A game of chess, pr'aps?

[Snarl]

When in Saudi we used to go on a 7 day R&R every 3 to 4 months.

I'll share a war story with the boards:

While attending USAICS at Fort Hoochie Coochie, I signed up for the chess tournament they held annually over at the Rec Center.

Now, I wasn't a bad chess player, but I had never defeated my older brother on his board either. I tore my dad up a couple of times ... and after picking up pieces scattered across the living room floor ... decided it likely wasn't in my best interests to challenge him again. So, it would be fair to say I had a solid foundation coming into this particular tournament.

I'd never played against a clock before. It was an added element of stress. The early rounds were of shorter duration and there was a certainty some of the stronger players would be taken out on day one.  I was fine with that as I figured it increased my chances of getting closer to the finals.

Now this tournament was a known marathon event.  Players came in from all over the Department of Defense (your tax dollars hard at work). It started early Saturday and ran until 16:00 on Sunday.  If memory serves, they shut the venue down at 22:00 on Saturday.  The finals, based on the timers, would end sometime in the early afternoon on Sunday.  Most of my day-one games ended after 10 or 15 minutes of play, which didn't give the player/observers much in the way of finding any of my weaknesses to exploit on Sunday.

The returning champ was eliminated on day-one along with two of the other better-rated hopefuls.  I had a lot of time on Saturday to watch, but wasted it looking at what these fellas' game play looked like.

On Sunday I sat down in front of a guy, whose face I couldn't remember from the day before, for our quarter-final start.  The clocks were set to 30 minutes.  Me and this guy were alone ... no one watching.  The 'crowds' were around two other tables and I wasn't able to see who held everyone's interest.

What seemed like ten minutes later, I was able to get close enough to one of the hotter games to see the player's faces.  Turned out the remaining four top-rated guys were paired against one another, surely increasing the Nobody's chances of moving up.  I didn't know any of 'em and I wasn't good enough to tell by their game play if I had a snowball's chance in Arizona against them.  I remember that these guys looked like grown men and sooner or later us fresh-faced youngsters were going to clash with the bulls.

As we rolled into the semis, the older two split against me and another fella who looked to be about five years my senior.  The other old guy got smoked early and the crowd that remained gathered around the table.  I had drawn black ... and defense had always my strong game.  Early on, I traded a bishop for a knight and a pawn and wore my opponent down. I spotted a good fork with my remaining knight and began to cascade his pieces off the board.  He stopped his clock and shook my hand ... and just like that ... I was in the final.

The last game allowed two hours for each clock and started right on schedule at noon.  Someone in the audience had done their homework, and I heard it said I was the youngest person to ever enter the finals.  My opponent was an E-6 from the Air Force.  I think that gave me the home field advantage, but I didn't think I had much chance.  I traded an early bishop for one of his knights and a better position on the board.  From there I worked him over trading pieces and developing long lines of attacks for my rooks and queen.  I remember him making a stupid mistake and I pinned his king to its home row and mated him two moves later.

Story gets better, but I'll save those two parts for another day.  

Did I ever share with you what happened on my last trip to Thailand?