Do Never Give up, believe in yourself

Hello Everyone and thank you for taking time to read my first blog ever in this site.

Have you seen people around you give up on things?
Have you seen people give up on chess positions when later they find they aren't actually losing?

I believe we should all believe more in ourselves in life in general and in chess.

Let me share you a personal story from the distant 1994 and 2014 :)

Easter 1994

I was 7-8 years old when, while playing with my brother the usual daily game of chess,a new opponent approached us. Our dad told us he is the Kalymnos island champion, and we could indeed see he had much more advanced knowledge of chess than us.
He would instantly make moves while eating and talking with others around the table, while me and my brother were sitting there thinking. I watched as my brother played him even though i noticed that the champion never spent more than a minute thinking about his next move.

It was the first time i met him.
After their game was over,i was excited it was my turn to play him,but he left saying he has a meeting and i did not see him again for over 20 years...

April 2014

Knowing i play chess around Italy,Kalymnos island invited me to play with their team in the Aegean Team Championship.
They were playing together for many years and i was a complete stranger to them.
I went to Rhodes and was waiting in the hotel lobby my team to arrive.
Finally i saw a person i had not seen in almost 20 years,from a distance he waved at me,recognising me.
He made me play in the highest chessboard showing he respects my successes in Italy.

I could never have imagined that we would play in the same team ,one day.

From the very start,i knew that if i lost one game i would not be considered good by my teammates and a bad choice.
So i changed my gaming style from aggressive to defensive.
I managed to win 6 games and draw 2,losing 0.
It was one of the best performances of the tournament and it earned me the gold medal.

He was respecting me,by every game i was winning .
However i will never forget his face when he came and whispered to me '' Mike you are playing the 5 times women greek champion'' its ok play well and don't care noone will blame you when you lose''.It was the first time he did not have faith in me.

The experienced champion stood in front of me and i was already psychologically unbalanced from what my team captain had told me.
I continued with my defensive style ,and in a really important part of the game,she thought for over 25 minutes for what she would do after i moved my knight to a particular square.All her plan was based on that knight move.
Realising she had calculated everything,i played the first unexpected move,moving the knight back and not forward which technically made her lose 25 minutes for no reason.All my pieces were in the back rank,defending,waiting a mistake,a chance to strike that was never coming.
3 hours had passed and everyone could not believe how a stranger was still sitting and playing against the best player.
To play against someone with such experience,using black pieces,one would expect you to lose much sooner.
The defense was amazing,i defended move by move until i realised that soon i would be 'asphyxiated' so from 30 moves she was in the attack,suddenly i sacrificed my Queen,the strongest piece,and she was brought to defending instead.
From her expression when i did it,she wasnt expecting it at all,slowly i passed on the attack even though without a queen and checkmated her with 2 knights and rook,one of the most beautiful checkmates you could see in chess.
One of the days of my life i realised that 'strength and knowledge' dont matter if you have 'power of the will' with it you can overcome everything

I looked around me for my teammates but noone was there,thinking i would lose for sure.
I moved out of the room and little kids were stopping me asking me if i am the person that beat the champion,they were clueless and couldnt believe that was possible.

He approached me in the restaurant area,asking me how it went that i shouldn't be sad because she is a very strong player.
I replied to him that there is no need to be sad since i won the game.
He was surprised,and he instantly called his friends in Kalymnos to tell of the 'achievement' while saying it he was very proud.

He asked the organizing comitee to be the one that would give me the gold medal.

''Even if people lose faith in you,you just have to believe in yourself and prove them wrong ...''The moment he shook my hand and gave me the gold medal,i remembered that day 20 years ago when i wanted to play with him and i didnt have the chance.That same moment i realised that at that time,it was him that respected me more than i ever respected him.Sooner or later what you want in life happens,if you really try for it. Just believe it.

The amazing game between me and the Greek Women Champion .

Unfortunately some years later the chess club of the island was disbanded but currently that i live again here, we are planning to make the chess club again, into new heights and achievements!

Thanks for reading and i wish you all a great day, great chess adventures and see you soon!