9 hours ago
My friend Andrei always laughed at my chess playing. “You play like an elephant in a china shop!” - he used to say. Once, after another defeat, I said in my heart that I would beat him in a month. Andrei only grinned: “I bet a bottle of good whiskey that even in a year you won't be able to.”
Then I decided to take things seriously. Every day I analyzed my games through a chess calculator, studying typical mistakes and memorizing strong moves. Analyzing endgames was especially helpful - it turned out that I was constantly losing winning positions due to inattention.
Exactly one month later we sat down at the board again. Andrei, confident of victory, even offered a “head start” - he took away his rook. But to his surprise, the game didn't turn out in his favor. At the decisive moment, I used the tactic I had worked out with a calculator the day before - queen sacrifice followed by checkmate!
Andrei looked at the board for a long time, then laughed: “All right, I admit it - you've grown up. But I still won't give you the whiskey for nothing! Let's rematch?”
Since then we've been playing regularly, and now I'm no longer the elephant in the china shop. And the bottle of whisky remained unopened - we decided to save it for the “rematch of the year”. But the main thing is that I finally realized that systematic analysis is more important than a thousand games played.
Then I decided to take things seriously. Every day I analyzed my games through a chess calculator, studying typical mistakes and memorizing strong moves. Analyzing endgames was especially helpful - it turned out that I was constantly losing winning positions due to inattention.
Exactly one month later we sat down at the board again. Andrei, confident of victory, even offered a “head start” - he took away his rook. But to his surprise, the game didn't turn out in his favor. At the decisive moment, I used the tactic I had worked out with a calculator the day before - queen sacrifice followed by checkmate!
Andrei looked at the board for a long time, then laughed: “All right, I admit it - you've grown up. But I still won't give you the whiskey for nothing! Let's rematch?”
Since then we've been playing regularly, and now I'm no longer the elephant in the china shop. And the bottle of whisky remained unopened - we decided to save it for the “rematch of the year”. But the main thing is that I finally realized that systematic analysis is more important than a thousand games played.