Checkmate

I started playing chess with my father when I was seven years old. I still remember the wooden chess board we had at home. My father used to beat us all the time. We played chess just as a pastime. "Tinker Mama" was one of the grand masters of chess during my childhood. We were fascinated by the way he played chess.

The second era of my chess career began when I was in my A/Ls. It was my brother who started the first chess club in Rahula College. Tinker Mama's son Thusitha was not only my cousin but also my pal in playing chess. We trained some nice chess players. Chinthaka, Kovida, Kaumal and Amila were some of them.

I still remember the first chess tournament we played at DS. Our first opponents were Visakians. I played with Apsara Gunaratne. From the begining we played some good moves and tempted the Visakians to think more on their next moves. As the time passed we realised they have taken more time to think and we were in good positions to either beat them or draw the games. After four hours, they set the clocks by our sides. It was the very first time I used a chess clock. Everything went wrong because of our lack of experience about the clocks. We concentrated more on reducing the time to think and made loopholes for the Visakians to crawl through. We were beaten six-nil.
...........more to be written later........