Chess, my great passion

Learning the rules

When I was about 11 years old, I learned to play chess with Pepe, one of my uncles. All family used to meet every Sunday, and I remembered enjoying playing chess with Jesús and José David, a couple of my cousins.

By then, my uncle just teached me rules and I learned from experience. Even if I won many games, they were just base on applying some tactics, or even more, trying no to loose some pieces.

A couple of years later, I played for some months around 10 games a week with Álvaro, a former classmate in school. He was much better player than me, since he had taken some chess lessons, but even in that point, I never studied. There were no clubs in the area, and Internet was not a reality yet.

It was in the University, where I met Daniel, who liked chess a lot. He played well and used to play blindfold chess with Juan Andres, another classmate.

They were in another level, and when I faced Daniel, he won 8 out of 10 games, but we could play some combinations. I then learned some basics, and developed more tactical and strategical skills.

The video games

By then, I remember playing some chess with Fritz 5.0, but I usually got bored.

Then, I discovered the great Battle Chess. It was amazing seeing amazing animations when players captured other player's pieces. Really fun.

However, I didn't really get into chess.

Chess becomes a passion

It was in London, by 2011, when I started play chess more and more. I joined a company, The Travel Corporation, and I usually had lunch over the desktop. Since I had one hour for lunch, I started playing chess on a daily basis.