores lost too so I am sure that I will be paired against one of them.  Truly enough, I was paired with Josso Baldera, the father of the boy who beat me during the first round, remember?

Well, I got my vengeance as I beat the father in the last round, and guess what? All those with 5.5 points were also beaten.

God was so good to me during that day as I also got 2nd to 3rd place position!

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