A Dangerous Discovered Check

A question and answer column by National Master Andy Lee

Welcome to the my first Q & A article on chesskid.com!  I'm National Master Andy Lee, and I've been playing chess for over 20 years.  As a beginner, I remember having hundreds of questions about the game, from where I should put my pieces in the opening to how I should play in the endgame.  (As an adult I still have questions; they're just harder to answer!)  I'm here to answer YOUR questions, large or small, every Friday, so send 'em along.

Q: How did you get started playing in tournaments?

A: Most people don't realize it, but many chessplayers never actually play in a USCF rated chess tournament.  They play casually with friends and feel satisfied with the creative opportunities that chess has to offer.  But a lot of people play chess so that they can be creative and competitive, and these folks find that playing in tournaments is the right fit for them.

I began playing in tournaments when I was about 11 or 12 years old.  As one of the better players at my school, I tried out for a California team called the Berkeley Bishops.  I wasn't too surprised to make the team, but I was surprised to find that I had won the qualifying tournament and would be playing on Board One during our matches.  This meant that I would be playing the best player from each opposing team!

Our first match was certainly the most memorable for me.  We traveled from Berkeley to San Jose to play a team that had much more tournament experience than we had.  There was a rumor that each player on their team had memorized 20 famous chess games!

My opponent, Joe Lonsdale, had a rating that was 400 points higher than mine, and played an opening that I had never seen before:

 

Black's aggressive play confused and worried me.  As I brought my pieces out, I made a mistake that cost me my extra pawn:

 

The game continued, and we traded pieces until we had only kings and pawns remaining.  Here I found a dangerous tactic that I was proud of for a long time after the game:

Ahead by a queen, I won the game, and our team won the match!  It's happy memories like this that make me want to continue to work hard and improve as a chessplayer.  Of course, the transition to tournament chess is a tough one (I lost my first four games against adults when I started playing in harder tournaments), but it's worth it!

That's all for this week, and don't forget to send your chess questions to FalseNarwhal.