I mentioned in a recent post that I was looking forward to 2022 and was hoping for it to be the best year in a decade or so.
There are few reasons for that hope/belief/optimism. One, few of the things, decisions, investments (money, time, emotional connects) might yield results. Two, quality of life might improve. But most importantly, mental peace and positive energy would be restored after many years!
In December, I played two weekend chess tournaments and stood 4th in one of them, thereby helping me get selected as the Top 4 players to get entry into State Amateur tournament. In the other tournament I did a bit poorly and stood 6th.
But the bigger pleasure for me was that I connected with few players I knew since many years (actually decades) and joined them in the Chess Club they have started again. The Club is more than 100 years old and was inactive for last few years. That has been revived.
We played on 1st and 2nd January (weekend and the beginning of the club) for almost 4-5 hours!
I’m so delighted to have started chess again! Hope to make some improvement in my game this year.
Here is a puzzle we solved at the club. The peculiar quality of this puzzle is that it holds true even if you flip the board (i. e. White and Black sides are interchanged). Try both versions!
White to play and win…
ekoshapu 