My journey as a young club chess player

I started playing chess at a very young age.

My father taught me the rules and we used to play using an handmade chessboard we had at home. We were never very good; in fact, we used to hang pieces all the time and play without any structured positional consideration, like every beginner chess player.

I started to win some games in our home disputes and one day, at 13, I showed up in a regional blitz tournament. It was a very challenging experience, as I had never experienced the rules of over-the-board chess. J’adoube was something I had never heard and I barely remembered to push the clock after a move. In spite of this, I managed to score 3 out of 7 points. In the world of chess, a win translates to 1 point, a draw to 0.5 points and a loss to 0, so it was not that bad.

Me at my very first tournament, in Barcelos. My kingside is very weak here, but it was probably left unexploited by my young opponent.

I was admittedly excited. At the end of the tournament, I was invited by a local club director to join the club’s activities, and so my journey as a club chess player began. After some months of attending lessons, I started to gain some positional knowledge and won my very first classical chess games. This was tougher than I expected - I was going against players with much more experience at my age, and my rating was still very low, below 1200. A rough view of the level corresponding to each ELO rating range can be seen below.

Playing classical over-the-board chess at big, open tournaments became an habit and I got the chance to play against very good players, including the best players in Portugal.

As you start to win some games in an open swiss-based tournament, you are able to play games in nice wood tables like this one and play against very experienced players, with live online transmission.

Although open tournaments were an extraordinary opportunity to gain experience, at a young age, chess players are able to compete for titles in junior tournaments - spiritually, the highlight of the year. After playing district championships for some years without much luck, in 2019, after losing my first game and free of pressure, I won a game against a much higher rated player and started a streak of winning games to win my first chess title - U18 Braga District Champion.

I also had the chance to finish the National School Tournament in the podium later that year.

The players Felgueiras’ High School brought to the 2019 School Regionals.

The next year saw its tournaments cancelled because of the pandemic. After the competition resumed, in 2021, I won the Porto U20 District Championship in my last year as a junior.

The beautiful Porto Young District Championship tournament trophy.

In 2022, no longer a junior, I paused my chess career to focus on college. It was a tough decision to make, given how much I enjoyed to play and teach. I am sure I will return eventually, but until then, chess is alive in my mind.

Chess is also played in teams. My team João de Meira, from Guimarães, playing against A2D, from Famalicão, in 2018. From bottom to top: me, Nuno Martinho, Orlando Ribeiro and Tomás Monteiro.