I used to play chess quite a bit, and my brother Jake would always beat me. It kinda made me lose interest and not want to play at all. I've never really liked things I'm not good at, or at least things my brother is better at. But recently, I had a motivator I could not ignore.
My father passed away last month, and while he was in the hospital, my brother and I had a lot of time to kill. We played chess a lot, and he beat me a lot.
Our entire lives have been a competition. We were the best baseball players in our town as kids, I hit more homeruns but he was better at almost everything else. But that doesn't matter because chicks dig the longball, so I was kinda cool with my spot. He was always better at me at Madden, but I could cheese him with Mike Vick.
But now, sitting in a hospital room 14 hours a day getting beat by him out of the opening almost every game made me hit my limit. I really wanted to beat him.
That's when I googled "chess openings" for the first time. I went back to the hotel, read some articles, watched some videos, and learned a few new openings. A couple days in, I started beating him. It felt amazing. That competitive fire reigniting and giving me a clear goal was just what I needed.
So, I'm back to playing chess. I'm not sure how far I'll go with it, but for now, it's fun to have a new challenge and a way to connect with my brother. I'm back on Lichess and can not wait to see how far I can push it.
Checkmate, Jake.