Veteran of Fiasco

Veteran of Fiasco

I feel proud when I say I am a veteran of fiasco. Victory has always eluded me. I have got the ability of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I know the art of achieving failure.

Each and every failure has encouraged me like never before, by amplifying the desire to taste the success. I have always enjoyed working assiduously for the nectar.

I was never a good chess player and loses were fairly consistent. Once in a blue moon I won matches and that too when I played against kids or truly naïve guys, who doesn’t even know how to spell chez. But my successful failures never disappointed me.

My school chess team captain was my best friend that’s why I was a member of that team. And we always won the team matches by 4-1, that 1 belongs to me. Being a senior guy and some one who was willing to spend money on frequent sports tour, getting into college chess team was pretty easy. But I never won a single match. There were always some excuses for the failures like I got black pieces very often; I was having some tension because of some family problem; I was not able to hold the coins because I forget to cut my nails; the opponent was a psycho and the list goes on. But the crystal clear truth is I don’t know how to play this game.

Yesterday I participated in a Chess Championship. The coordinator of the tournament gave us basic instructions. For my satisfaction, it was not a knock out tournament and we were supposed to play 7 matches. The total duration for the game was one and a half hours. After that the game was going to be decided based on clocks. I always wanted to play with clocks but, never got an opportunity, because my game never survived till the end of scheduled timings.

The tournament was flagged off, but I was still waiting for my opponent to come. There was all possibility of him not turning up and in that case I would have been awarded with the points. I was watching the game which was being played at the table next to me. The white gave a perfect start with 1 e4, in reply black played 1e6. I thought it was a great opportunity for white to intrude into opponent’s area by playing 2e5. But the guy never played that and the game went on. I thought the guy was really a dumb; he missed the opportunity of gaining the initial momentum. And I started looking at other games. All were looking tensed, thinking their next move, the scene was amazing. And then for my surprise my opponent came. He had a big chess board with him and the coins were as big too. We placed the board on the table and started placing our coins. I am too superstitious about placing the coins; I think the person who finish placing his coins first, wins the game. And I won that little battle. We shook our hands and I wished him all the best (while doing this I kept my fingers crossed). I was ready for my move, the perfect 1e4. His reply was pretty fast, a 1e6. I really got surprised when I saw that move, just a moment before I was watching the same move at the table next to me. Now I got the opportunity of playing 2e5. Till this moment, I was totally concentrating on my game. I have no idea what happened afterwards. The game got finished in 30 minutes. Actually it took him this much time because I wasted some time counting the number of squares in the chessboard, looking at the beautiful girl sitting far across the room and of course taking breaks whenever I got messages or calls from my friend. But, I never allowed him to say checkmate, before that itself I gave him a handshake and withdrew.

For me it wasn’t a new thing. I am always prepared for such failures. I have got an excuse for this failure too –‘The guy was a brilliant player and I don’t know how to play this game’. Today I have got another match. And again I hope I win this match. Even if I win this match I won’t edit this article. Because I am not winner, I am a veteran of fiasco. Who knows how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.