Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Chess Diary - Part 2

Day 3, Round 4:

I went in for today's game full of energy, as I was overjoyed with both the results yesterday. I relaxed a lot through the day and reached the venue just five minutes before time. I straightaway rushed to check the pairings.

Table 67:Preetika Tayal vs Jayant Shekhar

This is what was written on the board. Hmm.. so for the first time in my life I'll be playing against a girl.. good enough! I have always believed that girls seriously lack intellect and I thought I would have a pretty decent game. However, I had missed one thing, i.e. her International rating, which was 1857. I have beaten players with 1900+ rating but I cannot treat it as my par rating right now so I knew that she would be a tough opponent. And for those who would think that I started thinking about "other things" the moment I saw a girl's name need to think again. The fact is that every participant pays a minimum of Rs 1500 as entry fee for this tournament and there is far too much at stake for me so I could not afford to get distracted.

The girl has just entered the 10th standard in APJ, Pitampura and after the first 10 moves or so, I was surprisingly very happy with my position. I had to play the black pieces and my opening is weak. For a change, it was me who was attacking her and she spent whole of the first part of the game defending.

I was starting to tire after the 20th move and that is when I made a silly mistake, which put me down a full piece,i.e. 3 points. And after that it just got worse and I resigned the game on 26th move. It was a good lesson for me and I repeated a mistake pointed out by my friend cum coach Akram Baig, i.e. I do not castle.

I hope I will not repeat this mistake for the games now onwards and I cannot afford to make mistakes like this any more.

However, it's not just about chess these days
I was really sad as I shook hands with my opponent and was walking out of the playing hall, when I walked across table no 109. A girl,(name removed coz it didn't go down well with few ppl) ,was playing her game with a boy having a good rating and she had an advantage in the game. Now, if at all you are thinking as to how I knew the name of the girl, read on to get the answer. In these tournaments, a list is put up outside the playing hall, listing clearly the name of the players with their ratings, points and the table numbers.

However, that did not change my disappointment and I decided to head back to the metro station and then to home. My misfortune didn't relent there either and as I entered the platform, a train left. I checked the information bar and found that the next train would be after 4 minutes, which is a long time, by metro standards. I was roaming to and fro on the station and the usual "bird watching" activity that one is expected to undergo in such a situation did not attract me, as I was far too disappointed after losing the game. Just as I turned back, I found the girl of table 109 on the same station! I went to her to find out about the result of the game. I straightaway walked across her, she recognized me and we started talking about our games, our standings, our points and all that. The game of chess is such that you can go on and on discussing about it and you would not finish.The initial 4 minute wait was now reduced to none and the announcement for the train's arrival broke the conversation for a minute.

So, what about you?Are you in school or college? That question hit me like anything. Here I am, 3 months away from being an engineer and she still doubts if I am a school student!! I attributed this to the unique quality of brainlessness that only a girl can possess and answered in a somewhat stern voice, "I will complete my engineering in June." This answer had probably the same effect on her that her question had on me and she wasted no time in cutting her tongue between her teeth for a moment. Then the unwantable happened.. Rajiv Chowk station was there and she got down. I could have taken the same route but I resisted and we exchanged best of luck wishes before parting.

7 comments:

  1. a)protocol : u dont take names in frivolity and go around calling people "brainless". thats a lame term to use anyway.
    b) maybe its not the "stupidity of females" but yr naivete to believe tbat if u let a girl in before you, they think u r a "good guy". thats called delusion of grandeur. u myt be letting her in before u so as to check her ass out anyway, going by the way u sound so desperate.
    c) who told u she's from srcc who couldnt get thru colg team? were u too busy looking at other birds when she was chirping away?
    d)whats unwantable?

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  2. Hello!
    First of all, thanks a lot for taking time out to read and comment.I would have appreciated it more had you chosen not to remain anonymous.

    Coming to your allegations,
    a) The terms I use here are "NOT" meant to be derogatory to anyone.It is meant in a light hearted manner and supposed to be taken like that only.I don't mind calling(and being called) "brainless" by my friends and I am sure she would not complaint if she knew all this.

    b) I never said I let her in before me and hence, keep your thoughts to yourself. She is a friend and I would not let any anonymous person to make such comments. I respect all chess players and the fact is that she is a better player than me and that's the reason I respect her even more.

    c) She herself told me that she is from SRCC and you have to be better than a lame critic(that you are now) to understand what sportspersons go through when they cannot make it into a team, fully aware that they are better than the selected players.

    d) I have mentioned the "unwantable" in the post itself. I hope you read the complete post.


    P.S. I assume you read my blog for the first time so it is okay for you to have problems with the words or the language that I used. I never mean these literally or to hurt anyone's sentiments. And, sometimes I do go over the board with the adjectives that I use, so as to introduce homour and to make it more interesting to read, fully aware that as none of my regular readers take these things seriously because they know how I am as a person.

    Any more queries would be welcome.

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  3. lol!

    u myt have got a call from "yr friend" regarding this..

    annonymous persons neednt intervene anymore..

    all the best in yr efforts to "introduce humour" to yr posts.

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  4. Yeah, I suppose all's okay between 2 of the three people involved in this episode. I only wish that the third person,who still chooses to be "anonymous" had the guts to come out of his insecurities and say these things openly but anyways, I am sure we have come across each other a couple of times and you are truly living up to the impression I had about you by choosing to remain anonymous.

    Thanks for wishes and I would pray that you "grow up" in your mind sooner than later

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  5. my goodness, aren't u incorrigible.

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  6. Oh my god... whats happening here, it was a very nice post and as always I rushed to comments sections to read something much better.
    Whats cooking here, I couldn't make out much..who is this anonymous?

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  7. Thanks for the appreciation. People that are not abnormal have found it entertaining.

    This anonymous guy's some insecure person who can be found at a Metro Station round the clock :D(I assume he stays there itself). Secondly, the poor guy doesn't have a google account or the guts to sign in. nyz.. chuck him!

    apologies from my side for your disappointment in the comments section but what to do? you can't control the weirdos and their thoughts.

    ReplyDelete