I was defeated in round one of the recently concluded National Chess Championship (Open Section) by eleven-year-old Goodness Ekunke from Bayelsa State. Before the game began, I sized up the boy sitting in front of me and concluded that I would defeat him in 20 moves. I didn’t realise, then, that I was facing the National Junior Chess Champion. It was only after the game that I checked him up on Google and saw his chess rating.

The last time I participated in the National Chess Championship was in 1978. That is 44 years ago. I abandoned competitive chess for academic pursuit. Now that I have retired from academics, I have more time for chess. Fortunately, it is a game that you can play well into old age.

I had the White pieces, and my favourite opening move is 1. e4. I also have a preference for Ruy Lopez as my favourite repertoire. However, based on my assumption that the boy sitting before me is a beginner, I decided to switch to 1. d4 opening, believing that this would confuse any chess novice. I have played several games with this opening as Black, my favourite being King’s Indian Defence or Nimzo-Indian Defence. The Chief Arbiter announced that the first round had started. I moved my Pawn to d4.

You can follow the move-by-move chess analysis by clicking on the following link:

Chess Game Analysis