Monday, August 30, 2010

Found In My Basement: Chess Trophy

Of all of my hundreds, I mean, several trophies, I am most proud of this one. This is the 1st place trophy from the 16th Annual Library Chess Tournament (1989) held at the Squirrel Hill branch of the Carnegie Library. I went to a new school for third grade where I didn't know many of my classmates. However, I became friends with the other male students pretty quickly (I think the girls had cooties) as we bonded playing football during recess. Once the weather got colder, recess was spent indoors. Looking for something to do, one of my new classmates, David Z., taught us how to play chess. For the entire winter and on rainy days in the spring, we played chess. Fast-forward to two years later (5th grade). David Z. and I were the top two players at the library chess tournament and played a match to determine the winner. In the case, I proved victorious as the student defeated the teacher. This allowed me to advance to the chess tournament of all of the Western Pennsylvania Carnegie Library winners where I fared pretty well. I switched to a different school in 6th grade and David soon moved out of state. Near the end of high school, I saw that he made the USA Today's All-Academic High School list and that he was going to Harvard. I have no idea where he is today, so I may need to use the power of the internet to search. Click here for more about the Found in My Basement series.

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