checkmate by Hestrin Zantya (book suggestions .TXT) 📕

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.

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 unfortunately 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 died 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.

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