Sofia

I arrived in Sofia on April 24th 2010 and I stayed there for twenty days, it was my first tournament and  I met lot's of professional Chess players from so many countries. The start of the match was delayed one day to air travel disruption caused by the volcanic ash emissions from Eyjafjallajokul , it was one of the smaller ice caps of Iceland, situated to the North of Skogar to the West of Myrdalsjokull. In April 2010, seismic activity was detected in volcano area, with thousands of small earthquakes. On April 14th 2010, Eyjafjallajokul  resumed erupting after a brief pause, this time from the top crater in the centre of the glacier, that eruption was explosive in nature, due to the melt water getting into the volcanic vent. The second eruption threw volcanic ash several kilometers up in the atmosphere which led to air travel disruption in Northwest Europe for six days from April 15th to 21st 2010 and also in May 2010.

 

The defeating Champion was a man from India, who had held the title since 2007. He won the World Chess Championship 2007 in an eight-player tournament, and then successfully defended the title in the World Chess Championship 2008 against former champion from Russia. I shook his hand before we started the game, the match format was the best of twelve games. I could feel my heart was beating faster and my head spinning around like a merry-go-round. It was the day when I first met a master in World Chess Championship, we have to score one point for a win and half point for a draw. The match ended once either player scored six and half points, and time control was one hundred and twenty minutes, which sixty minutes added after move fourty, fifteen minutes added after move sixty, and thirty additional seconds per move starting from move sixty one.

 

The match regulations specify a series of tie-breaks, the first rule is if the score is tied after twelve games colors will be drawn and four rapid games will be played. Rapid games is a type of chess game in which each side is given less time to make their moves than under the normal tournament time controls of sixty to one hundred and eighty minutes per player. The second rule is if the score is tied after the hour rapid tie break games, colors will be drawn and two blitz games with five minutes plus ten seconds increment per move will be played, if the score is tied after the two blitz games, another two game blitz will be played, under the same terms, the process will repeat if necessary until five-blitz matches have been played. The third rule is if the score is tied after ten blitz games, a single sudden-death, it's called Armageddon game will determine the champion. The winner of a draw a lots gets to choose the color to play, with white given five minutes and black given 4 minutes, beginning with move sixty one, a three-seconds increment will be added following each move. If the game is drawn then the player of the black pieces is declared champion.

 

Game One, I scored a point over my opponent, my maneuver was called as Grunfeld Defence it's a chess opening characterized by the moves of d4 at this point black must decide how to face white's aggression, statistically approximate chances of white win is thirty nine percents, thirty three percents of draw and twenty eight percents of black. I won this game because my opponent forgot his preparation with a queenside minority attack by white.

Game Two, this time I lost a point, I made a bad move caused by my own tactical oversight I was overconfidence and it stroke a luck for my opponent. I played too quickly to avoided time trouble that white could strike back with a brief counterattack but then it made white defenseless to the mate threat.

Game Three, it was a draw where there was no handshake at the end of thrid game.

Game Four, I scored a point with catalan maneuver where white adopted the combination of the Queen Gambit which is one of the oldest known chess openings with white threatens to exchange a wing pawn for a centre pawn and dominate the center as black can not hold the pawn. My opponent made a blunder by allowing black back into the game and he had input the incorrect move for his pawns.

Game Five, it was another draw that we made because my opponent has repeated the Slav line with which his defended in game three. The Slav line is one of the primary defenses to the Queen's gambit, my opponent who held black pawns faces three major problems in many variations of the Queen's gambit declined when he declined a  pawn that I offered him.

Game Six, it was another draw for us. where my opponent began the longest string of knight moves ever seen in a World Championship match but I successfully neutralized all his winning chances.

Game Seven, it was another draw where my opponent has finally managed to push me out of my prepared line, he had spent over an hour on his clock compared to mine because I only spent three minutes, but I played a poisoned move and he found the only response and that's why none of us could win this game.

Game Eight, finally I won this game with my Slav Defense maneuver I held the black pawn this time and I increased the pressure on White's center prevents where white's queen being somewhat exposed because of a solid position that I made.

Game Nine, in this time we didn't win anything, my opponent repeated moves in order to make time control, but then he made a mistake when the black king was escaped, and I overlooked his subsequent move which revealed a discovered attack on his queen and simultaneous attack on his rook, but then I gave up my queen and the checkmate was inevitable on the next move.

Game Ten, it was another draw for us where I weakened my kingside in an attempt to gain activity and my opponent missed the best reply in winning a pawn.

Game Eleven, it was another draw for us and my head was spinning around faster than a normal merry-go-round, that time I was so nervous and therefore I made a stupid blunder when I dismissed the best chance to win a pawn from my opponent.

Game Twelve, I won this game with the only win for Black in the match, I chose the queens’ gambit declined maneuver to accept a draw, which would have tied the match at six to six and forced a rapid chess playoff.

Tumor

It's been two years since the World Chess Championship 2010, I went back to my homeland in Oslo, Norway. I had to live my life with a clear mind now since my doctor said that I got an intracranial  solid neoplasm in my brain. Apparently the tumor in my brain metastasized to other organs in my body, due to the blood brain barrier cancerous cells of primary neoplasm fortunately it couldn't enter the bloodstream and get carried to another location in my body. I had several surgeries in order to complete partial resection of the tumor with the objective of removing as many tumor cells as possible. I tried radiotherapy too which was a treatment that I had when my doctor did the irradiation the beta and gamma x rays to my brain. I had thirty treatments they said this method could give me a hope to live longer.

 

It's called Oligodendrogilomas, it's an incurable but slowly progressive malignant brain tumor. they could be treated by surgerical resection and radiotherapy. This tumor occurs primarily in adults of the average age at diagnosis. The etiology of Oligodendrogilomas is unknown, but some studies have linked it with a viral cause. In anywhere from fifty to eighty percent of cases, the first symptom of an Oligodendrogilomas is the one of seizure activity and it causes sleep deprivation. As a chess player I used to spend all my time in front of my chess board, I found lot's of maneuvers by my own. I played chess since I was ten years old, my grandpa taught me everything in chess, he was a great chess player. I rarely moved my body and didn't drink much water, I forced my brain to work harder and harder, I would not forgive myself if I lost in the match. I got seizures when I was child, it was pretty bad, my parents are dead in a horrible car accident and my grandparents took me with them, and they brought me to Oslo. The seizures has caused the involuntary changes in my body function, sensation, and awareness. I felt the numbness of a part in my body, a brief or long term loss of memory, visual changes, sensing discharging of an unpleasant odor, and total state of confusion.

 

Eventually I knew that my life would be over, I just hoped that things would get better. I lost my beloved grandpa a year ago, he got the same tumor, he survived in 3 months due to the living prediction that his doctor made. I was there with him at the hospital, I couldn't join my World Chess Championship in 2011 and 2012 they took my champion status off and it made me feel so down. I just wanted to end my life in happiness and with a champion in my hands, I became so frustrated and lost the faith in everything, it's changed my attitude and behavior and also my perceptions of life and death. I started to blame God and all the things that I hated in my life, I was so out of control and was defeated by a tumor in my head, I fell from the grace that I had once in past. I lost my sanity and was so insecure, they sent me to a mental hospital because that moment I was out of my slav line.

Psychodynamic

I met her when she gave me an approach to understanding the psychological conflicts and the psychiatric symptoms of cancer. She wore a nice purple dress with dark brown brunette hair down to her shoulders and black pumps. She has the most beautiful smile that I've ever seen on human face in my entire life, she gave her passions and faiths to me and another patients. It's one of my psychodynamic therapy sessions with her, this model of psychotherapy is particularly useful for understanding the emotional reactions of patients with cancer like me, she gave me a point of view for clarifying the onset of psychiatric symptoms in response to the stresses of having a cancer diagnosis. She also taught me a perspective on the doctor-patient relationship that's useful for understanding and resolving conflicts. She taught me about the current psychoanalytic theoretical models add to an understanding of the emotional symptomatology of the cancer as well as provided a point of view for intervention.

 

She told me that the ego psychological models offered a look at defense and coping mechanisms. The object relations model is helpful in terms of understanding the threat of object loss and the relationship between patient and caregiver. The model of self psychology is pertinent to the threat to the integrity of the self and the need for an empathic approach. She's the most beautiful caregiver that I've ever met in this world, she had a big blue eyes and an unforgettable smile. She knew that I played chess, so one day when I was eating my lunch she came to me and brought me a chess board. She dared me to play the chess together, I couldn't believe that actually she's good in chess, she gave up my knights only with a single smooth move. She told me that her parents used to be chess champions, she learned lot's of things about chess from them and she gave me a ticket for an event that I've waited for, a ticket to redeem all my dreams, but this time it was not mine, it's all her because she would join the World Chess Championship 2013 and play with the man that won the World Chess Championship in 2012.

Bishop and Knight

It was three days before the match held in the University of Stavanger, the day when I could see my girlfriend played her first big match for me, I finished my psychodynamic therapy two months ago, I felt so much better because she's with me. On my 45th birthday she came to my flat and made a little surprise for me, she's invited all my friends from the hospital and her family to celebrate it with me. I didn't expect something like that would happen in my life, since my grandpa died there was nothing like happiness that I could really feel, until I won the match in 2010 but then they took it away from me. I had a talk with her parents about chess, they're so great and talented people. I learned lot's of maneuvers that I have not known before, they told me about their experiences in chess and all the stories that they've made in World Chess Championships. They're so lucky to have a daughter like her, she's my everything, she's the reason why I could survive my life from cancer although it's still laying in my head.

 

Two days after my birthday I went with her to the park, she bought a chess board so we could play the games there, she held my hands tightly when we had a walk and then she stopped by for an ice cream, I left her because she asked me to and I walked ahead to the park but before I got there there was a massive truck hit the ice cream shop and that tragedy happened right when my girlfriend stepped out from the shop's entrance door, the truck hit her so badly and it bounced her body away from the shop. She died by the time I held her body in my arms and it's too late for me to save her.

 

May 7th 2013, I saw so many people there, it should be the greatest day in her life, she would love to be here if she could, she told me that she's practiced all the maneuvers that she would use in this match, she promised me a victory and she believed that she would be the champion. She gave me all the things that I needed in my life, a little hope of life, a happiness, she's changed my perceptions of life and death and she made me a better person. I replaced her and decided to join the match for her, I knew that it's a bit overrated because of the tumor that I had in my brain, but she taught me to pursuit a happiness in my life, I could never forget her sweet face with a nice smile on it. It's all happened unpredictably and I knew it's a part of my destiny. I had to show her and people that we could make our dreams come true even when we're not longer exist in this world.

 

The crowd was surrounding me and my opponent, he was a Japanesse guy, he seemed so smart and experienced and also younger than me. I knew it would not be easy to score a point because my doctor said that I couldn't force my brain to think harder if I didn't want to die. He started the game with an aggressive mood with black against tail-ender, he moved the pawn to find a good developing square for it, he wanted to get my pieces into the game where he could actually accomplished something either aided his attack or defense as soon as he could. I've concentrated in my pieces and developed them, I made a big exception to the principle of centralizing my pieces and concerned my king because I knew that in the opening and middle game the center could be the worst place for my king. I made the castling maneuver to safeguard my king from sudden chess tactics and even checkmate, I got my king away from the center and developed one of my rooks at the same time. My opponent tried to trick me with a Sicillian Defense where he moved his black pawn right for the jugular to fight for the center and made an attack from the center instead of simply mirroring white's movements, the defense would lead to complicated maneuvers, because normally black would go after white's pawn without an immediate attack.

 

I drove the opposing king to the edge of the board by using all three pieces of mine, I forced the king out of the "wrong" corner to the "right" corner, the position  on the right was that typically arisen after the first phase has been completed and the defender has headed to a corner of opposite color to that of the bishop. After that I made a following method to push the king to the "right" corner, first of all I forced the king to leave the corner and put my bishop in position so that the next two moves, in the mean time I made a waiting move and I forced the black king to move so white which were mine could play and took away from the king. I moved my knight in a W shape form in order to make two possible defenses, the first defense was  he could cling the black to the "safe" corner but then he would lose more quickly, the second defense was he could take the black king in the right position meanwhile I kept continuing my knight's move from the mating corner, and by the time he confined his black king in the right corner, I said "Checkmate"!

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 08.07.2013

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Widmung:
My Beloved Grandpa, I could not even play the game with no ruin and I am sorry for that...