A Cherished Memory

This particular Chess tournament is a cherished memory of mine. I didn't win the tournament. However, I had very good results playing in a very difficult situation.
I love chess and in 2019, I wanted to play it all. I was just rounding up my university days when the tournament was announced to hold in my city. Sam being sam was interested in playing. I knew the dates of the tournament was going to be a busy one in school. But, I didn't care. I already sacrificed most of chess career to my education.

In my 4 years in the university, I played competitive chess 4 times, 2 of which were university related games.
I got to the venue quite early and I settled down to play. The previous day was stressful, as i had some projects in school to attend to.
In round one, I was paired to play against Woman fide Master @perpz. At that time, she had been training to go to the olympiad in Georgia. She was very strong and her calculations were sound.

I was in a difficult side of the Dutch defence. I didn't know what to do as white. I had to wait for her attack to either fail or succeed. I couldn't predict my fate (which is something that rarely happens). I won the game after defending all through the game.
The biggest highlight was in Round 3 when i was paired against the number 1 chess player in the country. International master of chess.

I had 30 minutes to prepare for the game. I didn't know where to start from, as he had played a lot of games on the database. I saw some of his recent games that he had difficulties, went through two of them. I then took my Pepsi & bottle water and sat down on the chair.

I played 1.d4, something I've never played before in a tournament. To my greatest suprised, I played every bit of the game well.

My opponent had 1 minute left on the clock to my 10 minutes when he offered a draw. I had more time on the clock and my position was slightly better. I accepted the draw and everyone praised me. It was then i realized how much i put into the game of chess when i was a kid. The game never truly left me.

Maybe i shouldn't have taken the draw, What if i had lost. A draw is better than a loss. These days i find myself playing draws with @stayoutoftherz on #HiveChess. Someone once said "A perfect game of chess will end in a draw"

I ended this tournament with 4½/7, with so many draws. It is one tournament i wont forget in a long while.

Thanks For Reading.

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