MY EXPERIENCE JOINING THE DALLAS CHESS CLUB THIS PAST WEEKEND

(BEFORE)

Written by Claudia

Well it was about that I share my experience on becoming member of the Dallas Chess Club this past weekend. As you guys know, my mom and sister Faith, as well as myself of course, moved to North Texas so that I can achieve my chess goals. Dad stayed behind running the family business. So now I have to commute from Wichita Falls to Dallas every weekend in order to play at the Dallas Chess Club. This Saturday was my first visit to DCC since I was 9 years old.

I´m 12 years old now, but back to my account.

I woke up late Saturday morning and had a long distance call with my dad in order to reaffirm some of the chess objectives of the day. About noonish I got out of the shower and began doing my hair (PICTURE ABOVE). You know since I was younger, my dad and I would observe the pictures on the Internet of titled chess players and their dress code. There is a difference in the dress code of the top 10 players so we pay attention to looking decent, especially because I am a pretty girl :)

(AFTER)

My hair finally done! At about 2:30 p.m. we headed out to Dallas, about 100 miles. You might ask, why I live in Wichita Falls? I WAS BORN HERE! Our entire family on my mom´s side lives in this area and so this is our support system.

Once we arrived at the DCC, my first objective was to become a member. I paid my $75 dollar anual membership and VOILA! I feel like so honored to be a member of such an important chess club in the United States. I had been a member of two chess clubs when I lived in Acuña, Mexico but nothing as formal and well organized as the DCC. I received my membership card, please excuse my penmanship, I was really excited.

The Dallas Chess Club has a total of 150 paying members and countless participants that are not members but constantly visit the club. The building itself is spacious with good parking. Over 15 titled players continually visit the club or are on the membership rosters. The strength is incredible. I came in 2nd place in the Texas Scholastic State Championship, 4th on tie-tiebreakers, however, the 1st and 3rd place winners were at Saturday´s tournament. WCM Sarah Chiang, the highest rated under 14 girl in the nation was present, I am in her category and in order to qualify to world I must at least reach 1848 in the next 30 days.

There were 31 players and I was number 28 on the rating list. I´m 1491 rated, according to the February rating lists, however in two weekends I have gained 72 rating points, now that I am playing rated chess in the United States. I should be able to increase at least 60 rating points a week for a good while since I am underrated. My rating is low due to the fact that I only played once in a while in USCF chess, basically when I was on vacations in the United States. In Mexico, I had won every gold medal within their scholastic national system and was Mexican National Champion in 2008.

Saturday night, I won my first game, lost my second to a 1800 plus rated player and I drew Jonathan Chiang (1990) which was probably a shock to many because of my 1491 rating. In Mexico most of the tournaments are not rated, so it is difficult to measure my real actual strength, the DCC will give me this excellent opportunity to demonstrate it by playing. One common thing is that in Mexico I was one of the few girls that could medal against boys at the national level. In the Texas Scholastic two weekends ago I proved the same. I won 6 games out of 7 and finished as the highest placed girl in my category, 4th. The nearest girl to me was 17th. I was the only girl among the top 16 of 116 players. I was raised by my dad not to think of myself less because I´m a girl.

In the last round a horrible, horrible and horrible thing happened to me. I was in a checkmate position about to end the night with an important win when I dropped the Queen by accident. My opponent was 1800 plus.

I would have crossed straight into 1600.

I was like soooooo mad with myself. However, my father spoke with me on the phone, while I was still at the club, and calmed me down. It was a mental mistake but I had to get over it.

Every weekend my family will make sure that I get to the Dallas Chess Club. We have a system of analysis during the week in order to better my knowledge and get ready for the next event. While I was playing I would look at the walls of the club, which have numerous pictures. That really got my attention.

I don´t know how long I will be in the North Texas area. I have chess goals and the will of my parents to help me reach them.

I will reach my objectives.

Whether it is this year or next, I will be in the World Youth Championship. When I reach my immediate objectives of reaching 2000 rating points, then I will have new objectives.

With God in my life there is nothing that I can´t accomplish.