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October 2, 2011

My journey in chess started in the summer of August 15, 2009 at the Utah Amateur U1000. My brother Isaac mentioned to me that maybe I should enter this tournament that was being run by the all amazing Tournament Director, whom you all should know or should get to know if you're new to chess in Utah. As in Morry Holland -- who has ran lots of tournaments here in the state over the many dedicated years and has done a wonderful job! So at this tournament I managed to win 5-0. I have since attended many tournaments here in the state of Utah. The last one I attended was in Riverton at the Allan Johnson Chess Club, which is held every other Thursday. For more information on his club check out the Utah chess websites.

The first round started around 6:00. My first round pairing was against Alexander Pachev, who has made great strides in his chess playing justlike his son, Benjamin Pachev, who I first met at the beginning of the year. It was a good game where I managed to come back and win after being down material. Next round I got paired with a very smart young man named Jake Bolen. I refer to him as “Jimmer Jake,” making reference to his favorite BYU basketball player, Jimmer Fredette. The game went back and forth with noone getting an advantage in material. In the middle of the game I missed a nice move by him in which I got my Bishop trapped. However, due to little time remaining on his clock, I was fortunate to come out with a win.

My next opponent was Daryl Bangerter, whom I hadn’t played recently. I was able to win this game. I was looking forward to playing the last round against Adam Asay, who had just come back to playing chess tournaments again. He was 3-0 going into the last round, as was I. However, he was not able to stay and play. So I got paired to play my brother Isaac, who is a great motivator to me as well as a great supporter of my chess journey. The game went 45 moves and I was able to pull off a sacrifice with my Bishop, and from there it was all over. I finished 4-0 in this tournament. It was great night of playing chess. I look forward to more chess events here in Utah and hope to encourage others to join in the competition.

I would like to give a special thanks to these individual for the time and effort in supporting Utah chess. Allan Johnson for his effort running and managing countless tournaments, John Coffey for his help running tournaments and giving advice to other players on how to improve their game, Grant Hodson for directing and managing tournament over the years, Greg Lee for filling in as Tournament Director, Brenda Ahlemann for dedicating her time and efforts to run tournaments, and Kevin Keyes for taking care of the finances of the Utah Chess Association. Thanks as well to others over the years who have run tournaments in Utah, and to all the players who have joined in.

Ben Balter deep in thought...