by
J. D. Gordon | When
I Won First Place in Central Park  Clop,
clop, clop. Horses pounded the ground with their hooves. Mom, Ben and I got to
the Bethesda Fountain. I saw my friend, Jordan. “Hey, Jordan! Are you playing
chess, too?” I yelled. Jordan spotted me and nodded putting on a grin. “What
section,” I asked. “Rookie,” Jordan said disgustedly. “Me,
too!” I said. We high-fived. Then a tournament director called everyone to
the pairings. “They’re up for rookie and pre-teen.” He said. Jordan
and I looked at the pairings. “White-42,” I copied. “White-41,”
Jordan copied. “All right!” we said together We high-fived. When I got
to my board, I put my hat on. “What’s your name?” I asked. “Why
do you have to know?” he answered. We started about a minute later. I moved
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 Ng5 Bc5 5 Nxf7 Rf8 6 Nxd8….Qf2 Kh8 Rh1#. I
won! I felt good inside. As I got up, I looked at Jordan’s position. He was
losing. About a minute later, I was telling Jordan’s sister Jessie about
the position Jordan had. Jordan came back, a grin on his face. “I won on
time,” he said cheerfully.
Round Two started about half an hour later.
I put my hat on. It’s go-time! I was black. 1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Bc4 Nf3 4
d3 Ng5 5 Be2 Nxf2. He resigned. I won. I came back to mom. I told her. She hugged
me. Jordan came. “I won!” he said. We high-fived. Round Three
came about another half an hour later. “White-1” I said. Board1! “Black-2!”
Jordan said. My partner had already set the board. We started. 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6
3 Bc4 Nf6 4 Ng5 d6 5 Nxf7 Kf8 6 d3 Kg8 7 Nxd8+, he resigned. I won! Jordan came
about four minutes later. “Draw,” he said. “Jordan, you’ll
win more,”I said. Round Four came quicker than I thought it would.
“Black-1,” I said. “White-2,” Jordan said. I fixed my hat.
Let’s rip! 1 e4 e5 2 h4! Bc5 3 a4! Qf6 4 Rh3 Qxf2#. I won! I went to mom.
I told her that I won. Jordan came. “I lost,” he said. “You’ll
win next time, Jord,” I said. Round Five came in about ten minutes,
the same time as our game. “White-1,” I said. “White-6,” Jordan
said. I put my hat on like a catcher in baseball does. 1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Nf6 3 Nf3
a5! 4 Ng5 Kf8 5 Nxf7 Rg8 6 Nxd8 Ke8 7 Bxg8 Kxd8 8 Qf6 Ke8 9 Bf7+ Kf8 10 Bd6+ Ke8
11 Qf7+ Kd8 12 Qf8#! I won. Jordan came back. “I won!” We said it at
the same time. Then, Jordan and I were going to play in the grass when we
saw this big tree. Jordan started climbing it. I started looking at the sides.
“Hey, look what I found,” I yelled. I was looking at the leaves and
branches when I saw this little fuzzy green thing on the branch. I showed Jordan
the fuzzy green thing. “Let’s collect them!” Jordan said excitedly.
So we started. After we did that, it was time to count. We both guessed how many
we had gotten. Jordan guessed 160. I guessed 158. We got 159! He missed by one
and I missed by one. We were both surprised. Mom bought us ice cream. “Man,
you’ll get first if you keep winning like that,” Jordan said, licking
his ice cream. “Whoa! Round Six, here we come!” and off we went. Round
Six: I won on forfeit because my opponent never came, I met Jordan coming out
of the gate. “I lost,” he said. “Jordan, you’ll win the next
round, don’t worry,” I said. Suddenly, when we just came back, someone
slapped us each on the back. It was Saudin, our coach. “Jordan and Jacob,
you’re doing too well out there. It’s against the rules!” he said
jokingly. The awards ceremony started about an hour and a half later. They
started with Fifth Place. But then, when they said Third place, they said my name.
They said I got Third place with five points. I ran up there and asked who I lost
to and when I lost. They said Rob Panal in Round Five. “Wait a minute,”
I said. “Let’s look at those sheets again for Round Five.” When
we looked at them and we saw my name, it had no posting. It didn’t have a
1, a 1/2 or a zero! But it said in my opponents place, 0. So, that meant that
I had really won. So the director went up to the microphone and said, “We
have a technical difficulty here. It appears that Jacob Gordon had won in the
Fifth Round and he will not get Third Place. So in Third Place….In Second
Place….And in First Place will be awarded to Jacob Gordon, and we will mail
you your trophy.” After that, I knew this was a memory I would never forget. |
Anderssen,
Karl Ernst Adolf (1818-1879)
