Chess Memoir – 1

Three stages of my chess life

It was in summer of 1993, that I played my first ever chess game; or better to say got acquainted with the rules and essentials of chess. At those days it was just for fun and as a hobby. Yet, I did registered for the professional sports licence and took part in school activities and official tournaments. Without a proper formation and training, I was aware that it wouldn’t lead to anywhere. And it didn’t. As the other priorities weight more, hobbies get the first hit, and it was not an exception in my case, either. I had to choose one among my hobbies to give up for the other important issues of the time, than I sacrificed chess.

After a six years of break, in year 2006, I returned to the chess scene again. This time I was more decisive and wanted to bring my chess to a professional level, instead of keeping it as a hobby. I learned the fundamentals from the ground zero and increased my experience via tournaments. Although I met with valuable people and exchanged information with them; with limited resources and time, and without coaching, I achieved my goals only to a some extent. Though very poor, I even managed to get an ELO Rating by joining international tournaments in Ankara and abroad, with strong participants. Then again other responsibilities came to the fore and that was the end of Act II in the Game of Chess. 

This time, the break took me almost five years long and in the autumn of 2017, I sat across an opponent at a chessboard in an official competition. I was just became a member of Donaueschingen Chess Club and having an ELO helped me to join directly to the League games for the second team of the Club. I am very thankful to have such friends and being given such an opportunity. I have enjoyed every game and our routine meetings at the club. This time I want to set the bar high and training zealously improve the quality of my games. That demands hours of studying, participating to competitive tournaments and learning from the mistakes.

In a nutshell, three stages in my chess life can be described as: A hobby, a professional discipline and finally at the third phase, key to the strategic decision making process. But let us discuss that in another article.

Ergun UNUTMAZ, 26.07.2019