I commence performing chess in the fourth/fifth grade. Ever since then I haven’t even seen a chess set, let alone a chess piece. When I started high school, at Cody high school, I was taking this classed called JROTC! One day, there were these two female students that were playing chess in my class, and after one had won they asked if anyone in the room knew how to play, of course I aforesaid “I”; I had walked over, shook her hand, she opens with the D4 pawn, I brought knight out, and moments later as soon as you knew it, I had won! I had my queen and knights working together. I was surprised of myself. She asked me why haven’t I tried out to be on the chess team, and I replied “I didn’t know this school had one”. She gave me the information and I showed up the next day they had practiced.
They had four players on the team, but only two of them were committed to the team. I had played their best player three times this day and had won one out of the three games we played and everyone seemed shocked that I won against this guy! The coach comes in, sits down, stares at our game, and says “is this our new sailor” I had busted out laughing while one of the players answered “yes this is him coach”. The coach asked me did I want to join the team, and I said “sure why not”! However, I had to attend practices on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I played second board, which meant I was the second best person on the team out of five players. I had lost a lot, but I was learning from those losses. In the meantime, there was another female that had joined the team (Christina Smith) and she started off in training.
In April every year there is this tournament called the Nationals, where high schools all over the U.S that comes together and play against each other. My freshman year it was held in Columbus OH, sophomore year in Nashville TN, and in this year in Minneapolis MN. In Columbus, I had won 5 out of my 7 matches, Nashville 4 out of 7 matches, and this year in Minneapolis 3 out of 7 matches. “Playing chess expands everyone’s mind!” said Coach, “then I will do what it takes to be the best I can” said Khaled. After the first year (my freshman year) I became first board and is still in place!