Blog | My First Chess Tournament

August 18, 2008

My First Chess Tournament

written by Spencer Alexander on August 18, 2008 at 03:08AM in Random

One thing I’ve been doing a lot recently is playing chess. I have been going to play chess with a group of people at my gym here in Mendoza, and have been enjoying it a lot. It has been a great connection with the Argentines, and a great way to get out and do something. Plus chess is Rock Awesome.

When the head honcho of the group announced an upcoming chess tournament, I said “heck… why not? It’ll be interesting, at the least.” So I did it.

Yesterday was the first of 5 games, and I’m proud to say that I won! When I first got to the tournament, I was in a bit of chess shock; not only was the room filled with 25 or 30 chess boards, but it was chock full of an incredibly diverse group. Players at this tournament represented every age group (old, young, middle aged) and every social group (quiet chess people, skateboard shoe wearing folk, soccer obsessed people in their adidas jump suit).

The game was 1 hour for each player, which was a huge relief for me; my Blitz skills are a bit off right now. My game ended up taking around 30 minutes for each player (an hour total).

For those of you whom play chess, here is the game. My opponent resigned after 26 or so moves:

My First Game

1. e4 e5
2. f4 exf4
3. Nf3 Nf6
4. Nc3 Nc6
5. Bc4 Bc5
6. d4 Bb6
7. Bxf4 Nh5
8. Ne2 Qe7
9. O-O Qxe4
10. Re1 O-O
11. Ng5 Qf5
12. Nxf7 Rxf7
13. Rf1 Qf6
14. Bxc7 Qe7
15. Rxf7 Qxf7
16. Bxf7+ Kxf7
17. Bxb6 axb6
18. Qf1+ Ke7
19. c3 d5
20. Nf4 Nf6
21. Re1+ Kf7
22. Nxd5 Rxa2
23. Nxb6 Ne7
24. Qc4+ Be6
25. Qxe6+Kg6
26. Qxa2