I Won My First Chess Tournament!

All my life, I’d heard about chess and knew it was a popular board game, but for some reason, I was never interested. I can’t give a specific reason why—just like I’ve never felt compelled to understand why people enjoy bird watching or collecting different types of stones. It was just one of those things I never bothered to figure out.

Lo and behold, one day in September, I stumbled upon some people playing chess. They were kind enough to explain the basics to me as I watched, and since that day, I’ve been hooked. Since then, I’ve:

• Taken up any and every opportunity to play chess.
• Joined a local chess club.
• Created an account on Chess.com.
• Won a few matches against both real players and bots on Chess.com.

And, as of a couple of weeks ago, I won my very first chess tournament! 🎉

Although I’ve won matches online before, nothing compares to the real thing. Honestly, it was exhilarating, and I feel so proud of myself—especially because, up until that point, I had lost every single match at the club (lol).

To make myself feel even more special, let me walk you through the moves I made (as seen in the picture) to secure a checkmate.

This start off White King was on g1 square and Black Queen on h3 square, and the f3 knight was on g5. Then it plays as follows: white pawn from g2 to g3, black night check king from g5 to f3, white king moves g1 to h1. Black queen takes pawn and checkmates h3 to h2.

That said, I should point out something I need to improve next time: neither my opponent nor I recorded our moves, and we only realized this about 10 moves in. At that point, we decided to just keep going without it. Honestly, Winning this game in this tournament has been such a confidence boost, and I’m excited to keep improving my chess skills.

Have you recently discovered a new hobby or passion? Let me know in the comments!