I looked at my opponent from the maple and mahogany battlefield covered with kings, queens and knights after half an hour of silent contemplation. Fallen soldiers, discarded in the heat of battle, were scattered around the sides of the table. Staring back at me was the most experienced strategist in my home state, a man who had dedicated his very life to a war whose climactic battle was unfolding before me. I looked at the board once more, searching for an escape route, but my valiant warriors were too trapped to retreat. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay I first fell in love with the game of chess when I was ten; my Egyptian grandfather offered to teach me the game when incessant rain confined us indoors for much of his two-week visit. I accepted his offer just to be polite: I had seen many others hunched over their chessboards for hours on end, and I had no interest in wasting my time on something I thought was so boring. My interest, however, skyrocketed from that point on. we started our first game. As an inexperienced player, I had no idea how to coordinate my pieces and could only watch in horror as my grandfather overcame my defenses and crushed me in twenty moves. Naturally competitive, I asked for a rematch, then another. Grandpa always accepted willingly and in the following days we played more than 100 games of chess. With each game, I gained a little understanding, but despite my best efforts, I didn't win a single one. Before returning to Egypt, my grandfather instilled a dream in me with his parting words. "Give everything and you will triumph." For the past seven years I have tried to do just that. After saying goodbye to my grandfather, I stopped at an airport gift shop and purchased a beginner's chess manual that outlined the basic strategies of the game. That evening - and many subsequent evenings - I spent hours reflecting on that book. Subsequently, I amassed more than thirty chess-specific books on many different aspects of the game—opening advances, middlegame tactics, endgame strategies—and devoured them all with enthusiasm. As my love for the game grew, I joined numerous online chess servers, and when they didn't satisfy my huge appetite for the game, I started a chess club at a local community college and participated in numerous chess tournaments throughout the state. I improved rapidly. For me, chess is more than a game; it's a philosophy. If chess has taught me one thing, it's that persistence pays off in the end. Winning the board of directors depended on my ability to analyze complicated positions for hours on end; success in the real world depends on my ability to plan ahead and think long term. Only by carefully considering the consequences of every move I made, on and off the board, did I achieve my position ahead of the strongest player in the state. Please note: this is just an example. Get a customized document from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay I looked at my opponent again. Offering my hand with a smile, I broke the silence. "I can't find a breakthrough. Draw?" “Draw,” he agreed. "Good game." That's another thing I learned from chess. In life you can't always win, but if you give your all you can turn every effort you undertake into a success. “Nice game,” I replied. "Good match."