Chess

I play chess semi-competitively in my free time. I’m a Class A player (Elo 1800-2000). I appreciate how chess can absorb all my focus at a given moment, relieving me from any stressors from work and life. Chess has also moulded me into an individual who is more comfortable with embracing obstacles and failure.

Below, enjoy both some of the coolest and some of the most embarrassing games that I’ve ever played, with included commentary and annotations. I am the bottom color in each of the following boards.

This first game is actually the first that I ever played in a tournament. I was living in San Francisco at the time and entered a weekend tournament at the world-renowned, historical Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club. I had recently turned 22 years old, but I was still much more inexperienced and nervous than my teenage opponent was. My quality of play here is unsurprisingly lower than that shown in later games.

The following game is definitely the most crushing defeat that I have ever suffered. This may seem odd, given that my opponent was rated higher than me, making me the slight underdog. However, it was the manner at which I lost that makes this game one that I will never forget.

At the time, I entered the game having scored a miraculous upset in the previous round, with a draw against a National Master (Elo 2200+). The confidence that I built up was destroyed by this game. I still think sometimes about how painful it was.

Two years later, after moving to Boston, I was a regular at the Boylston Chess Club. The club re-opened in 2021 after a year of the COVID-19 pandemic for small tournaments with strict masking rules in place. I entered my first tournament after a hiatus having just crossed Elo 1800 prior. The first in-person game I played in over a year turned out to be a nice one.

This last game is one of my highest-rated victories to date, played in summer of 2021. I played a very nice game to defeat an Expert-level player (Elo 2000-2200). She was the reigning Massachusetts Girls Champion at the time. Today, she is a National Master. Safe to say, I capitalized on what may have been my one chance to defeat her (we played again recently, and I lost).